Thinking Of Buying A T25... A Couple Of Questions

August 9, 2015

Hello there,

I'm already the owner of an 04 RAV4, very pleased with it since we've owned it. Now I want to replace my second car that I use for work. I currently do a 26 mile round trip, then I could do anywhere between 5 and 20 miles whilst at work.

I've been reading these forums for a few days to get an idea of what I want. So far I've established that I'd need a 1.8 petrol, and that it needs to be 06 or later to ensure that it doesn't suffer the oil consumption issue of the earlier models. Is the oil consumption issue really as terrible and widespread as has been made out? If I were to view an earlier model, is there a way to tell whether it's suffering from the oil consumption issue?

I've got around £2800 to spend. I've see a couple of 56 plate facelift models with 90-100k on the clock. Are these the ones I should be looking at?

My other question is regarding the transmission - I've always driven manuals, but I've seen a couple of autos that I quite like the look of. Are these generally known to be reliable, or are they something I should steer clear of?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated,

Mark

August 9, 2015

If you're thinking of buying one with 90 to 100K on the clock I'd stay well clear of the CVT box. Somebody has a post on here about getting his repaired under warranty and the cost was exceeding £7k. That would buy you an awful lot of clutch and gearbox bits'n'pieces