talizman

iTrader: (1)

The wife has taken a mad notion and wants one of these

Anyone had any experience of them?

Whats better, the 147 bhp/141 lb/ft petrol or 114 bhp/184 lb/ft diesel?

What the hell are the million different spec levels about?

XT, XT-R, XT4, XT5, D-4D, VX, NRG, NV etc etc etc.... you get the picture

It'd need to be a decent spec and not the nasty grey plastic bumpers and horrible wheels.

Leather desirable too.

Any advice appreciated

nik52wrx

My wife has a 54 plate XT2 Diesel and loves it. She is hoping to trade it in in march for a facelift XT3 Diesel +a few extras.
Had this car from new with no problems at all so well worth the money.
Averages around 38mpg which aint bad compared to my Impreza's 20
Also useful for carrying capacity as the rear seats can be taken out.
The xt are the newer versions, D4D being the diesel models.
The spec you want will be XT5, D4D if you want economy, which will probably be around 24k.
Nik,

talizman

iTrader: (1)

Cheers Nik

Whats are the differences between XT2, 3, 4 etc?

nik52wrx

Alloys, sunroof, usual spec stuff.
Visit Toyota GB for full details. Bit over priced in my opinion but a bit of haggling works wonders.

Scooby-Doo

Don't get a black one. My 03 reg needed a full respay after 14 months due to bird lime eating through the paint. Each bird lime never spent more than a day on the car but it only needed a few hours to do the damage. Toyota told me off the record there was a fault with 03 reg black cars and the paint mix was wrong and some cars were prone to lime damage. On the record they would not cover it.

Chopped it in after 16 months and would never ever get a Toyota after the way head office and the dealer treated me.

Matteeboy

You looking for the new or old shape?

My sister has a 51 reg VX in dark green and it's been super reliable.

She's a location manager for TV/film so needs a bit of 4WD ability to get to weird places.

I helped her look for it and we got a very good deal - Some were a total rip off.
Quite nippy with the petrol version.
Beware the D4D version though - Wife's uncle has had massive gearbox trouble with his and for some reason the exhaust is WAY too low to the ground for an offroader.

New one comes with a rather pokey diesel.

nik52wrx

I dont think they were really meant to do that much off roading.
We have a diesel as does my mother and neither have missed a beat.
Like most things you will always get one with problems no matter what it is.
Nik.

Brendan Hughes

My MY03 diesel has been fine, but a bit underpowered - but you can get a Van Aken chip up to about 140ish bhp if necessary.

FirebirdUK

I had a new '53 plate D4D VX model (it was the top spec model at the time - leather seats). Not a bad car, just a bit slow - only had six months - traded it in for a WRX

The problem with the Rav 4 is that they seem to change things quite regularly - either doing minor face lifts, or releasing a new version...

Only thing I miss is the amount of space in it when you fold the back seats down - could really hold quite a lot of stuff.

kbsub

Just bought a 5 door 04 XT4 , Only had it a week but already loving the versitilty of the thing , Can get two kids a dog with a load of other stuff with ease . its not too bad to drive and feels quite nippy being a 150bhp petrol version , The fuel computer is saying its doing 37.4 mpg , not sure how accurate this is , but Ill be well chuffed if its over 35 .
Traded an A4 TDI for it and no regrets so far .