Advice On Buying A Used Rav4

[DarioP]

Hi -

I'm not yet a RAV4 owner, but I'm about to become one. I freely admit I know very little about cars, in particular what to look for when buying a used car. Any advice gratefully received.

I have a check list of things I'm looking for; Leather seats, the more fuel efficient the better, largest boot size (with the rear seats completely removed), I've seen two different boot capacities listed for RAV4's, 410 and 576 litres, the 576 litres if it's accurate would be best for me. 5 doors not 3, prefer manual to automatic. Don't need built in SatNav or a fancy CD changer - I have a TomTom and these days an MP3 socket is all you need. Low mileage?

I've no idea what constitutes low mileage in a car of this type, 50k, 60k, more? Ideally I'd like something that will last a while and will be good for a lot of miles - I do a lot of motorway driving and trips abroad.

I'm thinking an XT4 fits a lot of the criteria I'm looking for but finding one with the larger boot capacity is proving tricky, is there a year or model where the boot capacity increased?

Any help / tips / info would be great.

Many Thanks in advance

[firemac]

Hi -

I'm not yet a RAV4 owner, but I'm about to become one. I freely admit I know very little about cars, in particular what to look for when buying a used car. Any advice gratefully received.

I have a check list of things I'm looking for; Leather seats, the more fuel efficient the better, largest boot size (with the rear seats completely removed), I've seen two different boot capacities listed for RAV4's, 410 and 576 litres, the 576 litres if it's accurate would be best for me. 5 doors not 3, prefer manual to automatic. Don't need built in SatNav or a fancy CD changer - I have a TomTom and these days an MP3 socket is all you need. Low mileage?

I've no idea what constitutes low mileage in a car of this type, 50k, 60k, more? Ideally I'd like something that will last a while and will be good for a lot of miles - I do a lot of motorway driving and trips abroad.

I'm thinking an XT4 fits a lot of the criteria I'm looking for but finding one with the larger boot capacity is proving tricky, is there a year or model where the boot capacity increased?

Any help / tips / info would be great.

Many Thanks in advance

Welcome to the forum, Dario.

You will get alot of opinions/answers to your queries, I'm sure. Meanwhile, as a very happy Toyota owner now on his 4th RAV (plus LC4, Yaris & Aygo along the way, as well) I can whole-heartedly recommend them. We're currently running a 12-reg XTR diesel automatic (4.3 model) having previously owned 3 of the previous 4.2's, a diesel manual & two petrol autos, a 3-dr and a 5-dr.

If you are looking at the 4.3 (which was in production from 2006 to 2013) then it will only be a 5-dr as this model didn't come as a 3-dr. If you do high mileage then diesel is the way to go but, like all modern diesels, the 2.2 litre carries lots of add-on equip to make it clean, such as DPF, EGR, etc. and it is best to use good quality branded fuel and definitely avoid supermarket diesel. The earlier 2.2 diesel (up to about 2008) could suffer from head gasket failures which Toyota covered by way of a goodwill warranty of 7 years or 112K miles whereby during that period, any engine failure due to that problem was dealt with by way of a modified, factory replacement unit. Cars since that time have the modded engine and don't suffer from the problem. There is a pinned thread at the top of the RAV forum which gives massive detail of the problem.

Like many diesels, the manual is fitted with a DMF which can give problems in time although I never had a problem with our 4.2 diesel manual in that regard.

The petrol engine on the other hand, although nowhere near as economical as the diesel, has none of the issues with clean-up kit (the MAF sensor sometimes needs cleaning on some cars but not necessarily all) is virtually bomb-proof with no known issues/problems. You say that you prefer manual but the CVT auto fitted to the 4.3 petrol is a very nice unit, as is the torque converter 6-speed auto fitted to the diesel.

I've not come across variable boot capacities; the 2012 brochure lists the boot size as 410 litres (VDA). The back seats do slide fwd & back so I suppose that might give rise to the higher figure that you've quoted but a more knowledgeable member will no doubt have an answer.

Of course you need to carry out the usual due diligence with a used RAV just as you would with any used car, i.e. service history, HPI check, good test drive, etc. If you buy from a Toyota dealer you will benefit from quite a good warranty - from 2010(?) the RAV came with a 5-year, 100K manufacturer's warranty which is transferable to subsequent owners but 12 month dealer warranties are available on qualifying cars that are out of the original warranty. The RAV is very well built so I've always bought on condition & service history rather than mileage (within reason, of course) & haven't been disappointed.

You will get lots of good advice on here but meanwhile, good luck with your search.

[DarioP]

Hi

Thanks for the reply and the information. I didn't know about the potential problems with diesel, is it best to avoid diesel RAV4's built before 2008 unless they have been modified? From a very brief look at the market there do seem to be more petrol engines on sale than diesel.

Given the money I have to spend I am unlikely to be able to afford anything built after 2006, so the diesel issue is definitely one I will have to look out for.

Quick question, do the rear seats come out completely? I was told they did, which would be very useful for me.

Many Thanks

Dario

[firemac]

Hi

Thanks for the reply and the information. I didn't know about the potential problems with diesel, is it best to avoid diesel RAV4's built before 2008 unless they have been modified? From a very brief look at the market there do seem to be more petrol engines on sale than diesel.

Given the money I have to spend I am unlikely to be able to afford anything built after 2006, so the diesel issue is definitely one I will have to look out for.

Quick question, do the rear seats come out completely? I was told they did, which would be very useful for me.

Many Thanks

Dario

When you identify a car that you are interested in, check the VIN no. with a Toyota dealer and they will be able to tell you if the car has had a replacement engine fitted. If so, then it should be OK (I believe that there were one or two of the replacements that needed replacing but generally the replacement engines have been OK) but bear in mind that not all the early diesels had the problem.

The rear seats on the 4.3 do not come out but they do fold virtually flush into the floor. The 4.2 had removable rear seats due to the fact that they were mounted "on" the floor (as opposed to "in" the floor, if you see what I mean) and they had to come out in order to give a full-length flat floor. Otherwise they could be tumbled forward against the back of the front seats which gave a shortened flat floor.

It's worth getting a drive in the petrol version as it is a brilliant unit and what you spend extra on fuel can be set against lower potential diesel-related maintenance costs such as DPF's, etc.