Holden Captiva / Toyota Prado / Kluger?

DP and I are looking at possibly getting a new car, were partial to the prado but for around the same $$ we could possibly get a nearly new Holden Captiva.
We would be looking at the 7 seater.

I like that the prado has fold down rear seats, means it's easy to get someone to climb in and fold them down, the captiva is also quiet easy but DP has found the kluger is not so easy to do and we wont be able to climb through from the front as we will have 2 carseats.

I actually quite like the captiva.. so what are the pro's and cons? aside from price :p

Captiva's are a nice enough car but at the end of the day when you compare them to both the Kluger and the Prado they are alot smaller - depends on the size of your family really. Eg DH and I are both over 6ft (DH is 6'5) so there is no way we would get a Captiva as there is no space for us.

DH quite often has Prados for a work vehicle, in fact he is getting a new one in August, and we have never had any complaints - they are good cars.

Incidentally my gf has a Kluger and when the back row of seats is up there is really minimal boot space - but most 7 seaters are similar anyway.:rolleyes:

I don't know if you're planning any more babies but a friend of mine has a captiva and has to have the front seat way forward to have the baby seat in the rear facing position. Her hubby can't fit in the passenger seat!

We have the captiva, we love it, we have 2 forward facing child seats in it, didn't have the car when they were babies so can't comment on the rear facing seats

No more babies here so the capsule isn't an issue, i am 5'11 and actually found the captiva quite roomy when i sat in it but with that said i didn't have the carseats in, anything is an improvement size wise compaired to a suparu impreza wagon though for someone of my height with 2 kids.

Re: the boot space all the ones we've looked at basically have no room once the back seats are up, but that doesn't bother us, it wont be very often that we have all of them up.

Personally i love the prado but we can't find a manual diesel which would be the best option and were looking at cars that are already say 5yrs old just to get within our price range. i love love love them though so we are just keeping our options open.

minniemouse - what do you like best about the captiva? is there plenty of space, does an adult fit b/w the carseats?

We looked at all 3 and ended up with the Ford Territory, howevever Hubby liked the Captiva more than I and would have been happy with that one. The new Captiva 2011 model starts at $28000, the 2010 model was so much much more dearer so it would be cheaper to buy the new captiva 2011 model. The only reason why we didnt get the captiva was the vision out the back and sides wasnt good for me as I am too short. Hope this helps.

Thanks *Belle* - DP's not a fan of the territory - how do you find it.
I didn't really think to check the mirrors etc in the captiva, we didn't test drive as we had the kids... might palm them off on MIL during the week and go for a drive :)

i think for me the car is big but not too big, its comfy on long trips (sydney to melbourne) & its a nice car to drive. we have car seats the size of the maxi rider so space between them isn't huge, would be a lot more room if you had smaller car seats or kids in booster seats.

im shortish but don't find vision out the back a problem, but then mine has a reversing camera (and reversing sensors which are probably standard).

im not sure where you live but what we did was hire the cars (one from budget but also holden near here hires them) we were thinking about getting (we were looking at the mitsubishi outlander and mazda cx7) so we could try them out for the whole day and put the car seats in etc found it better than just having a short test drive

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.

I am looking at the VW Golf.

Also depends if you want/need to go 4wding. The Prado is the only one that has true 4wd, the others are only AWD.
I know you guys love the outdoors, so that might be a factor. We are going from an AWD to a 4wd later this year as the AWD just can't cope for what we do.

An Outlander is along the same size as the Captiva and we love ours - really roomy and pretty good visibility - ever thought of one of those?

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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.

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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!

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!!

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.

Thanks everyone, guess we just have to see how we go. I like the idea of a new car for the same price as an older prado. I do love dads prado though :)


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ZB - Territory is a dream to drive, we have the reversing camera too. We did love the Prado but we needed to fit 3 carseats in a row, which we worked out was a bit squishy when we measured inside so thats why we went Territory as it was wider. We also looked at Hyundai Santa Fe it was really good and also Kia Sorento. Hyundai Santa Fe was our 2nd pic, but the reversiing camera was in the revision mirror which was small so we went with the Territory. If you love the Captiva 2011 model and driving it its really good value for the new one as the price is lower! However like one of the other girls when we sat in it to drive it, we were not comfy and issues with the vision. We looked at the Outlander but the last 2 seats in the 3rd row were not as good build as Hyundai Santa Fe, Kia Sorento or Territory. We did look at the Citroen Picasso C4 too but its more a people mover than a 4WD.

