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    Re: People carriers Archived Message

    Posted by Rob Drinkwater (CAFTEC) on September 27, 2004, 8:19 pm, in reply to "Re: People carriers"

    Hi John & Derek,

    The Lucidas, Townaces etc that you have seen are unfortunately probably due to lack of maintenance. These 2CT & 3CT engines should be good for 200,000 miles, but they do need a regular oil & filter (3,000 miles) and coolant changed every 2 years without fail. The engine is a little difficult to get at on the Lucida, easier in the Townace, but I can have the floor out of ours in 1/2 hour, a Lucida's in 3/4 hour. The worst trouble is headgaskets, but a bit of TLC stops them going. Half of them were probably gone when they got to the UK, due to the speed limit of 62 MPH in Japan, most will not manifest a fault until driven hard in the UK.

    As regards turning the seats around, I just went out front & turned them around whilst the wife timed me, 25 seconds was my fsatest!!!

    It's all a question of what you want from the vehicle, if it's a luxury people carrier with loads of room, lots of gizmos (ours even has electric curtains & reversing camera) at a really affordable price, then it has to be grey import. If you want something 'ordinary' go for a 'euro box'.

    When it comes down to reliability, you'll know, John, just how poor the Galaxy/Alhambra/Sharan is. Shockingly bad Air Con system, engine management components that simply aren't up to the job etc.

    Our Townace is 13 years old, has 103,000 Kilometres on the clock (65,000 miles) uses no oil at all, doesn't overheat, returns 28-30mpg average with climate control on. transports us all in absolute luxury & having 4WD means that we don't get stuck in muddy fields during the typical British summer.

    Regards Rob.

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