Requiem for a RAV
Discussion
We bought this 2001 RAV4 in March 2006 – 1 week before our first child was born. Fourteen and a half years later it is finally time for it to move on. I didn’t want a RAV4. I didn’t like the look, I don’t like the idea of soft-roaders, I didn’t want an automatic – but my wife loved it, and she was the one having the baby so £7500 later, it was ours. I am embarrassed but not ashamed to say she was right – it is the best car that I have ever owned. Not the nicest car, but easily the best. It has done everything that I have ever asked of it with minimal fuss, maximum competence and minimal maintenance. It gets serviced when I remember (probably every three years on average). It has been parked outside all of its life. It gets parked in some properly dodgy areas. It gets used for transporting muddy boys after football, washing machines and fridge-freezers to the tip and ton after ton of garden rubbish. It is comfortable, dead easy to drive and amazingly good on rough country roads and in snow. It’s also surprisingly short so easy to park in the heavily congested streets around work.
It’s not all been plain sailing. On the way home from work one day the auxillary belt snapped, but it managed to keep going until I got to my local indy who replaced the belt for the princely sum of £35. Then, about seven years ago the auto-box developed a fault, banging into first gear and lurching forwards in an uncontrolled manner, refusing to change into second until the engine was screaming. I called the Toyota main-dealer – “That will need a new ‘box sir, £3000”. Called an auto-box specialist – “refurb ‘box mate, 1850”. Hmmm, decisions, decisions. To Google – hello, what’s this? A recognised fault with Toyota ECUs which can cause the auto-box to piss about. Interesting. The owner of my local indy showed me how to remove the ECU, and even lent me the tools to do so (thanks Chris). Sent it off to ECUTesting and a few hundred pounds later I had a working car again.
I have had better cars come and go in the last fourteen years – but the RAV has remained my favourite. In February this year I was called urgently into work at 0200. It was blowing a gale and sheeting down with rain – three cars to choose from, the other two both much newer and nicer than RAV, but no contest. Straight into RAV. I know this car so well that I can drive it almost in my sleep. I know that it will cut through standing water and be utterly stable, I can sling it up on a kerb to park when I get to work – it is the only choice.
But sadly it is time to move it on. I have a new electric car and the RAV is not getting used. I dream of taking it on one last glorious journey, something like the mongol Rally or a Top-Gear special, but I have kids and a mortgage so it is never going to happen. So it has gone to the place where the Kookaburra sits, I hope that someone can squeeze a few more years of use out of it. Goodbye old friend, I will miss you.
It’s not all been plain sailing. On the way home from work one day the auxillary belt snapped, but it managed to keep going until I got to my local indy who replaced the belt for the princely sum of £35. Then, about seven years ago the auto-box developed a fault, banging into first gear and lurching forwards in an uncontrolled manner, refusing to change into second until the engine was screaming. I called the Toyota main-dealer – “That will need a new ‘box sir, £3000”. Called an auto-box specialist – “refurb ‘box mate, 1850”. Hmmm, decisions, decisions. To Google – hello, what’s this? A recognised fault with Toyota ECUs which can cause the auto-box to piss about. Interesting. The owner of my local indy showed me how to remove the ECU, and even lent me the tools to do so (thanks Chris). Sent it off to ECUTesting and a few hundred pounds later I had a working car again.
I have had better cars come and go in the last fourteen years – but the RAV has remained my favourite. In February this year I was called urgently into work at 0200. It was blowing a gale and sheeting down with rain – three cars to choose from, the other two both much newer and nicer than RAV, but no contest. Straight into RAV. I know this car so well that I can drive it almost in my sleep. I know that it will cut through standing water and be utterly stable, I can sling it up on a kerb to park when I get to work – it is the only choice.
But sadly it is time to move it on. I have a new electric car and the RAV is not getting used. I dream of taking it on one last glorious journey, something like the mongol Rally or a Top-Gear special, but I have kids and a mortgage so it is never going to happen. So it has gone to the place where the Kookaburra sits, I hope that someone can squeeze a few more years of use out of it. Goodbye old friend, I will miss you.
briefcasebob said:
We bought this 2001 RAV4 in March 2006 – 1 week before our first child was born. Fourteen and a half years later it is finally time for it to move on. I didn’t want a RAV4. I didn’t like the look, I don’t like the idea of soft-roaders, I didn’t want an automatic – but my wife loved it, and she was the one having the baby so £7500 later, it was ours. I am embarrassed but not ashamed to say she was right – it is the best car that I have ever owned. Not the nicest car, but easily the best. It has done everything that I have ever asked of it with minimal fuss, maximum competence and minimal maintenance. It gets serviced when I remember (probably every three years on average). It has been parked outside all of its life. It gets parked in some properly dodgy areas. It gets used for transporting muddy boys after football, washing machines and fridge-freezers to the tip and ton after ton of garden rubbish. It is comfortable, dead easy to drive and amazingly good on rough country roads and in snow. It’s also surprisingly short so easy to park in the heavily congested streets around work.
