RAV4 big, but also small at the same time

[MidlandsPete]

Hi All
Following on from my first post back in June, our intended RAV 4 2014 Invincible purchase fell through before we had chance to examine and test drive (weird set of circumstances I've never encountered before).

Eventually (petrol autos are extremely rare as it turns out), a 2014 Icon model has come up locally enough for us to test drive and we went to see and drive. All checked out OK, condition very good for a 10 year old car, clean MOT, the 2.0 litre engine seems to pull really strongly. The CVT gearbox is a little slower on pick up than our Venga but not a deal breaker. We are a little disappointed the rear seats don't slide forward a few inches and appear to have a fixed front pivot to roll forward and make a flat boot, but we can live with that. 

However, we have found a major blocker and despite mine and the dealers best efforts we couldn't find a way around it.
The issue is that the steering wheel to front seat vertical gap seems narrower than our Venga which makes it impossible for my wife to get behind the steering wheel with her restricted movement issue.

The gap in the Venga between the bottom of the steering wheel and the drivers seat edge is 200mm (8 inches in old money).
The RAV4, despite being much more premium than a Venga and the cabin being generally larger, seems to only have around 140mm (about 5.5inches) when steering wheel at its highest lift position where my wife can reach the pedals. 
We tried all sorts of seat positions / steering wheel positions and couldn't get it to work for my wife bearing in mind she is only short (5ft 6") so simply moving the steering wheel reach isn't going to solve it as the pedals then become too far away as the seat has to go backwards.

Me and the dealer can't see a way around this as the seat height seems to pivot on the front edge which means no matter what we do, that front edge narrow gap remains.

Are we doing something wrong? 
The dealer says he is happy to let me revisit if he doesn't sell it and can find a solution from the forum.  

It seems very strange that a car that is overall larger / more premium than a 12 year old Kia has such a small steering wheel to seat gap.

We'd like to exhaust investigation on the RAV4 as frankly, its the only car we've found that ticks nearly all the boxes and we were really disappointed to find it is something like this that is a blocker. Also, we have no idea what to look at next.

But I do appreciate that my wifes specific limitation may just not "fit" a RAV4 and if that is the case then we'll have to stick with the Venga or maybe look at van based cars, none of which are as premium as a RAV4. 

[Nick72]

My wife has been saying this to me for the last 20 years. Though now she just says it's small. 

On a note serious note, which model of RAV are you referring to?

[Kos_ta]

I would try Excel trim with electrically adjusted driver's seat, it's height can be adjusted at both front and rear. 

[MidlandsPete]

19 hours ago, Nick72 said:

My wife has been saying this to me for the last 20 years. Though now she just says it's small. 

On a note serious note, which model of RAV are you referring to?

Hi Nick
Its an Icon model so the middle trim level for that generation with the manually adjustable drivers seat.

[MidlandsPete]

11 hours ago, Kos_ta said:

I would try Excel trim with electrically adjusted driver's seat, it's height can be adjusted at both front and rear. 

Hi Kosta
Interesting reply.
So on the model year we are looking at , that would mean I'd need an Invincible trim which is the one that came with all the toys including electrically operated drivers seat.
The Excel trim came with the facelift from what I can find out.
But useful to know the electrical option gives that front adjustability.  

[philip42h]

21 hours ago, MidlandsPete said:

We tried all sorts of seat positions / steering wheel positions and couldn't get it to work for my wife bearing in mind she is only not short (5ft 6") so simply moving the steering wheel reach isn't going to solve it as the pedals then become too far away as the seat has to go backwards.

I can't help, but I don't recognise your problem. I had a 2013 Icon for 7 years and had no problem finding a comfortable driving position. My wife managed perfectly happily as well ...

Oh, and, I'm not quite 5'5" and my wife is about 5'2" ... 😉

[PeteB]

Back in 2019, I urgently needed to find something higher off the ground and with higher seats than the 4th Generation Prius I had at the time, as it's low stance was causing crippling pain in my hips, knees and back.  Very significant levels of pain killer was barely helping.  The 5th Generation RAV4 was on my radar.

I did as much research as the urgency permitted, looking for something that had similar driving characteristics to the Prius (I'd driven well over a third of a million miles in the first four versions of the Prius since 2002).  I also had a long shopping list of driver aids, convenience and safety equipment.  Two cars came close, a Honda C-RV Hybrid (Honda's latest hybrid rivals that of Toyota and some would suggest it's even surpassed it) and the (then) newly announced 5th Gen RAV4.

The first RAV4.5 I got a chance to look at was a lower spec model with a manually adjustable driver's seat, and even with it set at the lowest height and fully back I found it really hard to bend myself enough to get me head past the top of the door aperture.  I would also need to move the seat substantially to get a suitable driving position.

The Excel version came with an electrically adjustable driver's seat with two position memory and luckily my dealer got em an early 2-hour test drive.  The seat had significantly more height adjustment and as Kosta said cushion tilt adjustment.  This was just sufficient to enable me to get in and out without too much difficulty, and the memories allowed me to easily move it between entry/exit and driving positions.  I'm 5' 10" BTW, and rather well padded (fat, actually!).  Good news was that after 3 months in the RAV4 all my joint pains had completely vanished.

For all the Government's bitching about people buying SUVs that weigh too much and take up too much space, I know of 2 other former Prius owners, plus a former Auris owner and former Mercedes owner who now drive SUVs for the same reason, and none of us previously thought we would end up owning one.

An awful lot of cars are now so much lower and also have lower roofs which make it harder for some groups of people to get in and out of them.  I believe this is down to manufacturers seeking better aerodynamics to help them meet government emissions targets.

[ColinB]

I changed from a C-HR to a RAV4 Excel after I fractured my pelvis in an accident, I could slide in easily and I could adjust the seat base for the best comfort. After 3 years I've now changed to a Yaris Cross which is still easy to get in /out of but doesn't have electric adjustment of the seat, I've not done a long journey yet to check comfort but now I have a smaller car the plan is that my wife will be able to share the driving. 

[MidlandsPete]

Thanks for replies everyone.
It appears the consensus is that I need to find a model with electric adjustable seat.
I think the irony with that is, bearing in mind the underseat has to house the lift motors, you'd think electric would give less adjustment compared to having a simple lever and pivot setup.
We'll keep looking and hopefully a suitable trim level one will pop up eventually.
We can get any number of diesels locally in higher trims but petrol / auto are as rare as hens teeth.

[Kos_ta]

It is also useful to know that mk4 petrol RAV4 has the same powertrain as mk3 and mk3 top trim (XT-R if I remember correctly) also comes with electrically adjustable driver's seat albeit no memory option. There are still few very clean examples of those around (when I sold mine 62 plate with 50K on the clock two years ago it was in a practically new car condition).