Retrofitting Style Pack To A 2013 Invincible

[jiw82]

Hi all,

I've just bought the missus a fully loaded RAV4 invincible Auto, we would have liked one with the style pack but couldn't come across one that was within our budget that had the desired mileage and additional spec....

Has anyone fitted this style pack post purchase that would be familiar with the cost of the parts? I'm quite happy to fit the bits myself and it's mainly the side steps and front/rear bumper under runs/trims were after.

Thanks in advance for any pointers.....

[Avalon]

1) Ask Kingo, he'll give you the discounted list price, if you're happy with that then buy the parts and fit, I'm not familiar with the Style pack but it's usually bolt on stuff. In all honesty it's going to affect your insurance and I imagine be expensive along with being ignored come p/x time if that's the route you choose so unless it gives you some sort of functional advantage or you're able to source it cheaply then consider if it's worth it before you go any further.

[jiw82]

Cheers!

Retail was around £950 fitted iirc from the brochure when ordering a new car so hoping I can secure it for less.

Managed to locate some second hand side steps and just awaiting for a message back to see whether they can be posted or not, will speak to the insurance regarding retrofit upgrades but imagine that it won't change it by any significant amount with the parts being OEM. Pick the car up back end of the week so plenty of time :)

[Avalon]

Generally retrofitting an option pack afterwards is much more expensive, the reason for that is the pack is normally discounted vs list price to make it seem better value. A few quirks exist (cruise control for £12.99 on the 4.2/4.3 for example) but not many.

As to insurance in very simple terms if you add 1k of retrofit options to your car the insurer will usually want more money to insure it and you'll be stuck having to tell them it differs from the manufacturers specification for that model on future quotes. Some may overlook it as it's genuine Toyota kit and allow for options, a few more will ignore anything it left the factory with, some may cover you but only agree to restore the car to factory spec in the event of a claim and others will add a premium, a small number may even refuse cover altogether.

The options you're on about (having looked at the style pack) are far from subtle, they are going to be noticed by an assessor in the event of a claim so if it were me i'd ask the question before I purchased anything.

[justdriftinby]

Hiya - just my twopenneth - I have 2013 Icon ....very pleased.....I did test drive an Invincible with all the bells and whistles ; all ok apart from the side skirts which simply got in the way the whole time of getting in and out of the car...personally i would have taken them off!!!! I have retrofitted side door rubbing strips as picked up a couple of minor scratches very quickly , so that had to be dun and very pleased with result....but you might have them anyway....Enjoy....Pauly...

[jiw82]

Thanks for your thoughts guys!

After getting some prices back from the supplying dealer I'm not going to bother, Toyota really do have your pants down with parts prices that's for sure!

I'm going to add some sill protectors as I've noticed a few scuffs on them where the previous owners have gotten in & out.

After looking further into the real world fuel consumption I'm a bit disappointed, I could have lived with the published figures however the real world mpg is terrible, I'm trading my 530D M Sport in to get the missus the RAV4 for when our first child arrives, the 530 is a 258bhp 6 cylinder with sports auto and it achieves an additional 10-12mpg on top of the RAV4's real world mpg in all conditions.

Considered the Lindop chip and it will take around 50 tanks of fuel (2.5 years for us) to make up the cost of the chip alone so I probably won't go down that route, unless I can find a cheaper alternative.

[jiw82]

This is the one we've purchased albeit via transfer to Lincoln

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/321873665937?_mwBanner=1&ul_noapp=true

seems a tidy honest car.

Not our first choice in colour but it's much nicer in the metal, would have also like diamond cut wheels but common sense says stick to the painted ones for longevity, we collect Friday :)

[Avalon]

Nice looking car, I know what you mean about the colour, i've always liked the silver/grey/black and one of the blues they did but a family member recently got a white one and it's grown on me. Scuff plates are a good idea, focus on the things that will improve function/protect rather than the packs, side steps are just annoying for me also.

Fuel consumption and Lindop chip or rather chipping in general is a divisive subject. I ran a few different versions previously, from the TTE official version sourced from the German producer prior to them going under (Van Aaken) to 3rd party versions that pre-dated Lindop. The honest answer is neither really made a massive difference to anything other than my bank balance.

Why? Well diesels are inherently not suited to short runs, they also tend to be thermally efficient engines and as such take much longer to warm up and get to the correct operating temp at which they achieve peak economy than say a petrol, on a short run they don't get to that point for very long if at all, it doesn't take it to be really cold before external temps can really extend that warm up phase reducing the economic operating period even further. Add to that the winter fuel package that we get at the pumps when temps drop which reduces mpg slightly (anti waxing additive) and the mpg can drop quite noticeably with a combination of those factors. Modern diesels also have another problem, Europe. As the emissions regs are tightened then now have to come with DPF's and EGR's for emissions reasons that simply don't improve reliability or longevity, it's not too bad on the RAV's, but other brands (VW/Seat/Audi/Skoda etc.) really suffer with DPF problems and they're expensive to solve (ultimate solution is remove them and map them out), Toyota's ECU's make that more difficult as the RAV versions are locked and that encryption hasn't been broken, hence why a plug in box is used. This normal box's are simply upping the pressure on the fuel rail, nothing more. This is crude to say the least.

So, if you want economy then don't buy a diesel to do short runs.

Oh and the irony of my own post isn't lost on me, I traded a Yaris for a Rav to do an 8 mile round trip commute Monday to Friday :D The justification was it's only a few pence more in fuel each mile and as I do so few now during the week it's barely worth getting excited about. It's also a lot more comfortable when we regularly do 200 miles at the weekend with a family of four in.

[jiw82]

Cheers!

I know what you're saying regarding the diesels and warm up times, this is also supported by the fact that the majority of hybrid cars are built with petrol engines too, warm up time is much quicker resulting in greater efficiency.

The missus will take over it when the baby arrives and her most common journey is a 30 mile round trip to the town she's from to visit her parents, work and friends so not the shortest of trips on average, hopefully it won't be as bad as I came to think. 450-500 miles to the tank would be nice however I presume this will be closer to 400.....

Side skirts seem to be more of a pain than anything else then, I prefer the look of them but if they become annoying I'm probably better to keep my cash, I may just go for the front and rear under runs if I can lay my hand on a good price or find used parts and forget the rest.

[Avalon]

Using my last tank as an example (it's not the same engine or generation of RAV but still a diesel) I got 37.53mpg with a short use pattern during the week and 200 miles at the w/e, that's actual numbers not the trip computer of lies, that makes it 12.8p/mile for me at 105.9p/ltr on diesel. If your 2.2 Auto can do similar numbers or ideally better it gives you an idea of actual cost. Bottom line it should be under £2 each way for her doing 30 miles a day even if it gets slightly worse mpg or she pays slightly more for her fuel.

The other thing I forgot to mention about the Lindop's and similar is you will be stung on the insurance as it's classed as a remap and most underwriters add a % loading based on increased power output.