Hi Ade! For better or worse, we have an 07-reg Pathfinder, but I'm a proper numpty when it comes to cars, so you probably won't get much sense out of me
It's a manual - 6 gears, for goodness sake. Who needs that many? Close your ears, chaps, but I tend to skip a gear or two on the way down and frequently forget where I'm at. Compared with our previous Mitsubishi Shogun, I find it quite heavy and cumbersome, esp in a car park. Then again, the turning circle is good compared with the Shogun, so it's easier for positioning the caravan. It has a wonderful rear-view camera for parking and hitching up the caravan, which OH loves, but I have never got the hang of. The satnav is useful and worked nicely in France, but it won't accept postcodes or GPS coordinates, which is a nuisance.
Lots of gizmos, ideal for Husband to play with, but the damn thing often does things of its own accord, things I had never even imagined we might want to happen, so I get panicky and can't work out what to do next. Can't think of a specific example, but I like SIMPLE. I don't do 'programming' and 'auto' anything. I can't even work the radio. When all else fails, I have to phone home and ask for directions to the appropriate knob or socket.
The amount of space is phenomenal. It absolutely swallows luggage and we've had 6ft wardrobes in the back with room to spare (eBay addict, don't ask!). There are 7 seats, if I remember correctly, but having multiple dogs, we have all the passenger seats stowed away to make room for cages. Some of seats fold themselves away neatly without all that usual fuss and getting your fingers jammed. The driver's seat can be adjusted every which way, and then - wait for it - you press a button to store your own settings, so that when I come along and rearrange everything, you can instantly get your settings back again. The driver's seat is very comfortable too, but I always get backache from the front passenger's seat. We thought too that we might be able to sleep in that seat, tipped back, between driving stints, but that hasn't worked out. Nor has the glove compartment, which is tiny, almost useless for someone who likes to keep a stash of essential items to hand.
One feature you might like is the back window, which you can open without lifting the tailgate. We also have a DVD player in the roof, which might be good for grandchildren, but obviously our dogs have never appreciated it and we've never felt the urge to hop back there and watch it ourselves. The car was a demo model before we bought it, otherwise we wouldn't have bothered with the DVD.
I don't know anything about the heating pipes, I'm afraid, but perhaps that's good, because at least we haven't had trouble with them! Can't think of anything else dreadful that's happened, except one of the rear door handles came off as we waited for Eurotunnel last year, which was a bit inconvenient. Then on our last trip away, I noticed the headlamp washer gushing forth as OH drove past me. I just assumed it was one of those unexplainable 'auto' things it likes to do (see above), but no, it was broken and we lost all our screen wash.
Regards MPG, we get about 22 when towing and mid-30s solo. There's a brilliant display that you can get up on the satnav screen which not only keeps count of your average MPG, but has a moving graphic that shows when you're wasting fuel. I find that enormously entertaining to watch out of the corner of my eye, and there is a fair bit of competition between himself and me when we change drivers and the gauge goes up or down. Sad innit, but we argue over things like what's on the radio or CD.
Have I missed anything? Feel free to ask anything else that crops up and I'll try and get an answer from OH.
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