I replaced the Explorer with a Sequoia Green Metallic 1996 Toyota RAV4. It's a compact sport utility vehicle; mine is the two-door version with four wheel drive and a 5-speed manual transmission. It's about the same size on the outside as a Suzuki Samurai or an Isuzu Amigo, but I was surprised at how much more room there was inside. It has all the equipment I want, is reasonably quiet, more than reasonably quick and agile, and best of all, it's not another Ford.
Toyota has a very well-done Web site, and the RAV4 page covers the details of the vehicle well. You can even order a free CD-ROM covering Toyota's line of vehicles, or another one specifically on the RAV4, if you wish.
Here's an email I sent someone who was buying one, and asked what I thought of mine, after I'd owned it about five weeks:
From: Jay MaynardSubject: Re: Toyota RAV 4 Date: Tue, 4 Jun 1996 12:41:07 -0500 (CDT) I've had mine about 5 weeks, so all I can offer are preliminary impressions... Mine's a 2-door, 5-speed, 4WD model. I wanted a 2-door, and a manual transmission (I prefer driving one), and power door locks/cruise control. That wound up meaning that I got a 4WD model, as it seems that they're not importing the 2WD version with any equipment to speak of. It turns out that 4WD, aside from costing about $3000, hasn't hurt anything else; I'm getting good gas milage, and it doesn't seem to affect handling or other driving concerns. It does have plenty of power, and is more maneuverable than anything else I've ever driven. Running the engine at 3000 RPM regularly did take some getting used to, though, since everything I'd had before this liked to run at about 2000 to 2500. The 2-door version is small. I did some thinking about what I used a vehicle for, though, and decided it would meet my needs: I either carry people - almost never more than 3 - or stuff, but never both. Most of the time, I'm the only occupant. So far, it hasn't run out of room for what I needed to do. Mine's pretty well loaded. I have the upgrade package, which means power everything, the cassette stereo, and tilt wheel; I also have the CD player. I don't have the sunroofs, or the alloy wheels, both things I don't want. I paid full sticker price, as one would expect for the hottest thing in their new car line; if I hadn't bought it, someone else would have. In fact, the vehicle I originally signed up for was sold to someone else while I was arranging financing...but that didn't bother me, since it had the sunroofs. I'm impressed with how easy the truck is to work on. Everything's easily accessible, though the position of the oil filter means dumping a good amount of oil on the manifold while removing it. I'm a ham radio operator, and installing my radio was the easiest I've ever seen. There's only one irritant: You can't have the air conditioner compressor running with the fan turned off. The air flow is really good when the air source is set to outside air, instead of recirculate; with the fan running, and cruising at 70 MPH, there's a lot of air flow, and I'd like to be able to cut that back and still have the AC run. I might see if I can modify the switch to allow that. I drive 30,000 miles a year, more or less; my RAV4 has 3750 miles on it already, and it's going to take a 700-mile trip this weekend. I wanted durability - something that I didn't get from the Explorer I had before this one - and Toyota's got a uniformly great reputation in that department. Ask me about that in a year or so. My normal driving is a mixture of high-speed freeway cruising and stop-and-go rush hour traffic, about half of each. I'm getting 23 MPG, on regular gas. on the one trip I've taken so far, I got about 26 on the road, but that was a partial tank, so I don't consider the number reliable. I'll know more next week. I'm happy with my RAV4 so far, but I'm not going to say it's a great truck until I've had it a lot longer - I just don't know enough yet. Good luck with yours...if it'll do what you want, I think you'll like it.
I write this a week short of one year after buying my RAV4. It's still holding up well, with no breakdowns that weren't my fault. It's got 23500 miles on it, which is low for me, but it sat for about 6 weeks while I was out of town on one trip or another, too. It still hasn't done anything that makes me ask "why did you buy this thing??". One thing I've learned, though, is to make sure the door is completely closed when I leave it; if not, the interior light stays on, and will drain the battery in a couple of days. I had to get a jump start at the airport parking lot one time because the seat belt had fallen in the way fo the door and held it partially open.
All in all, I'm still quite satisfied with it, and would recommend it to anyone for whom it will get their particular job done.
Last updated 15 April 1997