My winter shed - Rav4 Mk1
Discussion
Well, I finally found a cheap, old 4x4 to use for the Winter, building site visits, tip duties and generally arseing about in which doesn't feel like it'll break down before it gets to the end of our road. It will also have the benefit of helping keep mileage down on my Infiniti.
I considered everything from a Suzuki SJ to a Range Rover but dismissed most from either the ads, reviews or looking at them myself. This was the best I could find in my budget of up to £1500.
It's an R plate 5 door with just under 120,000 on the clock, year's MoT and 6 months RFL. I'm hoping to run it without having any big bills (??). The garage I bought it from carried out a service on it and I got them to change the cambelt as it was seemingly last done at 50k miles. The mk1 are supposed to be pretty rugged little things and everything works on it as it should. It's full-time 4wd and has a locking centre diff so, although it's no Defender, it shouldn't get stuck too easily...
It felt a bit sluggish when I first drove it but a couple of motorway runs have cleared a bit of hesitancy so I would guess it has been pottering around local roads for a bit and needed a bit of a blast.
As per another recent thread, I find it quite liberating not to have to worry about narrow lanes, supermarket car parks, building sites or leaving it parked on the street. It's also quite fun to drive.
Here is a pic, for your delectation and amusement...:
ETA Can't upload pic for some reason. Will try again later.
I considered everything from a Suzuki SJ to a Range Rover but dismissed most from either the ads, reviews or looking at them myself. This was the best I could find in my budget of up to £1500.
It's an R plate 5 door with just under 120,000 on the clock, year's MoT and 6 months RFL. I'm hoping to run it without having any big bills (??). The garage I bought it from carried out a service on it and I got them to change the cambelt as it was seemingly last done at 50k miles. The mk1 are supposed to be pretty rugged little things and everything works on it as it should. It's full-time 4wd and has a locking centre diff so, although it's no Defender, it shouldn't get stuck too easily...
It felt a bit sluggish when I first drove it but a couple of motorway runs have cleared a bit of hesitancy so I would guess it has been pottering around local roads for a bit and needed a bit of a blast.
As per another recent thread, I find it quite liberating not to have to worry about narrow lanes, supermarket car parks, building sites or leaving it parked on the street. It's also quite fun to drive.
Here is a pic, for your delectation and amusement...:
ETA Can't upload pic for some reason. Will try again later.
The missus has had one of these for around 6 years now. It's been relatively trouble free and only needed the usual service stuff apart from the 2 metal plates on top of the petrol tank where the sender connections and petrol pipes join the tank. They were dealer only and quite expensive. She manages to average 30 mpg as well ..... somehow.
It's very good in the snow. I'm not sure how effective the centre diff lock is. I tried it once on a steep hill covered in ice and it made no difference as far as I could tell. Ours could be broken however ( the Rav had no problem going up the hill, I was just trying out the diff lock to see if it helped ....
)
They do have a bit of a girly image but I enjoy driving it. Think it was originally marketed as a Gti 4x4 .....
Enjoy
Al
It's very good in the snow. I'm not sure how effective the centre diff lock is. I tried it once on a steep hill covered in ice and it made no difference as far as I could tell. Ours could be broken however ( the Rav had no problem going up the hill, I was just trying out the diff lock to see if it helped ....
)They do have a bit of a girly image but I enjoy driving it. Think it was originally marketed as a Gti 4x4 .....
Enjoy
Al
We had a one from 96-99 while we was living in Perth WA, was great for blasting around the beaches and sand dunes, fitted in out with bilstien offroad suspension, nudge bar, sump guard, induction kit, free flowing exhaust and chip, was good fun bashing it through the dunes but came to an end when the wife was putting it through its paces on the wrc Aus stage circuit in Harvey and put it on its roof lol
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