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What does GUV stand for? Glad you asked. GUV is a relatively new term on the motoring landscape and, in bald terms, stands for Grand Utility Vehicle. The broad view is that it was an acronym first coined by Kia to describe its current-model Carnival on the basis that it was a step up in luxury from the average SUV and, therefore, needed a grander name; literally, Grand Utility Vehicle.
Like a lot of marketing, of course, the name is more or less meaningless when it comes to being an actual descriptor for the vehicle in question. Yes, the Carnival is well equipped and luxurious for a family vehicle, but 'Grand'? Grammatically, there’s also scope to interpret the vehicle as having a grand level of utility which, given its eight-seat capacity and family friendliness it arguably achieves. Beyond that, however, the definition is rooted purely in the imaginations of the marketing department. Searching for more GUV meaning than that is unlikely to expand the sum of human knowledge.
But now that Kia has slipped the genie from the bottle, you can expect to see the GUV tag applied to all sorts of vehicles formerly known as SUVs, both large and small, and both in Australia and globally. It’s also likely that the vehicles to adopt the GUV tag will be high-end versions of more prosaic SUVs, and there’s a good chance that the prestige brands might introduce the term to their brochures as well.
That said, GUV could also disappear without a trace. The same thing happened to Toyota’s AUV (Action Utility Vehicle) tag a few years ago which was applied to variants of the HiLux range. But the AUV moniker has since been reclaimed by the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle industry which builds unmanned submarines to explore the undersea environment.
There’s another reason GUV could disappear from car advertising and marketing: In the US, rising fuel prices have forced older, gas-guzzling SUVs into the driveways of a poorer demographic who can’t afford anything more efficient. At which point, as Urban Dictionary points out, the term GUV was coined to describe the 'Ghetto Utility Vehicle'.
What does SUV stand for? It’s a question that more and more people are asking as the genre races to market dominance in this country and around the world. In the most literal sense, the acronym stands for Sports Utility Vehicle and had its origins in vehicles that were more or less civilian versions of military or commercial vehicles. The broad idea was that these SUVs could carry passengers in relative comfort but take them to off-road destinations thanks to their higher ride height and all-wheel-drive.
What do people these days really mean when they talk about an SUV? Although the term has been in use since the 1980s, these days it seems to cover a huge range of vehicles. The reality is that there’s no hard and fast definition of what an SUV is and isn’t. SUVs now come in all sizes large and small and everything in between and while they still generally still have a higher ride height and bold looks, the all-wheel-drive thing is very much optional nowadays.
Today, the term has been narrowed slightly to include vehicles which use a separate body on a ladder-chassis, much like old-school commercial vehicles and four-wheel-drives. That has led to the flip-side term cross-over, which describes vehicles with the SUV’s appearance and intent but that use a monocoque body like any modern passenger vehicle. Even then there are no hard and fast rules to this and some vehicles with traditional SUV qualities do, in fact, use a monocoque bodyshell. The other acronym to spring up has been AUV or Action Utility Vehicle, but this has its roots even deeper in marketing versus reality.
If you really dissect the literal SUV meaning, the name becomes a little comical as the extra mass of an all-wheel-drive driveline, the compromised quasi off-road tyres and higher centre of gravity means that the vast majority of SUVs offer less sporty motoring than a conventional car, putting the knife to the 'S' in SUV.
The phenomenal popularity of the SUV today is probably down to two or three factors: Firstly, there’s fashion. When the neighbours all have an SUV, the tendency is for the rest of the population to want a slice of the action. Secondly, SUVs are actually quite good to use in normal day-to-day use. You tend to sit higher for a better view of the road, and older folk who are not as flexible appreciate the higher seating position that is easier to enter or leave. The third factor is that some family car buyers think the SUV is bigger inside than the equivalent passenger car or hatchback. In most cases, they’re not as the packaging of the SUV’s mechanical parts eats into the interior space. Finally, you could add the notion that an SUV is a vehicle that can take its owners on that great round Australia road trip. The reality is that most people will never tackle this and that many SUVs have absolutely zero off-road potential beyond that of normal cars.
There’s nothing wrong with an SUV per se: They’re functional, practical and modern ones are nice to drive and fabulously equipped. There’s a strong argument for them when it comes to a higher cabin for older passengers or parents strapping kids into child restraints without bending over so far. It’s just that the term SUV doesn’t quite match the reality. And as with any marketing phenomenon, you’ll pay extra to jump on that bandwagon.
