Rav4 ?

[goodoldboy]

a mate of mine has bought a house down the bottom of a muddy track that when dry is passable in anything with a bit of ground clearance (Renault kangoo ect) but the fun begins when it rains...having admired my LC he is now resigned to buying a 4x4 but an LC seem to be overkill & he needs "decent" MPG so how will a rav4 work out ?

 

[Shayne]

He would be insane to buy a Rav4 if he can a Colorado for the same price , i don't know how to work it out but i reckon i get 30mpg easy .

 

[wobbly]

Rav4 will be fine, has a good enough 4x4 system for what he wants, but mpg depends on age.

As important as the type of 4x4 will be tyre choice, sounds like an AT tyre will be needed - he needs to make sure that whatever he buys has a choice of tyres available, 4x4 is useless without grip.

Another option would be a Vitara, plenty good enough off road. The Nissan Xtrail is ok as well.

The current 'softroaders' tend to have a system that reacts when wheels start to loee traction, sort of like a lsd, so get really good mpg, but they are also expensive, so budget will be king.

Pete

Pete

 

[AndycruiserguyLomas]

Don't get a petrol auto, they drink it like a Cruiser.

Andy

 

[greengrass]

My dad as a Rav, its surprising where it will go with decent tyres. Pretty nippy and goes round corners well too,if you like getting your foot down.
No low range or diff lock so avoid te really sticky stuff.

 

[Philip A]

Check under the Rav4, between the legs (No, not that, perv...).

Do you see the exhaust, passing below the diff/crossmember/arms-attach-bracket/whatever? Hanging right below everything, ready to be smashed between a rock and a hard place?

I wouldn't want to take one of these on any road where there may be ruts deep enough to bring all that engineering to the point of "Ooops...".

 

[Shayne]

If the lanes that bad hire a digger for a day . Then buy a Colorado anyway because it simply chews up and spits out anything and everything that at a similar value might be considered instead .

 

[Philip A]

If the lanes that bad hire a digger for a day

Got a few thousand kilometers of them deep lanes around here, could do with some TLC... Could you send that digger on Monday?

 

[Paddler Ed]

RAV's are OK... BUT they are really only a Corolla on steroids.

I've got friends over here with each of first 3 generations:
-Mk1 is on LPG and is about to die; if it's still going at the end of the year it'll be a miracle. That's been used for 6km of dirt road 5 days a week for the last 5 years or so
-Mk2 is a petrol, and has about 250k km on it. Rattles and is going to die soon. It's been a town car and has now moved out to a property, which is 20km or so each way of dirt to a sealed road into town, which it does 5 or 6 days a week
-Mk3 is again a petrol, and has 180k km on it, not as rattly as the mk2 but is heading that way. Much the same the as the Mk2, town car then country car. Been used on dirt roads for the last 2 yrs now.

Things that bug me with them is mainly the creaking back door: Cleaned the rubber seal and sprayed liberally with silicon spray on the mk3 and that seemed to solve it. Keep an eye on dust building up in the seals, as it will rub through the paint!

Seating position isn't too bad on them; I drove the mk3 yesterday for an hour and it was OK. It's a petrol Auto so the fuel gauge is titanic-esque!

Would I go for one? Probably not, but then I like my 4Runner... which has it's own set of problem...

 

[goodoldboy]

If the lanes that bad hire a digger for a day . Then buy a Colorado anyway because it simply chews up and spits out anything and everything that at a similar value might be considered instead .

the lane is a shared track not that prone to rutting as its fairly compact but theres about 3KM of it as for tyres thats a given. a renault kangoo 4x4 might be an alternative but he is looking to buy a UK car as €3000 here buys a '97 petrol 3 door rav 4....

.

 

[Shayne]

A 5 second search found this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/toyota-la...0893622?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item2a319b63b6
4 times the car for an extra 300 quid .

 

[goodoldboy]

yes a tidy looking 90 Shayne but running cost are an issue for my mate

 

[Shayne]

Any 4x4 in that age group is doing well if it exceeds 25mpg , i certainly have no issues about fuel consumption on mine even with big tyres and lifted . Of course only your mate knows which he would prefer but i can't help thinking if he ends up with a Rav4 he will also end up thinking "it will do" whereas if he gets a Colorado he will end up thinking "i wish it would rain , i need a house a few miles further down the track , I wonder if the wife would mind if i bought a supercharger instead of a new bathroom"

 

[Leopard]

My grandparents in South Africa have one of the newer Ravs. Not sure of exact age, but would guess it at about 5-8 years. They absolutely love it. They travel all over SA - Kruger, family farm in Limpopo Province, Natal, Cape, even taken it over to Moz a few times and through Swaziland several times.

They don't do hectic off-roading, but are impressed with the capabilities and do a lot of mileage on gravel in wet and dry. My grandfather uses it to launch his fishing boat every week.

 

[warrenpfo]

We have an 03 diesel rav and it has not given us a days trouble since buying it 8 years back.

Great little car

 

[goodoldboy]

whats the real world MPG like?

 

[Jimbo4x4]

A D4D phase 2 Rav will achieve 40mpg quite comfortably on a run, 45mpg if you stick with the wagons. The 2.0 petrol manual will get 34/38mpg given the same treatment. Laura and I looked at getting a phase 2 5 door as her daily before her Toledo decided to halve it's value by giving up the steering rack. We procrastinated too long as a D4D would've been a stretch price wise but a petrol model felt too much like we were "making do". In hindsight we should've just gone with the petrol model..

 

[goodoldboy]

ah yes the magic number - 40. i have managed 32 mpg (95 auto) but real world is low/mid 20s but work pays for it so no prob.diesel is now €1.20 here so anyone commuting needs decent MPG