XT-R 2.2 D-4D 5dr 4 X 4

Practical, comfortable, well equipped

My wife has become the main user of the RAV4 and she loves it, preferring it to the A3 5 door we owned before the baby arrived. She likes the driving position, mid range umph when accelerating onto the dual carriageways, ease of access, seat comfort and easy set up for the baby seat. I like driving it on long distances as its like an old arm chair comfort wise, but it lacks any dynamic flair or interaction if you are a keen driver - this is not a car for fast sweeping corners.

It is really well equipped and very well screwed together, however it never lets you forget that it is a diesel and even at cruise any acceleration gives a (admittedly distant) top end clatter that I never suffered with my Diesel Saab 9-3.

MPG is good. On a 200 mile each way trip recently (Cambridgeshire to Wiltshire) we got an average of 54 MPG shown on the trip computer (which seems to be very accurate). In mixed driving the car is showing just over 46 which is impressive.

Boot space is good, boot door is good for the Mrs who isn't that tall and can't reach some car lids. Dog enjoys the boot too. Don't like the lack of a spare, leave me feeling a bit vulnerable but there is no way of putting even a space saved under the boot.

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