Do you like the Prado? I just think it's too big - it's seems to be one whole size bigger than the Captiva and the Kluger.
When we park at the supermarket etc the Prado hangs out of the park at the back - and the towbar bit makes it even worse. And when we have stuff on the roof racks we can't drive into carpark buildings - it's over 2metres high. I have a little car so at least there is room for both in the garage.

However - it's the best option for 4wding.

There is only a teeny tiny bit of space in the back once the 3rd row of seats is up. But that's the same with all 7 seaters i think. The 2nd row of seats is adjustable forward so that the 3rd row can get a bit of leg room. I know, i'm always relegated to the back!
We have a diesel, but it's Auto.

What about the New Cherry? or Chery is it? they are sheap and look great !!!

Oh I forgot heres a good website to visit so you can compare the width and length of the cars your like, its redbook dot com dot au, it was a fab source we used. I agree any 7 seater with all 7 seats up you will be struggling to fit anything in the boot unless its a small umbrella stroller or little amount of shopping. But if you dont need the extra 2 seats often the boot is a great size.

There's a reason why Chery's are so cheap! In DH's words, "they make Great Wall's look like BMW's". Apparently they had to paint some of the very first cars dash with plastic paint...

I'm not a fan of Craptiva's at all, but the series 2 are much better. The seats feel more comfy and the dash/interior doesn't look as cheap and Daewoo-y. The button park brake thingy is a bit odd though. Definately stick with a diesel too.

I'd probably go the Prado, as it's been said it's the 'real' 4wd, and it's a more trusted/less issue car IMO.

The one thing unworried about with is getting parts from o/seas and in our price range it would be a 5yr+ car.

I do love the prado though, no diesels for sale in our price range but :(


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you need to remember that running such a big car can be exxy, im not talking about the fuel so much but tyres and servicing etc..
have you checked out how much insurance will be?
we just bought a new car and the one we wanted would have cost $2500 just to insure and we're rating one drivers

The Prado cost us $679 to insure. It's a 2011.
But sheesh, the tyres! What a joke!
Toyota servicing is a really good deal ATM. Much cheaper than even my little Mazda 3.

lol at the tyres!! ours for our outlander (we out on aftermarket ones) cost a packet too!

We toyed up between the Territory and the Captiva when we bought our Territory. We liked the Captiva because of the diesel factor - the Territory is only just coming to be diesel this month, but when we looked at them, the Captiva had a lot less boot space and that was a five seater. We were getting rid of the Rav4, where the pram could fit, but only standing up, and if the pram was in the boot, then groceries had to go on the back seat. So that put the Captiva out for us, because we wanted more room. Plus we knew we were going to tow with ours, so we needed it to be strong. I think size wise, the Territory and the Kluger are pretty close and I know you can pick up the Territory for bargain prices because a lot of companies use them for reps and upgrade after a few years. Not sure about the Kluger, but they're all nice cars. I think the Prado is the strongest of the lot, from what I've been told from friends and their towing capacities.

our territory cost $800 to insure cheaper than our Mazda 3 which was over $1000

Thanks again everyone, guess I'll just have to see.
Insurance should be ok, we will be buying outright hopefull and won't be paying my current car so will gave a bit extra a week to put on insurance etc.


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What about a combi van? I reckon you would like great in a combi! :rofl:

Totally :)


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YES! Go the combi. I rekon they're awesome! And you can put a mattress in the back and sleep too!

I think a girls trip would be in order :) no matter what I get I'm squashing a 3rd carseat in so hoti and I can road trip somewhere :p
I think BB girls and kids night away :) you in prmg? Hmm where's emma09 :p


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LOL, I'd be in, but I don't know if DH would trust me on a BB girls and kids night :rofl:

Tyres have gotten ridiculously expensive as there is a rubber shortage. We got two new tyres 3 weeks ago and it cost us nearly $900, that was with them fitted, balanced and aligned and the disposal of one tyre. And they were the CHEAP tyres! Tyres for 4WD's are just crazy expensive but you have to have them don't you?

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What about the New Cherry? or Chery is it? they are sheap and look great !!!

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Did you see the Ch10 news tonight? They aren't safe at all! They did crash tests on them and they just don't compete. Clearly the Chinese have different safety standards because it was reported that the people who came from china for the testing were surprised at the results and actually had to ask the people doing the tests what they could do to improve safety!!!! It speaks volumes about their intentions and they just want to pump out ****loads of cheap and nasty cars without due care for safety features.

I would go the prado over the others if you can afford it. I have heard nothing but good things about the prado. I wish I could get one!