Long term update: Toyota RAV4 hits hard but also misses

It’s funny how we sometimes create a stigma around a car based purely on the owner or driver we associate it with. And based on your opinion of that person – mostly a negative one– there is nothing the car can do to save face.

Many moons ago at university a guy moved into our residence after failing miserably at his first attempt at tertiary education. The oke was as windgat with his sunstreaked goldie locks and casanova attitude. And his arrogance hit peak levels when behind the wheel of his three-door Toyota RAV4 his rich daddy bought for him out of the box and he cruised around like the campus belonged to him.

Still new in South Africa at the time, he took the soft-top off at the back ready to load a few surfboards, albeit he was 700 km away from the nearest beach. Not only did the campus get a reprieve as the guy eventually dropped out again, but the RAV4 was able to outgrow its image as a spoiled rich boy’s toy.

Now, being in its fifth generation already, the car has become a very spacious and comfortable SUV that caters for everyone from surfer boys at the beachfront to mountain-biking adrenaline junkies on their way to their favourite gravel outposts, with all the practicality of carrying a family and their luggage in comfort on the open road.

We’ve added over 3 000 km to our long-term top-of-the-range 2.5 VX AT AWD’s odometer and can attest that the two months in the vehicle’s company has mostly been a joy. I’ve carefully selected the word “mostly” because we are not the biggest fans of this particular engine/gearbox combination, which are both only found in the top spec model.

It is powered by a four-cylinder 2.5-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine producing 152kW of power at 6 600rpm and 243Nm of torque between 4 000 and 5 000rpm. The powertrain is mated to an eight-speed Sport Direct Shift automatic box which sends power to all four wheels using Toyota’s new dynamic torque vectoring system.

All is fine and dandy during normal conditions, but it’s during hard acceleration or trying to overtake on the highway where the paw-paw hits the fan. The harder you step on it, the more erratic it goes gear hunting, resulting in a heavy dose of engine revolutions that is not easy on the ear. It gets even worse in Sport mode as the gear ratios are simply stretched longer without too much noticeable extra oomph.

In fact, had you made any of the The Citizen’s Motoring staff guess the type of transmission on the base of a trip around our block, we would have all been in agreement that it’s a CVT because of the typical erraticness and soundtrack.

Quite ironically, the new generation CVTs that features in the Corolla Hatch and rest of the RAV4 line-up is probably the best version of that gearbox we’ve ever driven and now the only fully automatic gearbox in the whole RAV4 range has almost taken two steps back to behave like a CVT of old. But, despite our profession’s well-known despising of CVT boxes, they don’t seem to bother everyday commuters who seldom, if ever, try to floor their cars and neither will this particular gearbox and engine combination scare too many buyers off. And over the course of two months, we’ve accepted the set-up for what it is and enjoyed a very comfortable ride.

As far as fuel consumption goes, we have managed to come in just under nine litres per 100km driving mostly in Eco mode as appose to Toyota’s claim of 7.3l/100km. One open road trip of 300km did yield a very impressive 6.4l/100km, although it did require a lot of patience going at a steady rate of 100km/h.

As stated before, cruising along without trying to set land speed records is made easy by this RAV4’s good spec set, being the top of the range. Things that stand out are the leather and electronically adjustable front seats, wireless charger, multi-information display in the instrument cluster which includes a large LCD speedometer and Panoramic View Monitor.

It also features Toyota Safety Sense for the first time on a RAV4 which encompasses Adaptive Cruise Control, Lane Departure Alert with Steering Control, Blind Spot Monitor and PreCrash System which makes driving on the open road ridiculously easy and safe. And if you’re from the CD era like me and haven’t converted your 4 000 tracks from the 300 discs in your cabinet yet, the DVD front loader on top of the seven-inch infotainment system comes in very handy. On the outside the RAV4 looks really attractive and rugged, with the model specific 19-inch high gloss alloy wheels a standout feature.

The RAV4 2.5 VX AT AWD costs R586 500 and carries a six-services/90 000km service plan with 12-month/15 000 km intervals. A three-year/100 000km warranty is also provided. Charl Bosch will bring you the final instalment on our time with the RAV4 on October 4.

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