hi everybody welcome back to Webby on cars today i'm going to be taking you around the brand new
2021 toyota kluger we've got the grande hybrid model here the hybrid being the most important
bit about this car because for the first time ever here in australia you can now get a hybrid
powertrain with the toyota kluger previously that wasn't available you could only get it overseas
but finally after much sort of waiting and anticipation the hybrid system has now finally
arrived here in australia so join me for this video as we take a look around this brand new
2021 kluger and find out what's different from the previous model. so let's have a
look at the exterior styling first on this new kluger and as you can see it's actually quite
a different car to the previous generation the front design is a much more softer rounder look
we've got the creases on the bonnets the front grille is much smaller than before as
well and redesigned so it's a much more appealing looking car the other one had this massive grill
and before it sort of just looked a little bit kind of the grill was taking up the whole front
of the car well this is much smaller and more discreet and actually is a nice looking finish
being it this is the grande model we get nice touches as things like 20-inch alloy wheels
we get all the chrome finishes around the door handles and to remind us to be driving the hybrid
we've got a hybrid badge on the doors as well looking at the car from the side profile and
again you can see much more rounded styling going on particularly with things like these rear wheel
arches and then finishing off at the back of the car again that rounded styling continues around
to the back as well we've got this lovely wrap around rear led lights standard electric tailgate
on the grande and you've also got the facility to swipe your foot underneath and open it hands-free
if you're carrying people in all three rows you still actually get a fairly decent
amount of boot space which can obviously be extended by folding these rear seats down
simply by pushing the lever there on both sides
and straight away you've got a massive boot to put all your luggage and bits and pieces in
the interior of the Kluger has also had a bit of an update as well uh when you step inside
you've got these beautiful leather uh sort of diamond pattern seats and the front here
the driver's seat is fully electric and then we come and here we've also got two
position memories for the driver as well and you can see all this beautiful wood as well um
it's not wood as in sort of old sort of 80 style wood that you're used to getting cars it's
much more modern and sort of up to date and that continues down on the center console as well so it
looks really classy. in front of the driver you've got this beautifully leather wrapped steering
wheel with the buttons and controls to operate your safety systems and also your audio systems
and also take care of the functions on your digital dashboard there when you bring the
car into life you've also got a head-up display as well which you can just about see
there in the windscreen that'll provide you with information like your speed or your safety systems
if you've got your sat nav working whether you've got to turn left or right so it's actually a
really handy feature to have here in this center console we've got the 8-inch touchscreen display
which has got built-in sat nav apple carplay and android auto unfortunately we don't get the 12.3
inch display that they get in america which would make this dashboard look even better i think um
because when you spend this sort of money for the grande model you kind of want something a
little bit special there on the dash below that you've got all the controls for the three zone
climate control plus also the buttons for the newly heated and air conditioned seats
which in this grande model with the leather is a welcome addition particularly on a summer's day
just below down the bottom here we've got some power outlets we've got a couple of usb fast
charging points uh another usb point where you can plug your phone in for your apple carplay android
auto and then a 12 volt power socket as well sadly no charging point for wireless charging
but you do have this little shelf up here where you can store your phone
so when you're driving it doesn't get in the way coming around the center console where
we've got the gear stick we've got a couple of cup holders there which is nice to see
electronic handbrake buttons there for your ev motor traction control and your trail mode should
you venture off road and in the switch mode where you can select your driving mode between sport and
normal and economy stepping into the back of the kluger and there's absolutely heaps of space back
here i've got the driving seat in my position i'm only five foot six so there's always going to be
plenty of space behind my driving position but even like that you can see i've got acres of
space to put my legs you can actually stretch your feet out and put them under the driver's
seat as well which is nice to see there's plenty of headroom even though this car has
got the optional rear entertainment system and the dvd player does take up a bit of headspace
normally you'd get a panoramic glass sunroof as standard but when you option
the rear entertainment system they actually fit a standard size sunroof for you instead
it's also nice to see back here we've got some controls for the rear air conditioning
and further down the bottom we've got two usb fast charging points plus also a hdmi
connection for the dvd player air vents come down from the ceiling which is really nice to see
much better than having the air vents in the center there because the air then
gets directed straight to the passengers which is also the same for the third row
this middle row slides easily forward by lever just down to the side of the rear passenger
lifting that lever up enables you to slide the seat forward extending leg space for people in
the back and on this grande model you've even got some blinds in the sides of the doors as well
so you can just lift them up put them into place and stop the sun coming in.
