By accessing this website, you acknowledge that Edmunds and its third party business partners may use cookies, pixels, and similar technologies to collect information about you and your interactions with the website as described in our
Privacy Statement, and you agree that your use of the website is subject to our
Visitor Agreement.
Comments
When they imported the cars, they cut a few costs by not reversing the door hinges.
OK, fine, they rushed the first generations over here and wanted to be the first car-based compact SUV in the US.
They didn't fix this for the 2nd generation, which surprised me.
For the 3rd generation, they could have flipped the door, have it swing open the right way. It's not rocket science.
-juice
This can not be a good sign for things to come.
Were there solar flares this morning
Anyone else have this happen?
This info is dated June 26th. I got a PDF with the details from my local dealer (Southern Ontario) so I'd expect that all Canadian dealers should be able to provide the same info.
-juice
Now that I've been able to slide in a full size oven, and than a full size dishwasher from home depot,
(two separate trips) into my RAV, it sold itself as far as more room and ease than any of the available SUV's of its size.
The only thing that could improve the side opening door is if it opened the opposite way.
I also don't have to open the garage door in order to retrieve something from the back cargo area as I used to do with all my other cars.
I did not think the quality of the honda came close to the toyota,it seemed to have very cheap features.
(By the way, the Japanese Toyota catalog shows a lot of models that I have never seen in North America, including a Sienta that goes 44.6 mpg... For the "Toyota-curious": http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/environmental_rep/04/download/pdf/c18_25.pdf)
Wheel Repair
I towed my boat, 2400+ lbs, with V6. No problem. It's a good towing car.
However, I towed the same boat with Subaru with 4-cyl engine at speeds 70+ mph.
Towing is not such a big deal as most people think. You have to use common sense, load your trailer properly (plenty of tongue weight), and use trailer brakes.
It would be great if the rear window could open like it did on our 4Runner. It was easy to create a nice breeze by leaving the fan on low and the rear window opened a crack. BUT. I don't miss vacuuming off a thick layer of dust from all the surfaces including the ceiling every few months; rear windows that roll down end up sucking in a lot of dust. Still, it would be nice if it would flip up like the CRV's do, just for quick loading.
Just how often do any of us come upon a situation where there is a need for truly PANIC braking, or braking of a really SEVERE nature...??
Too much weight on the rear hitch at that time can lead to a very HAZARDOUS situation.
Question: I've been shopping for a sport-utility and can't believe that a Toyota RAV4 with the new V6 gets such great gas mileage on regular unleaded. Some SUV's resort to using premium fuel, like the price of gas isn't high enough. But the RAV4 has a high compression ratio of 10.8 to 1 and that would seem to indicate premium fuel.
Answer: The high compression ratio may have dictated the use of premium fuel years ago, but with today's fuel-injection systems and engine management controls, that's not the case now, according to Toyota's spokesman Mike Michels. "The engine management system automatically adjusts spark timing to accomodate the octane of the fuel used and help allow higher compression ratios to boost horsepower," michles said. "In many vehicles premium unleaded is recommended because by doing so the car gets the advertised horsepower from the higher octane. In most cases using regular grade fuel doesn't hurt anything, and most people don't know the difference," Michels said.
With DFI a "lean-burn" technique can be used wherein the overall fuel/air mixture ratio is leaner than has been typical for SFI only. The idea is to use DFI to inject a relatively small amount of additional fuel very near the sparkplug just as the piston reaches TDC directly into the combustion chamber.
The result is a "rich" mixture only at/near the sparkplug at the start, beginning of the flame front. Next thing we know it will be kerosene via the SFI and 92 octane via DFI.
Black '06 Limited
Leather w/heat
Tow package
Moon Roof
thanks, much appreciated.
A digaonal from the floor at one wheel well to the roof on the oposite side is about 53 inches. From the rear door to the back of the front seats in a normal position is about 74". It is about 76" with the seat forward. I do not know the height at the rear door but my guess says it will be about 53 inches or so based on the diagonal meas. I made.
The Passat is 40 to 47 wide depending where you are along the floor and the wheel wells.
My primary hauling needs are large model airplanes so the RAV4 seems good for that
Since I am presently an Audi owner and the new A6 Avant is like $48K I have been looking at RAV4 and Passat. Both are different but practical in their own ways. The rear volume, 269HP AWD,handling, reliability and $26K purchase price for the RAV4 Sport will probably do it for me. The 2.0T Passat has lots if nice features but the reliability problems I see here are scary. The 4 year warranty is good if you lease end or sell at the end of that time. But the warranty does not make up for the lost time and grief if the car is broken often.
