Holden Captiva / Toyota Prado / Kluger?

[Miss.B]

I love the look of the captiva but hated it as soon as I drove it, just couldn't get comfy and wasnt happy driving. We are thinking of getting a prado but haven't driven it yet.

Me too! I researched Holden Captiva and a few others but as soon as I jumped into it I didn't like it! The mirrors were huge and made me feel dizzy (don't know why) the car itself felt a bit on the sluggish side (I test drove the 5 seater) and the inside seemed pretty small for me especially the back seat. The dashboard was pretty ordinary too. I've heard that the 2011 model is nicer inside though Having said all that we ended up with a Holden Cruze! lol. Smaller than the Captiva but a lot zippier, absolutely stunning inside, the best safety rating out there ATM, I looooooove driving it! But like I said it doesn't have much room by the time DS's car seat goes in and the boot is pretty small, but I LOVE IT. Guess we'll need to change it if no.2 comes along!

[mummajj]

oooh i love new car shopping.
not sure about the captiva, but my dad has actually bought 2 brand new mitsubishi Pajeros in a row. he loves them that much! they are mitsubishis answer to the Prado. so very similar. iv driven them, and they def dont feel like you're driving a 4x4. and they are great off road if you felt like doing that. and they have the 7 seats too.
happy shopping!!

[Trillian]

I love our Captiva. We've had it brand new since 07 and we have the 7 seater LX model. It has never skipped a beat. I don't have a problem with driving it at all and I do find it very comfy, but DH doesn't like the seat - not sure if that is because he rarely drives it and isn't used to it or if that is a genuine problem. We had it when DS2 was a newborn and with a rear facing seat behind the passenger seat we never had a problem with space. The 3rd row of seats folds flat and has a recessed footwell so that is a huge plus - some of the earlier 7 seaters didn't have that. The only real problem with it is if you have 3 kids in car seats because the backseat isn't wide enough for 3 of them and you can't have an anchored carseat in the 3rd row. Oh and you can fold the single seat right up so you can walk through to the third row as well. ATM it is more than enough room for us and the 4 kids and all our junk but we will probably graduate to a Kluger or a Landcruiser in a few years as there is a little more space in those. The prado has the same amount of space as the captiva really.

But friends of ours have an 07 Kluger and they have 4 kids - two in anchored seats and they have the seats on either side of the car and the middle seat is permanently folded down to allow the older two to get into the 3rd row easier and I didn't realise you could do that with them till they did it.