I had this car from RRG Macclesfield as a courtesy car for five days.
It's the top of the range Rav4 with 4WD the 2.2 DCI engine (149bhp/251 lb/ft torque) and this car had leather heated electric seats (electric adjustment for the driver) and sat nav with the new Toyota Touch & Go two system which has the bonus of DAB radio.
Firstly I'm not going to try and compare it to my daily driver, a modified, lowered GT86 with quite serious suspension geommetry, but it was interesting to drive for a week and after five days it grew on me if I'm honest.
So firstly looks. Well it's a mid sized crossover vehicle, so think mid-sized saloon with a higher ride height and bigger wheels and 4WD. In a way, it looks bigger than it is, in a similar way to a Hilux Surf does. Driving the car, it doesn't feel hugely wide on the road, it's more the length that you notice.
IMG_3587 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr
This car is fitted with a reversing camera and parking sensors on the front. These are useful when parking, but the sensors are a little conservative and will carry on beeping when you are stationary which is a minor annoyance if like me, you occasionally find yourself waiting in the car with the engine running and the sensors keep beeping whilst you are sitting there. Thankfully, you can turn them off, but it would be better if once the handbrake is applied they stopped beeping.
IMG_3586 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr
The interior of this car is the range topper Invincible with leather which certainly lifts the interior. The leather swathe across the centre of the dashboard is nice, though all plastics surrounding this including the dashboard are hard to the touch and the gold shiny plastic surround does not really give a quality feel. It's almost like the leather serves to highlight this. As one might expect, that said, it's all rather well put together, despite not having the feel of say it's German counterparts.
This brings me to the layout of the dashboard and ergonomics. The heater controls feature dual climate control which is handy to the touch, though in automatic mode no fan speeds are displayed, which does seem unusual, as the middle part of the display remains blank. It does work very well though and there are no complaints in this respect. I didn't quite manage to work out what the fast/soft button actually did, but there were three settings, soft, medium and fast. I left it in medium but did not notice a difference in the other modes when I tried them.
IMG_3585 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr
The seats were comfortable with electric adjustment for the driver including lumbar support which was nice. They seemed comfortable and there were two settings for the heated seats. The heated seat buttons were below the leather dash swathe which was fine for me, but if you were of the type that likes to be in kissing distance of the windscreen, I wonder if you might never find them. There is also a 'Sport' button here which sharpens throttle response and also gives more weight to the steering.
IMG_3584 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr
The steering feel is fine though, it's not as sharp as a more focused car, but that you can feel the weight of those big wheels and tyres means I'm certainly getting some feedback. Throttle response is typically diesel, it's always going to be a little dull as you find that you inevitably tend to flex your right foot to build boost and get the turbo spinning before that surge of torque pushes you down the road.
Talking of which, the engine gives ample torque and is good around town and also on the motorway where it can increase speed easily once you are used to flexing your right foot a bit more than you would with a petrol engine. The car has a 0-60mph time of 9.6 seconds according to the stats and this is none too shabby. The gearing is typically long, so I found that 6th gear wasn't used until the car is over 55mph. Around town an indicated 30mph is a bit inbetween 3rd and 4th gear, though a true 30mph is 4th gear. This can mean that when you are behind someone who is driving a little under the limit 3rd gear is a better option. I did find though that I changed gear less as a result which wasn't a bad thing.
In respect of handling, it's fairly neutral with a leaning towards understeer. This is perhaps what is to be expected. The ride is a little busy at lower speeds, though it's no issue, but really the car works it's best on the motorway and at higher speed where it feels well damped and stable. I did get the opportunity through necessity to drive the car in light snow, which brought the active four-wheel-drive system into play. I must say I was impressed with this as it just gave a go anywhere confidence in difficult conditions which was reassuring. It would be improved further with winter tyres. The car also features a differential lock, though I never had a need to use it!
In respect of economy I improved the average figure of 36mpg to 39.9mpg which is not bad for quite a heavy car that doesn't have the best drag coefficient.
Here's a picture (sorry for it being blurred) of the blue illumination of the dashboard. I must say I wasn't sure about this, but I did get used to it. I should add that the in-car stereo was more than up to the job and with some light tweaking of the settings gave a good overall sound.
IMG_3590 by Lauren Blighton, on Flickr
Overall the car grew on me. It was comfortable, easy to drive with light controls and felt secure in it's handling. In tough conditions it inspired confidence and was a nice place to be. Oh and I musn't forget it's party trick which is the electrically opening and closing tailgate!