Ford Falcon headliner replacement cost will be somewhere between about $300 and $500, depending on a few details. Those prices are based on a modern Falcon, say, a BA Falcon or FG Falcon from this century, after Ford had switched to the one-piece, cardboard-backed headliner. However, the cost could be more if the vehicle is a station wagon or has a sunroof fitted, as both these things alter the amount of material used and the degree of difficulty in removing and refitting the headliner.
Other variables include whether you take the vehicle to a motor trimmer to have the existing headliner recovered, or you call an onsite repairer to remove your old headliner and fit a reconditioned unit in your driveway or car-park at work.
You might be able to find a second-hand replacement headliner at an auto parts recycler, but the danger is that the headliner you buy might also fail in the not-too distant future. That’s because the modern one-piece headliner – including late-model Falcon headlining - is made from a structural backing board with a layer of foam sandwiched between the board and the vinyl or cloth that you see above your head. Over time and with heat, the foam layer breaks down into dusty fragments and the adhesion between the backing board and cloth or vinyl is lost. That’s when the cloth starts to hang down inside the car.
Overall, Falcon roof lining replacement is not a difficult job for an experienced trimmer, but it is a bit fiddly and will take some time. Many owners put up with a saggy headliner, but a fresh roof lining repair will make the car look and feel brand new again.
You shouldn’t need to replace the entire roof lining in your car, but it will need to be removed to have the replacement foam and cloth covering applied. Any roof lining repair will involve getting rid of the old foam that has broken down and caused the delamination of the backing board and the cloth or vinyl. From there, the new foam and cloth can be applied to your original backing board and the assembly refitted to the car.
Another alternative is to have a new headliner installed, sometimes a reconditioned unit that some motor trimmers have on the shelf, ready to go. Some companies will even come to you and replace the roof lining in your driveway or work car-park. You can also source or buy a second-hand roof lining from a wrecked car which, in the case of a common model like a Holden VE Commodore shouldn’t be hard to find. You’ll still need to remove the old one and fit the new one, however. In some instances, you may still be able to buy a brand-new roof lining from the manufacturer, but that’s a long shot and will cost a lot more.
Meanwhile, a VE Commodore roof lining replacement cost will be roughly anywhere from $300 to $600 depending on whether you want the repairer to come to you, you’re happy with a standard (not custom) covering and the car is a standard model. A car with a sunroof fitted will add to that total as it’s a fiddlier job with more to remove and replace.
Repairing the roof lining yourself is not a simple job, as it requires the removal of a bunch of fittings such as interior lights, sun-visors, interior mirrors and that’s before you can even try to manoeuvre the single-piece roof lining out through one of the car’s doors. That’s the reason you see a lot of cars getting around with their roof lining patched up and held in place with everything from thumb tacks to staples.
This all goes back to the 1990s when car-makers discovered that a single-piece, structural-cardboard backing board covered in foam and then cloth or vinyl was a much cheaper alternative than the traditional metal-bow roof lining. The new system was also much faster to fit on an assembly line. But with time and heat cycles, the foam that many car-makers used breaks down into a fine, powdery dust at which point the adhesion between the layers is lost and the cloth sags down and billows into the cabin. Replacing the degraded foam and fitting new cloth or vinyl is the best solution and will return the roof lining to as-new.
When it comes to Bluetooth Toyota Corolla hasn’t always had a great track record with its factory installations. For years, many Toyota owners complained that the Bluetooth fitted to their cars was lousy with poor connection, frequent drop-outs and a lack of calling clarity. These days, those problems have been addressed thanks to Toyota’s troubleshooting and the Toyota Bluetooth systems are more or less the same as everybody else’s.
Toyota Corolla Bluetooth pairing (for either iPhone or Android) is a pretty simply process and involves following the on-screen prompts in the phone setup menu after the car has 'found' your phone (make sure your phone is in 'discoverable' mode). From there, you need to confirm that the security code displayed on your phone matches the one on the screen and you’re good to go. Once you’ve worked out how to connect Bluetooth to Toyota Corolla the first time, the system should automatically recognise your phone from then on. If in any doubt, follow the instructions in the how to pair/how to connect phone a phone section of your owner’s manual.
