From 5 series BMW to Rav4

[Bendix]

Hello everyone! 

This is my first post as I just join today this  club. The reason for it is that I thought of selling my current car which is a 2002 E39 BMW and buy a 3 door Rav4 also 2001-2002 model. Being a newbie I have no clue yet about Rav4's, so if you are kind enough to help out a fellow motorist deciding what to buy and look for, will be much appreciated. 

Personally I'm thinking of buying the petrol version as its cheaper and I'm not doing many miles. Apart from that I don't know what to look for, maybe you guys can help me out. 

Thanks! 

[Grumpy stumpy]

Petrol rav's are bullet proof , a few issues with diesel,s I believe. Turbo's and dmf . Diesel is also cambelt where as the petrol is cam chain . 

only thing I can say about the petrol model is if you go for a manual check the fifth gear, drive it and check to see if the gear lever vibrates this will need the fifth gear replacing which will cost around £400 if you get someone to do it for you easier enough to do yourself for half that if mechanically minded, If really bad jumps out of gear. Other than that you can get the odd oxygen sensor go but cheap enough. That's it ! Oh and you won,t get stuck in the winter like your bmw !. 

Best all round car I have ever owned, mine is a 2004 petrol manual, I believe the auto,s are even better but a bit more thirsty. 

[Bendix]

Thanks a lot for the advice. Wasn't sure if I should go for petrol or diesel. Was thinking that diesel would be more economic but I guess I'll stick to petrol. 

Another question that I have is how much of a hassle is to fit a tow bar and roughly how much will it cost? I want a tow bar to fit my bikes, that's the only reason. Also need the electrical. I passed a lot of eBay auctions for the reason that they were missing the tow bar, and not many have them. 

Also,  can I find adapters to fit different wheels? For example 5x120 instead of whatever rav4 has? 

Thanks

[Grumpy stumpy]

I don,t have a tow bar but would think it would not cost too much to get one fitted, also I have seen a few Ravs with different wheels so would think so, I just got mine refurbed and kept original . Hopefully someone else on here will be able to answer those questions for you. Petrol in my opinion is the way to go for reliability and only about 5 mpg difference between diesel. Another thing to check when looking is the drivers side sunvisor they tend to get weak and drop down and won,t stay up, silly little thing but will set you back around £170 !! For a new one , I managed to get a excellent 2nd hand one for mine for £40 but they are very hard to find.

 

 

[firemac]

We've had 3 petrol RAV 4.2's since 2002 (plus a couple of diesels in between) and I can honestly say that the vvt-i engine allied to the auto trans is a brilliant drivetrain, probably one of the best that I have experienced in 47 years of driving. Fuel consumption can be a bit painful but it depends upon the way you use the car; ours varied between averages of 25 mpg for a 5-dr auto used mostly for local running to 33 mpg for a 3-dr auto that did mostly long commutes. I always saw the excellent reliability and hence low-to-no repair costs as an acceptable trade-off for the fuel consumption. 

One thing I did learn though is that it pays to use good quality branded fuel and NOT supermarket pee. Our first '02 RAV stayed with us for 11 years and 90K miles and needed several EMS sensors during that time but it was run for the first 6 years almost exclusively on supermarket juice. Our two subsequent 3-drs were only fed Shell, Esso or BP petrol and had no sensor failures at all.

Good luck with your search.