It’s not all been plain sailing. On the way home from work one day the auxillary belt snapped, but it managed to keep going until I got to my local indy who replaced the belt for the princely sum of £35. Then, about seven years ago the auto-box developed a fault, banging into first gear and lurching forwards in an uncontrolled manner, refusing to change into second until the engine was screaming. I called the Toyota main-dealer – “That will need a new ‘box sir, £3000”. Called an auto-box specialist – “refurb ‘box mate, 1850”. Hmmm, decisions, decisions. To Google – hello, what’s this? A recognised fault with Toyota ECUs which can cause the auto-box to piss about. Interesting. The owner of my local indy showed me how to remove the ECU, and even lent me the tools to do so (thanks Chris). Sent it off to ECUTesting and a few hundred pounds later I had a working car again.
I have had better cars come and go in the last fourteen years – but the RAV has remained my favourite. In February this year I was called urgently into work at 0200. It was blowing a gale and sheeting down with rain – three cars to choose from, the other two both much newer and nicer than RAV, but no contest. Straight into RAV. I know this car so well that I can drive it almost in my sleep. I know that it will cut through standing water and be utterly stable, I can sling it up on a kerb to park when I get to work – it is the only choice.
But sadly it is time to move it on. I have a new electric car and the RAV is not getting used. I dream of taking it on one last glorious journey, something like the mongol Rally or a Top-Gear special, but I have kids and a mortgage so it is never going to happen. So it has gone to the place where the Kookaburra sits, I hope that someone can squeeze a few more years of use out of it. Goodbye old friend, I will miss you.
Ok I give up - where have you advertised it?!It’s not all been plain sailing. On the way home from work one day the auxillary belt snapped, but it managed to keep going until I got to my local indy who replaced the belt for the princely sum of £35. Then, about seven years ago the auto-box developed a fault, banging into first gear and lurching forwards in an uncontrolled manner, refusing to change into second until the engine was screaming. I called the Toyota main-dealer – “That will need a new ‘box sir, £3000”. Called an auto-box specialist – “refurb ‘box mate, 1850”. Hmmm, decisions, decisions. To Google – hello, what’s this? A recognised fault with Toyota ECUs which can cause the auto-box to piss about. Interesting. The owner of my local indy showed me how to remove the ECU, and even lent me the tools to do so (thanks Chris). Sent it off to ECUTesting and a few hundred pounds later I had a working car again.
I have had better cars come and go in the last fourteen years – but the RAV has remained my favourite. In February this year I was called urgently into work at 0200. It was blowing a gale and sheeting down with rain – three cars to choose from, the other two both much newer and nicer than RAV, but no contest. Straight into RAV. I know this car so well that I can drive it almost in my sleep. I know that it will cut through standing water and be utterly stable, I can sling it up on a kerb to park when I get to work – it is the only choice.
But sadly it is time to move it on. I have a new electric car and the RAV is not getting used. I dream of taking it on one last glorious journey, something like the mongol Rally or a Top-Gear special, but I have kids and a mortgage so it is never going to happen. So it has gone to the place where the Kookaburra sits, I hope that someone can squeeze a few more years of use out of it. Goodbye old friend, I will miss you.
Has it been as boringly reliable as it's reputation suggests? Always liked these, but never got round to having one. Maybe the time has come....
Silenoz said:
Ok I give up - where have you advertised it?!
Has it been as boringly reliable as it's reputation suggests? Always liked these, but never got round to having one. Maybe the time has come....
It has been utterly reliable apart from the two incidents described in the original post - and in the face of extreme neglect!Has it been as boringly reliable as it's reputation suggests? Always liked these, but never got round to having one. Maybe the time has come....
Edited by briefcasebob on Monday 7th September 22:23
My wife has one and got it for the same reason, patter of tiny feet. Your opening paragraph summed up totally everything that's good about it. I love that you can remove the rear seats and effectively convert it into a van to move furniture around. I have no idea how we can get it into parking spaces that seem shorter than its length but we do. You could turn it on a sixpence. It really is the perfect city car - or would be if the auto didn't return 20pmg on a good motorway run!
Interestingly ours has only ever borked once too, and for the same fault. The auto gearbox refused to cooperate and we had to have it sent to a specialist who kept the car for two months and couldn't fathom why it didn't work. Eventually a bit of Googling found the answer to be an ECU upgrade that was not offered by Toyota so off the ECU went to a specialist somewhere in the Midlands and a few days later we got the car back working fine.