There’s a very good factory website at https://www.toyota.com/connect/ that can lead you through a list of what phones and apps are compatible with Corollas of the last few years.
All the current model Corollas feature Bluetooth connectivity, with the 2019 upgrade also extending to Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility across the board. The previous model Corolla (2012 to 2018) also had Bluetooth from the entry-level model up, and the Corolla before that (2007 to 2012) featured Bluetooth on all but the base-model Ascent version. Prior to that, Bluetooth was not a factory fitment on any Corolla, but many owners added it with an aftermarket stereo head unit for better music quality.
This is a more common problem than you might imagine and applies to a lot of cars besides Nissan Navaras. It’s not always caused by people with constantly wet hands or those who work with chemicals, either; a lot of pampered vehicles have seen this type of problem.
As well as being pretty ordinary to look at day after day, this sort of damage also devalues a car when you go to sell it. The warranty on your Navara would have been for the first three years (Nissan shifted to a five-year warranty mid-2019) but because it was a demonstrator, the warranty period would have started from the date it was first registered or reported as sold, not the day you bought it.
Most new-car warranties also state that `normal wear and tear’ is not covered, but there’s an argument that normal wear and tear shouldn’t be visible on a steering wheel after just four years and 60,000km of use.
If it really bothers you, there are motor trimmers who can stitch on a new leather covering which I would expect to last a lot longer than four years. You would, of course, have to remove the wheel from the car which requires somebody who knows their air-bag safety drills and procedures.
Yes you can. According to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industry’s guide, all Australian-delivered Mitsubishis with fuel-injected petrol engines built after 1986 can use either E5 (five per cent ethanol) or E10 (10 per cent) safely. By using this fuel, you stand to reduce your tailpipe emissions a little, use a percentage of renewable fuel (ethanol is largely made from farmed crops) and you may even save a few dollars over a year as E10 ULP is often a little cheaper at the pump.
If you have a look through the owner’s manual of the vehicle, you might find a method of using the info-screen menus to achieve this. It’s more likely, however, that you’ll need to plug the appropriate scanning tool into the car’s diagnostic port to reset this reminder light. At which point it’s not a home-driveway job.
I’m guessing that you had the car serviced at an independent workshop rather than a Haval dealership, as the latter would have known the procedure to reset the light. Which is fair enough as Haval does not have the dealership coverage of a car-maker like, say, Toyota or Ford. The point being that you need to make sure that any workshop you use for servicing while the car is under factory warranty, is licensed and certified to stamp your service handbook to keep your warranty valid. You don’t have to use a Haval dealer, but the workshop you choose needs to be a professional operation or you stand to kiss your warranty goodbye.
If you have a look through the owner’s manual of the vehicle, you might find a method of using the info-screen menus to achieve this. It’s more likely, however, that you’ll need to plug the appropriate scanning tool into the car’s diagnostic port to reset this reminder light. At which point it’s not a home-driveway job.
I’m guessing that you had the car serviced at an independent workshop rather than a Haval dealership, as the latter would have known the procedure to reset the light. Which is fair enough as Haval does not have the dealership coverage of a car-maker like, say, Toyota or Ford. The point being that you need to make sure that any workshop you use for servicing while the car is under factory warranty, is licensed and certified to stamp your service handbook to keep your warranty valid. You don’t have to use a Haval dealer, but the workshop you choose needs to be a professional operation or you stand to kiss your warranty goodbye.
While turbo-diesels aren’t perfect for everybody, when it comes to towing trailers, they do a pretty impressive job. The combination of a torquey diesel engine with an automatic transmission is a pretty handy one when you have a decent sized trailer hooked up. The caveat with a modern diesel, however, is that if most of your driving is urban running about, then the diesel is probably not for you. That’s because the emissions system on a modern diesel (the particulate filter) needs regular longer runs at freeway speeds to avoid giving trouble. But if, as you say, you tow a trailer often, then that should provide the load on the engine the diesel requires to remain trouble-free.
The good news is that the dominance of the SUV right now means that just about every car-maker has a mid-sized SUV in its showrooms right now. So really, you’re spoiled for choice. I’m not surprised the X-Trail is found a bit wanting at times; even brand-new, that version of the petrol-engined X-Trail could feel a bit underdone. You’ll be amazed at how good newer vehicles have become.
