Toyota RAV4 2WD offers more for less

By Chris Anderson-Peters | May 13th, 2010

Owning a Toyota RAV4 has become more accesible with the launch of the new cheaper 2WD range.

Toyota’s 2WD RAV4 models, available in CV and Cruiser grades, are priced $3,000 below the equivalent all-wheel drive models.

Consumers will be the big winners with fuel economy being slashing at half a litre against the consumption of RAV4′s all-wheel-drive counterparts.

Automatic 2WD models use 9.1 litres/100km, whilst the manual versions achieve 8.4 litres/100km, an improvement of 0.7 litres/100km.

Powering the RAV4 2WD is a 2.4-litre VVT-i equipped four-cylinder engine, that delivers 125kW of power and the choice of manual or automatic transmissions.

The 2WD RAV4 enjoys identical specification levels to the AWD 2.4-litre models.

Standard equipment in both 2WD models include vehicle stability control, traction control, ABS, dual front SRS airbags, electric power steering, air conditioning, tilt and telescopic steering column adjustment and rear spoiler.

The Cruiser has an additional five airbags as standard, including five-spoke alloy wheels, roof rails, foglamps, six CD audio system with colour LCD screen, dual-zone climate-control air-conditioning with push-type heater control panel and footwell illumination.

The manufacturer’s list prices starting around $28,990 for the 2WD CV model with manual transmission.

DSG

“toyota has made the dream of owning a RAV4 an affordable realiy.” ARE YOU —-ING KIDDING ME? Who wrote this article? Toyota themselves? Who the hell would “dream” of owning a RAV4 for crying out load? ROFLMAO !! My god……….if you dream about owning a RAV4 you should be getting some serious help!!

To make it worse is the fact that its a Toyota …..and a very average one at that!!!!

Camry lover

Well if I was in the market for a compact SUV, the Toyota RAV4 would be my dream contender due to its reliability and stylistic elegnce

Camry lover

Please excuse my typographical error. That should read be “elegance.” and not “elegnce”.

Camry lover

Additionally, I found your comment, “if you dream about owning a RAV4 you should be getting some serious help” to be insulting and very rude.

I consider that to be a personal attack to all Toyota owners, who buy these great automobiles based on their class-leading attributes.

An associate of mine was very excited when his wife took delivery of a new RAV4 last year. It was their first Toyota vehicle, and they are very impressed with the entire package. They were especially praiseful on the responsive powertrain, which exceeded the performance of their previous vehicle.

nick

Considering the base RAV4 doesn’t offer side or curtain airbags as standard I would not consider it to have class leading attributes.

Most people buy a Toyota because of the percieved quality and reliability and the low running costs. The RAV4 is not a bad looking car, you could do worse inside and out with a Forester. Having said that though you could do a lot better with an CX7 or an ix35.
Gene

Please don’t vote down the Camry man. His comments is high comedy!

Toyota Guru

DSG, what the hell are on about? There’s no talk about “dream of owning a RAV4″ either in this article or the Pressroom release.

Toyota Guru

What the hell are you on about, I meant.
QBert

They edited it. It’s still pretty brochure-like, though.

mmmm

hey – EVERY lesbian I know either has, has had or their gfs have a Rav,
though they seem to be starting to trade over to Territories now
lol – and I know a lot of lesbians

Hung Lower

Another last minute effort by Toyota, like fitting esp standard to their small cars!
This and the Kluger would have to be the most boring looking and driving CUV’s on the road. But people seem to love them!
I would live on bread and water and pay the extra for the CX7 instead!

s5driver

I would have to disagree, the Ford Escape takes the “most boring SUV on the market” crown by quite a margin.

Camry lover

I agree with you s5driver. The Toyota RAV4 is a thoroughly competitive automobile. It is at the top if its class, with the best quality and reliability, and subjectively, the best styling.

RAV4 sales figures serve to highlight this class-leading vehicle.

Able

They forgot to add a good drive, a good auto (especially with a manual mode) and any form of excitement. It really is a Toyota then.

Jabba the Hut

It certainly ain’t high on my shopping list. How could I live with myself owning a car (and an average one at that) that toyota claims is the “original SUV” when I knew only too well that Subaru and Suzuki were doing them well before toyota ever did?