By the way, two Audis, both about perfect in spite of what you read here so maybe the VW stuff is over rated here
Good luck
The CR-V potentially will have a better rear view (no spare sticking up in the window) as well as the hatch is nice on adverse weather day's.
I believe the strength of the RAV4 is good mileage in a good size vehicle.
Vic
Its definitely there and sometimes its blocking the view of a person who just decided to walk out behind you even though your reverse lamps were lit or any other number of possible scenarios.
Don't get me wrong on the RAV4, its a neat, roomy, vehicle thats good on the mpg.
It just has a flawed rear door design.
When I pedal down the brake slightly, I get the feeling of slight speeding up! I really do not think it is my illusion! Of course, when I pedal down harder, the brake dose work. The same funny thing happens to my gas pedal: when I pedal it down slightly, it seems the car slows down.
The other thing is the revolving speed when the car is started became 1500 rpm recently. It was just several hundreds a week ago.
Does it matter?
The Good:
The Rav is roomy. There appears even more leg room (thus a bit more distance between me and the kids) in the new RAV than our 02 Camry. The little trunk area in the 06 RAV (if you forgo the 3rd seat)provides much more storage room than I anticipated. We were able to pack for 4 and still close the rear cover! Note though the the cover's design does not fully hide the trunk's contents unless you slide the rear seat all the way back and recline the rear seats. A bad design in my opinion. Acceleration with the 4 cylinder was more than adaquate. Again, I think peppier than my 4 cylinder 02 Camry...though a bit slower with the AC on. We drove thru much rain and flooding. The AWD worked flawlessly; I never felt out of control. The ride was comfortable though after a few hours I longed for a little more thigh support, just above the knees. I did sit up straight and this helped. The Rav is quiet, not nearly as quiet as the Camry but not bad. It was a nice 5 hour trip.
The Bad:
Not having a cargo light really is a pain. Not having the doors autolock is still a pain. No great/convenient spot for change, some may argue I guess. The standard radio's sound quality (or speaker or speaker location) really stinks. It seams the speakers need to be mounted higher or something. We found that in order to hear the streo you had to turn it up louder than you would normally want to. Gas milage was 26pmg, pure highway, driving 60 - 80 mph with the AC on. I really expected a little more.
The Ugly:
Door pillar rattles! What a nightmare. It was not so bad on the way back as I had brought the head rest from one of my Camry seats and wedged it between the RAV seat and door pillar. It helped a bit. I will have Toyoyta try to quiet the noise in each pillar (passenger side too). If not then I will ask for a matching pair of RAV head rests and create my own accessory! We had a leak the on evening after a storm. Enough water came in thru the floor vent on the passenger side that we could pour the water off into the street. I am unsure how this happened...another item for my next visit.
All in all, rattles aside, a nice trip.
My brother got his from Japan and he doesn't have any of those problems as you mentioned. :confuse:
Also, a full sized spare is a bonus (especially in Alaska), but on mine with 17" wheels, the spare is a different wheel! What a waste; now I can't rotate through all five tires without a mismatch. Does anyone know if it's bad to use the spare for regular driving since it's different?
Funny if you read your posts it sounds like you're being defensive about it.
Doesn't block it substantially and there are other vehicles worse you guys say. Brand loyalty.
But you can just keep on cheerleading for Toyota as you're doing a great job of it.
My Miata sprung a leak, I think some of the drains are clogged under the doors. But it's also a '93, so debris probably built up, yours is brand new!
-juice
I wonder if not moving the hatch hinge has anything to do with the safety cage design ... you'd think moving the hatch would not be as big a deal as moving the steering wheel and controls, and they seem to do that with ease.
There must be something more to it than simple beancounting.
Steve, Host
They are selling all the RAV4s they can make at a big profit so by definition, right now to Mr. Toyota, the 2006 RAV4 is perfect!
I am not a RAV4 owner........yet. :P
Anyway, a few times i've had what i'd consider a more serious hesitation. Once slowing almost to a stop and :surprise: acclerating, and 2 or 3 times from a traffic light. Pulling out, accelerating and experience was as though trans or whatever got lost. Nearly panicked the first couple times, pushed down on acclerator more, then it downshifted, then eventually moved faster. Now tell me thats normal Toyota. Has anyone else experienced or had repaired etc.? Haven't gone in for 1st oil change, check yet. Other than that love the car, although mileage not where it should be (in fact seems worse of late) after 2500 miles.
The problem seems to have come to light initially with the introduction of DBW, e-throttle, on some 2002 models. IMMHO the problem had its origins in Toyota's adoption of ASL, Aggressive Shift Logic, late in the last century.
The latest TSB, or newest factory firmware version, seems to alleviate some effects but in favor of the engine occassionally going over-speed during downshifts.
-juice