Had a lift in a Jeep Patriot well impressed and I believe in the UK are extremely well priced unlike Germany have been taken over by Fiat this year believe they are made in the Styr plant in Austria.

In September I bought a 3 year old Diesel RAV4 XT-R with 15,000 miles on the clock. Why the previous owner bothered buying a diesel and then did that mileage or why they then traded it in rather than keeping it I don't know. However, we got a near spotless car with diddly squat miles up. It replaced an 2004 Subaru Legacy Estate (that was bought as a temporary/hack car) where the AWD had persuaded me that it is worth a small MPG hit (we live in a small town near fast A roads but also a lot of farm traffic leaving muddy roads). We have a dog and recent little person. 5 years ago I bought a newly new 2005 1.6 Corolla that I traded against a Diesel Saab 9-3 after 3 months as I suddenly had to drive a lot for work.

Added to the above list in the last 5 years we have also owned a Mazda 323 (98) an Audi A3 (09), an i10 (59) and I had access to a pool Astra and Focus Diesel Estate at work . Relevant because I have a lot of cars to compare it against!

Anyway. The RAV4 is not better than any of the above cars at anything one thing but the overall package is really appealing. The driving position has many advantages, particularly in the current dark nights where the elevation means you are less likely to be blinded by oncoming traffic, you can see more of the road ahead and the rear privacy glass means you don't get the rear view mirror glare. The boot is big and with tilt/sliding rear seats very flexible. The boot is huge with the seats down. The ride is a little choppy (I think the HJ review mentions this) but it doesn't spoil the car. The engine doesn't let you forget it is a diesel and has top end clatter under light acceleration at any speed - but with the excellent stereo (has an amp so better than all except perhaps the A3 - can't remember...) you don't tend to hear it. We went from Cambridgeshire to near Bath and back a month ago and got 54 MPG over the 400 ish miles. Got that with two adults, luggage, baby, pram, dog on board driving home in the dark (so lights, heater, air con, TomTom etc on with an average recorded 60 MPH). Its 0-60 is not as fast as some of the above but it pulls nicely on the motorway in 3rd. It doesn't take to being driven enthusiastically around corners as many of the other cars listed but now I have a 5 month old baby on board to think about I don't tend to drive so enthusiastically any more.

Not sure on servicing costs yet but the insurance was interesting. My previous company quoted on the Subaru and it came in as 50% more than the RAV4.

The Mrs loves it. She prefers it to every car we have owned before and she LOVED the A3. While we have a little person I suspect that one of our cars will remain a similar vehicle. The second car might go from an i10 to something a little more interesting next time however....

I've had 4 Ravs in 7 years.

Starting with a 3dr, then a XT3 petrol (dire engine) and the 2 XTR diesels, awesome package!

I preferred the silver XTR which had the side steps as it was easier to live with day to day and even looked good dirty. But the black XTR looked superb when clean as the XTR has tints it finished it nicely. However the black paintwork seems terrible, picked up scratches really easily.

As a car it was a superb package, i'd go as far as saying it's one of the best family packages available. It was cheap to own and not 1 ever developed a fault. The MPG was phenominal for the size. I routinely carried the whole family with the boot crammed full of stuff and it swallowed a lot of baggage believe me. Yet it would achieve near to 50mpg on the m-way and seemed to achieve low 40's combined nearly every tank. The driving position was great, the cabin stood up to a lot of abuse. The plastics are typical toyota, hard and can scratch but nothing ever broke. It's only downside was the interior if i had to pick fault. It could have been a slightly nicer place to be i.e. german/landrover quality interiors which are top notch.

As for accessibility, ours would go anywhere. We spent a lot of time in the peak district venturing down narrow lanes, over fields, through fords, up steel hills. My last 2 had all season tyres fitted and i always had brilliant traction. The temporary 4x4 (up to 18 mph i think) worked well. It's not a full blown 4x4 so i think weight is saved so you can have 4x4 benefits at low speeds (typically where you need it) but don't take any hits on fuel economy.

As you can probably tell i'm a big fan of the rav4's. I was thinking of trying a landcruiser next but i can't see the benefits myself apart from a full time 4x4 (which i dont need, 99.9% i'm on tarmac) and the fuel economy is much worse.

Edited by OldSkoOL on 22/12/2010 at 23:50