When the original Toyota RAV4 (Recreational Activity Vehicle with four-wheel drive) was introduced in 1994 it single-handedly defined a new segment – the compact SUV - even though it looked as if it had been designed by Mr Fisher and Mr Price, which made it hard to take Toyota’s Tonka Toy seriously.
Now, four generations and 4.5 million copies later, the RAV4 demands respect. That first three-door was just 3690mm from bumper to bunper; this five-door version, at 4570mm long, 1845mm wide and 1660mm high, is significantly bigger than the Nissan Qashqai - to which it will inevitably be compared - and on a par with the Hyundai iX35, Kia Sportage and Nissan X-Trail.
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The blobby wings and wheel-arches are gone too. The new RAV4, released in South Africa this week shows its family relationship to the recently-released 2013 Auris in its flat, narrow grille, crisp wheel-arch flares and a second, lower waistline that runs from just in front of the A pillar to the top of the tail-light cluster.
Not all of it works; the profile is very tidy but the front end is a little overdone in its attempt to be ‘bold’ while at the back, after taking the big step of moving the (full-sized) spare off the rear door to under the boot floor and replacing said door with a top-hinged tailgate, the stylists seem to have wimped out and gone generic, with a tailgate that looks more like a Honda CR-V development than a Toyota City creation.
Verdict: As my old headmaster used to say, tries hard, could do better.
The interior is defined by a deep, squared-off instrument binnacle and a brushed aluminium-finished trim strip running all the way to the passenger door. The rest is a mish-mash of textures, almost all in black, with simple, albeit somewhat clumsy switchgear that’s almost completely intuitive in use.
The sports front seats have deeper side bolsters than on the previous model and hold you reassuringly in place during even quite spirited cornering. The seats are finished black fabric on the lower-spec GX models and black or beige leather in the range-topping VX variant.
Verdict: Works better than it looks.
The first variant I drove was the two-litre petrol GX with electronically controlled constantly variable belt-drive transmission. I was immediately impressed by the ride quality; the choppiness and tendency to pitching of the previous models has been ironed out by an extra 100mm of wheelbase.
The 1967cc DOHC four revs willingly if noisily to 6500rpm and gets the RAV4 moving with commendable alacrity, although the CVT, whether in auto or manual mode, has been programmed with six artificial “gears” and behaves more like a conventional auto transmission.
The two-litre GX is strictly front-wheel drive; all the “Sport” button on the centre stack does is make the electrical power steering feel a little heavier and move the shift point right up to the power peak at 6200rpm.
Verdict: Works hard but gets the job done.
The 2.2-litre diesel with six-speed manual ‘box is a carry-over from the previous model and, as such, holds no surprises. There’s a bit of diesel clatter at idle and when accelerating hard but most of the time you’d be hard put to recognise it as an oil-burner.
It pulls like a steam train from 2000-4000rpm but then runs out of puff, necessitating much use of the crisp, short-throw gearbox. An auto diesel has been promised for early in 2014.
The diesel has all-wheel drive, although it defaults to front-wheels only when not under stress. Whenever either of the front wheels begins spinning, however, an electromechanical multiplate clutch progressively feeds more torque (up to 50 percent) to the rear wheels.
There’s also a push-button manual lock for the centre diff low down on the dashboard but we didn’t need it, even on an expectedly muddy gravel road.
PRE-TORQUE
That was thanks to a new feature called Pre-Torque that uses yaw sensors and a steering position indicator to detect when the RAV4 is going into a corner and immediately sends 10 percent of the torque to the rear wheels, increasing the percentage as necessary to prevent understeer and reducing it to prevent the rear end from stepping out in greasy conditions.
The effect is salutary; the car holds its line on gravel or mud right up to the point when all four tyres let go - and even then the slide is gentle and predictable - while on tar the steering is razor-sharp. The new RAV4 goes exactly where you point it, even at slightly silly speeds, with an accuracy rare in all-wheel-drive vehicles.
Verdict: Torques the talk; definitely the most fun to drive.
The all-new 2494cc petrol engine is only available with a conventional six-speed auto box. It revs willing to over 6000rpm, with plenty of torque available anywhere above 2500rpm, and makes a lovely growling noise when pushed hard, but the slush-box, responsive as it is, makes the power delivery rather remote.
All-wheel drive is standard, as is Pre-Torque, so the steering is just as accurate as its diesel sibling.
Pushing the Sport button not only tightens the steering and sharpens the throttle response, it moves the shift point up the rev range to the point where you can almost hit the limiter in the intermediate gears.
Verdict: Effortless performance, somewhat less involving than the diesel.