Toyota SUV Range

Mobility scooters don’t just take up volume, they can also be rather odd shapes. So the actual luggage capacity in litres is not going to give you the full answer here. Instead it comes down to whether the physical shape of the Volvo’s luggage area will work for you.

There’s really only one way to find out. And that’s to take your scooter and actually see if it will fit in the Volvo, allowing for the action of the lift and its mechanisms. You need to check things like the loading lip height and whether the Volvo’s roof is high enough to take the scooter without having to partly disassemble it before each trip. Make sure the rear door closes properly, too, without anything trying to poke through the rear window.

On the surface, there’s not much in it. The current model C-HR has 388 litres of luggage space, the Volvo CX40 410 litres. But, again, given the odd shape of a scooter and its lifting mechanism, the difference might be much greater than that in practice.

Believe it or not, 17 litres is on the high side of things, but not out of the question in a Kluger that is driven exclusively in stop-start urban traffic. I know the official fuel consumption figure for the car is 11L/100km, but there are a few things to keep in mind with that. The first is that this is a combined urban/highway figure, so it will always be lower than the urban number. Also, this figure is achieved on a test that actually bears very little relationship with driving in the real world.

You need to keep in mind that this is a relatively large petrol engine, hauling a hefty (1900kg-plus) car around. If your Kluger is the all-wheel-drive version, there’s also a fair bit of driveline friction to overcome. Even when cruising down a highway, this will never be a frugal vehicle as the aerodynamics mean it’s moving an awful lot of air at 100km/h. Don’t forget, either, that driving style has a huge effect on how much fuel you use.

If you’re concerned, have the car tuned and serviced. Fresh spark plugs and clean filters might make a difference to your fuel use.

Without a doubt, the best thing to do now is the have the car electronically scanned. That’s because there are literally hundreds of things that could cause this sort of problem, ranging from (but hardly limited to) a sick fuel pump, a blocked fuel filter, worn injectors, a fuel leak, poor ignition, a low-voltage battery, dirty air-filter, blocked or damaged exhaust, a stray electrical problem and much, much more. Even something simple like a fuel rail that is not holding pressure when the engine is switched off, can lead to symptoms very much like yours.

Hopefully, the on-board computer has logged these random starting problems and will be able to tell a mechanic what’s wrong. Otherwise you’ll simply continue replacing parts that weren’t the problem in the first place. And that costs time and lots of money.