Camry lover

The RAV4 was the original SUV. I am of the belief the Suzuki model you are alluding to (the Vitara) is a body-on-frame automobile, therefore it is classified by VFACTS as a 4WD and not an SUV. The Subaru Outback was not released until 1996, although it was based on the 1994 Subaru Liberty.

Toyota can and will rightfully claim their well-earned title for the RAV4, which was originally released in 1994.

Ricky

Both wrong. The first unibody SUV was the Jeep Cherokee in 1984.

Tomas79

Ricky, you are also wrong!!
Lada niva had a unibody back in 1977.
But both the Lada niva and the Jeep Cherokees are true 4wds. not softroaders like the rav4!!

Reckless1

Thomas you are also wrong !

The Jensen FF was released in 1966.
Tomas79

No, Reckless I’m not wrong, i never said the niva was the first unibody SUV, I only stated that it was a unibody SUV that came before a cheroke. By the way, I owned a Jeep Cherokee and it isnt a true unibody design anyway!!

Also Reckless don’t be an idiot, jensen had 4wd, but was a passenger car sedan, and not an offroad station wagon type of vehicle!! Why even bring up the jensen, when there were many more 4×4 types vehicles before it!!

Ricky

Only dual airbags, crummy old 4 speed automatic, no ESP standard. Yawn.

Camry lover

Hello Ricky, I would like to point out that stability control is standard on the RAV4. It is mentioned above in the prose of this well written, and highly informative article.

Please be careful when criticising products that you do not include false details, as this could be considered defamation.

Let me give an example: if a competing automaker stated that the RAV4 was not fitted with stability control as standard in their advertisements, then Toyota could take legal action (and rightfully so).

Ricky

You (and Toyota) are the ones quoting false details – the RAV4 was not the “original” SUV. The 1984 Jeep Cherokee was the first compact unibody SUV. Beat the RAV4 by 10 years!

Tomas79

Ricky, you are also wrong!!
Lada niva had a unibody back in 1977.
But both the Lada niva and the Jeep Cherokees are true 4wds. not softroaders like the rav4!!

Only an idiot would get into an argument over what the first SUV was, since the term SUV has no clear definition!!

James

So what does that make you?????
Tomas79

The smart guy that alluded to the fact that it is an idiotic argument!!

Camry lover

I would like to point out that the location of the above image appears to Kurnell in New South Wales, the landing place of Captain Cook.

It is a very significant site, and is quite possibly is a simile for the RAV4 being a very significant model for Toyota. I find this to be very creative and symbolic. It links Toyota with its long Australian heritage.

Jake02

What the hell!?

Camry lover

Jake, please refrain from using profanity on the Car Advice comments section. It could offend some religious groups, which is never a pleasant thing to do.

toxic_horse

Camry lover, does your boss know you spend all day writing this rediculous rubbish. yea it was kind of funny the first couple of times but seriously. its time to get a life dude.

Camry lover

Excuse me, everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, and I interpreted the image as a simile. You do not have to agree with me, but I am often able to quickly detect symbolism in works of art.

And I do not spend all day “writing [...] rubbish”. I tend to rarely visit other websites other than Car Advice and my emails. Hence, when I check my emails I often check Car Advice as well. I do not have the time to read other motoring websites very often.

Finally, as a semi-retiree, I am no longer working full-time as I have handed down responsibility for our enterprise to my son. I only work part-time nowadays.

Paul

Camry lover… I’m from Melbourne so I’m really no expert. But if the image was taken in Kurnell, it’s probably got more to do with Toyota Sales & Marketing HQ being a short 5-minute drive down the road than any ridiculous symbolic statement about Captain Cook. Hopefully I haven’t offended any religious groups with my comments. I tried to avoid using any profanity or defamatory remarks.

Camry lover

Paul, your thesis makes sense as the Toyota Sales & Marketing head office is in fact located in nearby Taren Point.

I cleary missed the link. Your thesis is probably more likely than mine, but I just noticed the (possible) simile after identifying the location.

philthy

Dear camry-tailpipe-lover. I thoroughly enjoyed down-rating every piece of sycophantic tripe you have posted in this article. I would advise you not to threaten your fellow posters with defamation suits.. that’s a bit silly.

As far as the car, it is much heavier than the previous model and now far less capable off-road thanks to the loss of AWD. Prospective buyers should do themselves a favour and buy a proper small wagon instead.