It really is one of those cars that makes me think the only thing we could replace it with is a later version of the same model.
Interestingly ours has only ever borked once too, and for the same fault. The auto gearbox refused to cooperate and we had to have it sent to a specialist who kept the car for two months and couldn't fathom why it didn't work. Eventually a bit of Googling found the answer to be an ECU upgrade that was not offered by Toyota so off the ECU went to a specialist somewhere in the Midlands and a few days later we got the car back working fine.
It really is one of those cars that makes me think the only thing we could replace it with is a later version of the same model.
I have spent less on this RAV in the fourteen years that I have owned it than I spent on any of the other cars that I have owned in that time, each of which was only with us for about three years. The interior does not have soft touch plastic, or fancy interfaces. The engine is not the last word in refinement or economy, but the thing just goes on and on and on and on
We bought a petrol manual RAV4 in 2004 and have had it ever since. It has never let us down - even every single light bulb is still original!
It's done 70,000 miles, so not mega mileage, and the only repairs it's ever needed (I exclude tyres and brake pads) are an air con condenser and ABS sensors. That's it. It always starts and runs without fuss, it does everything we need, it's fine to drive if not very exciting..........you get the picture.
Headlights - wet sand them with 600 and 2000 grit then spray with UV resistant lacquer and they're as good as new.
Fantastic cars, utterly reliable, totally recommended.
It's done 70,000 miles, so not mega mileage, and the only repairs it's ever needed (I exclude tyres and brake pads) are an air con condenser and ABS sensors. That's it. It always starts and runs without fuss, it does everything we need, it's fine to drive if not very exciting..........you get the picture.
Headlights - wet sand them with 600 and 2000 grit then spray with UV resistant lacquer and they're as good as new.
Fantastic cars, utterly reliable, totally recommended.
Well that was astonishing. Less than 12 hours after posting the advert it has sold. I had calls/texts from 20 different numbers asking after it and a couple of callers making decent offers sight unseen. I have never had so much interest from a car ad. So it's gone, happily to another family, I hope it continues its faithful service
I probably sold it too cheap to be honest - but I was in grave danger of changing my mind and keeping it, and here was a man with some cash to take it away. £650. I think I could probably have got another £100 if I could have been bothered to play various buyers off against one another, but time has a value too so I am pretty happy.
It works out at less than £500 per year depreciation which would make for relatively cheap motoring if it wasn't for the woeful fuel economy and high road tax
It works out at less than £500 per year depreciation which would make for relatively cheap motoring if it wasn't for the woeful fuel economy and high road tax
We are just starting into our second year with a 2001, SWB, Auto, NRG petrol. Sourced from PH classifieds. Great little car that has exceeded expectations in every way.
Sticky throttle when we bought it, fixed with a good clean of the butterfly with carb cleaner. The headlamps get a buff with G3 every month - 6 weeks.
Worst issue was the auto box having a mind of its own! Seems we're not alone then....... ECU Testing sorted it out but we do keep their 'Lifetime Guarantee' paperwork reassuringly to hand!
Sticky throttle when we bought it, fixed with a good clean of the butterfly with carb cleaner. The headlamps get a buff with G3 every month - 6 weeks.
Worst issue was the auto box having a mind of its own! Seems we're not alone then....... ECU Testing sorted it out but we do keep their 'Lifetime Guarantee' paperwork reassuringly to hand!
briefcasebob said:
I probably sold it too cheap to be honest - but I was in grave danger of changing my mind and keeping it, and here was a man with some cash to take it away. £650. I think I could probably have got another £100 if I could have been bothered to play various buyers off against one another, but time has a value too so I am pretty happy.
It works out at less than £500 per year depreciation which would make for relatively cheap motoring if it wasn't for the woeful fuel economy and high road tax
I would have wired you the money and been over with a trailer in a heartbeat It works out at less than £500 per year depreciation which would make for relatively cheap motoring if it wasn't for the woeful fuel economy and high road tax
They really are excellent little cars. Fuel economy aside. Our little mk1 rav4 auto barely breaks in to the low 20's in fuel economy. (Bridgstone a/t tyres probably don't help) My other half has got a 2007 XTR 2.2 diesel. I love it too. I’ve serviced it and done the brakes when she first got it a year ago and it drives lovely.
It did need a new alternator at £280 fitted but other than that has cost nothing to run.
It’s saving her a lot of money over her previous car a 2016 Focus on PCP. Great acquisition for us.
It did need a new alternator at £280 fitted but other than that has cost nothing to run.
It’s saving her a lot of money over her previous car a 2016 Focus on PCP. Great acquisition for us.
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