space in the third row is really only designed for children you're never really going to get adults
back here because leg space in the back you're not really going to get a six foot adult in here
i don't think. so now we've had a good look around the car let's actually take it out for a drive
i'll talk a bit about more things like the safety features what it's like to drive fuel
economy that sort of thing and find out a little bit more about this new kluger
so the hybrid drivetrain that's the big thing about this new kluger for this year um other
than obviously the styling and equipment upgrades it's something that people have been crying out
for ages here in australia because we've always had just that 3.5 v6 to choose from which you
can still get by the way so the hybrid system is the 2.5 liter petrol engine with three electric
motors uh develops a total of 184 kilowatt toyota don't actually tell you what the torque
is but i'm fairly sure it'd be a decent amount because this is quite a heavy car to load around
the fuel economy for the hybrid system is actually rated at 5.6 liters per hundred kilometers
and in the few days i've been driving the car i've actually managed 7.2 now if that doesn't
sound impressive a lot of that has literally just been touring from the shops just pottering around
there's been no long journeys in that so for a big car to get 7.2 liters per 100
i still think that's fairly respectable
so where possible the car will always start up and move off in fully electric mode
and then once you get going then obviously the petrol engine kicks in um to sort of help out
but when the petrol engine does kick in it's so smooth the only sort of change you can tell is
just obviously the noise from the engine and in actual fact it's not too noisy you can also hear
it but it's not intrusive or sounds too rough um it's actually not not bad at all
the best way to actually drive it is don't mash your foot on the throttle
because that doesn't really get you the best results just take it nice and smoothly and easily
and actually you've got a fair decent sort of turn of pace
the hybrid model's got a 65 liter fuel tank so if you take the 5.6 liters which is the
official fuel consumption for this car then you're looking at over 1100 kilometers per tank of fuel
in the few days i've been driving now i've averaged just over seven liters per hundred
but even so for a big car like this it's actually quite good um there's not many seven
seat cars that you're gonna get just over seven litres per hundred um if you had the v6 model
although that's quoted at 8.7 for the front wheel drive and 8.8 for the all-wheel drive
i reckon you're going to be sort of well into double figures if you're just
driving around town doing lots of short journeys you're going to be up around sort of 12 or 14
liters per hundred i suspect. so driving along is actually generally pretty quiet
particularly when you're in fully electric mode you get a little bit of noise from the road on
the tyres obviously depending on what road surface you're driving on and i have found a little bit of
noise from the wing mirrors but the last few days have been really sort of blowing here in melbourne
um suspect it might have something to do with that as well the driving position is actually really
nice these seats are really comfortable like i say you've got a full adjustment for the driver
including lumber support um the leather steering wheel in front of you is a decent size um you've
got buttons there for your safety systems your radio and that type of thing as normal
and the driving position is really nice as well you've got a really good visibility
out of the front and the side and also pretty decent at the back window as well
the steering itself it feels quite light but you still feel fairly connected to what the wheels
are doing at the front of the car it's never one of these systems where you you know you've got
no idea what's happening in terms of safety features being such a brand new car has got
everything as you'd expect so you get autonomous braking lane keeping aid adaptive cruise control
traffic alert traffic sign recognition but there's even a new function which stops you from
crossing traffic if you're at a city like a junction if you're at a junction
and a car is coming the opposite way and you're turning right it will actually spot that car
coming the opposite way and break if necessary if it thinks you haven't noticed the other car
in front of you so that's actually quite a clever feature.
now if you're wondering how much this all costs this grande hybrid is 74 500 plus on
road costs the only option available is that rear entertainment system that we looked at earlier
which gives you the overhead dvd screen uh plus also a smaller glass sunroof so when you put all
that on the road you're sort of well into the 80 000 which does seem quite a lot of money for
a seven seat suv even despite being top of the range so if you're wanting just literally the
size of the car with a hybrid drivetrain the base model might be the one for you
because just over fifty four thousand dollars that represents actually quite good value for money
if you want something more than just a base model but don't want to go quite as top of the range
as the grande and the gxl sits slap bang in the middle you get some of the features of the grande
with only some of the price increase from the base model so that could well be the uh sort of sweet
spot in the range the hybrid gxl i suspect the hybrid drivetrain is going to be really popular
here in australia particularly fuel consumption figures i've been achieving um much better than
3.5 v6 although i think that's still going to find a lot of place in a lot of australian driveways
and the freeway is lovely and quiet as well
yeah you don't get too much road noise coming through which is really nice because obviously
makes for a nice comfortable journey and um that's good for your you know your passengers too
i have to say i've been quite impressed driving this the last few days
i think the only disappointment for me is that eight inch touchscreen
i'd like to see the bigger 12.3 inch like they get in america because i think that would
really finish off the center of the dashboard other than that it's a beautiful place to be
so that's the end of another video i hope you've enjoyed finding out about the 2021 toyota kluger
and particularly this hybrid model if you have got any questions please feel free to leave
them in the comments below for me and i'll come back to you as soon as i can with any answers
a huge thanks to Berwick toyota for lending me their car for this review
i've got to give a shout out to the guys down there i'm going to leave all their
contact details in the description for you so if you are looking for a new or used toyota
give the guys there a call they're really helpful they'll help you find the best deal on a new car
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so it just leaves me to say thanks for joining me and i hope to see you all in the next one