Your thoughts on a 200X Toyota Rav 4?

GENERAL Off-Topic
1

My family is looking for a vehicle that is safe, cheap to repair, reliable, and excellent on gas. Rear impact safety is of prominent importance. Upon doing some online research as well as consulting with several mechanics, I have concluded that the Rav 4 fits the bill. Being an SUV with a larger height, it can withstand rear impact collisions without doing much harm to the occupants inside, unless another SUV of similar or larger height were to collide with the Rav4. Parts are cheaper than other SUVs, and according to several mechanics, there are fewer issues to begin with. It’s gas mileage is comparative to my late Integra as well.
Space really isn’t an issue as we only have 3 members in our family.

So what are your thoughts on a 2000-2009 Toyota Rav 4? Would it meet the above criteria? Are there any other candidates to look out for as well as the Rav 4? Are there any sedans or coupes with excellent rear impact safety that match the aforementioned criteria? Any information in regards to this matter will be greatly appreciated.

2

My mom had a 2006 Rav4 Sport, and I really must say that I liked it a lot. Handling was great, it was peppy, had a great stereo system and did well in the snow. I believe they had it until 70k miles and had not one single issue other than routine maintenance type stuff.

Actually, the JBL CD changer unit had issues and the deck had to be replaced by Toyota… But otherwise it was rock solid.

Now I know the lower-line models won’t have all of the bells and whistles I mentioned, but as a base, it is a great vehicle.

About the only thing I could think of that I would look into would be maybe a Forrester? Awesome build quality and longevity… but I don’t know the price comparison between the two vehicles.

Hopefully that was of some help, one way or another.

3

Nice. Thanks for the information. I’ll most likely grab the base and install after market variants of the bells and whistles I need.