Camry lover

I am not acting obsequiously at all. As I said above, everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, but please no personal attacks.

I also never “threaten[ed] fellow posters with defamation suits”. I was just pointing out the danger of doing so in a corporate environment. A defamation suit against Ricky would not hold up, as that is a thoroughly ridiculous claim.

You are correct in stating the latest RAV4 is heavier than the previous, but that can be said for most vehicles. I also believe a compact station wagon would better suit most buyers as well, but there are a small number or rural buyer who would benefit from the RAV4′s higher ground clearance and electronic all-wheel dive system. While the RAV4 is not suitable for serious off-roading, it has its use on poor quality dirt roads that are a ubiquitous site in the outback.

The majority of urban dwellers driving off-roaders do not require such vehicles, but there is obviously an appeal to them.

Mk

It is a Camry again, stuck in the right-hand lane.

Smithy

So it’s a 2WD hey?

What are they affraid to admit that it’s just another inferior Toyota FRONT Wheel Drive.
DSG

So they changed the opening line very quickly i see……i must have touched a Toyota nerve!!!
DSG

Oh sure buy a Toyota……they are renowned for their openness and honesty towards the motoring public…… NOT !! Recall after recall after recall after cover-ups and denials of faulty cars and problems not dealt with for many years because it saved them money by not fixing problems that caused many road deaths. Doesnt matter how much they deny it, its a fact.

Fenno

ford have had more recalls…

Icejagans

What a rip off. Title should read Toyota offering less for more

b88lee

how the hell are they offering it for more?? the article clearly said the 2wd is $3000 cheaper
jojo

Funny how you only save 3 Grand when you opt the 2×4 but get hit with 4.5Grand slug in the kluger when you opt up to the AWD model.

oz boy

So now its called a RAV 2 , starting to look very old school , boring more so than ever .

Shove a bit more rice in the pipe and give us a new look mr toyota .

Camry lover

Technically-speaking you are correct, as RAV4 is an acronym for “Recreational Active Vehicle with 4-wheel drive”.

bulldogs

You must be one of those 40KM Camry driver driver on the road!

Countrygirl

Being the boring country lass that I am, but I don’t even get why you’d get this car. It looks like a car that can get you out of trouble, but it won’t. It’ll be stuck in the mud with the rest of it 2WD cousins. Pointless offering. Bonus point to Subaru who does the opposite – all cars will get you out of sticky situations all the time and to us country folks it actually does matter.

shooter

It is for young people/family in the city, 2wd “suv” may sound strange, but there is a huge market for this, and you can never be against the market. Most buyers in this category don’t care 2wd/4wd, or even capacity of the car.

timmy201

Shouldn’t the title say Toyota Rav4 2WD offers LESS for less?
Valet Dabess

what’s with the hate today. everyone thinks the liberty is ugly and now everyone’s bagging out the rav4. ok so there’s nothing about it that stands out but it’s not like you’re going to get an ugly disease from looking at it
carz

love this car. following dualis to offer 2wd for lower price.
Roman

The RAV isn’t a terribly exciting vehicle. However, with fewer choices in the small wagon class, is the 2WD really a bad option if it is only used on the bitumen as a basic and spacious family commuter? Lets face it, many of the AWD versions we see in the burbs have never seen off-road action anyway.

shooter

Exactly, however I don\’t think $3000 reduction is a good offer. But again, when Dualis is close to $30k, toyota has the reason to price rav4 2wd a bit over $30k. Now it is interesting to see how compact suv/crossover sector will change.

OSienna

They need to fix the issue with spare wheels being nicked (about $1K to replace including the cover). Have a look around and see how many Ravs are driving around with a missing spare.

If you buy a Rav I strongly recommend replacing the factory spare with a cheap, aftermarket equivalent – otherwise you’ll be forever making insurance claims (happened to me 3 times in a space of 18 months).
John

Anyway,We’ve had our 2010 Rav4 2WD CV for just over a month now and find it fairly good expect for poor clutch takeup & a bad tyre noise,which is unbelievably annoying.
Its been suggested to ditch the oem Bridgestones for Cooper tyres by several people.
I’m thinking this will be our only ever toyota purchase and cant believe the service dept’s attitude,as well,over the tyres.JG.