Category: Small 4x4s 
Price Range: £19,095 to £25,845
Excellent quality, great diesel, car-like driving dynamics, Toyota reliability.
Petrol engine not powerful enough, some versions expensive, now five-door only, no joie de vivre.
The RAV4 has become all sensible and grown-up. It's a great car, but where's the fun gone?
You can't really go wrong here. Toyota consistently scores highly in warranty and customer satisfaction surveys for its exemplary reliability, and there's no reason for this new RAV4 to buck the trend. The diesel engines have provided excellent service in the Avensis and Verso so far, and the top-end 175bhp diesel is also fitted in the Lexus IS-series range. The 2.0-litre petrol engine is a development of the unit already well-proven in the previous-generation RAV4 and plenty of other Toyota models.
Quality is markedly improved over that of the previous model, especially in the interior, where lots of soft-touch materials are used. Panel gaps are tight and consistent inside and out, and if the old model is anything to go by, the RAV4 should hold up well to plenty of miles of family abuse without so much as a squeak or rattle.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Toyota RAV4
wrote on 18 03 2008
wrote on 16 03 2007
wrote on 10 12 2006