Used Rav4

smallzoo2

Looking to buy a cheap ( sub £3500 ) Rav4 5 door

We will only do about 3 or 4k miles a year, mainly local but happy to consider petrol or diesel as I guess at my pricepoint it will be a mk2 pre dpf

Any suggestions / advice on which year / model etc to get ?

thanks

facade

IMHO,the MK1 is the better car, but you'll struggle to find a decent one now.

The MK2 is a cheapened down MK1, I think the transmission was simplified, it gained plastic headlights (which will be pretty much opaque now) and the tax went from expensive to astronomical, as the MK2 came in in 2001, when tax went on emissions. It also lost the twin sunroof of the MK1.

I loved my MK1 auto, but low twenties MPG meant I rarely used it, so I got rid- I sometimes wish that I still had it. It would go over speedhumps at 30 like it had air suspension.

The manual MK1 & 2 were known for jumping out of 5th gear, which could be fixed through the wheelarch, good as you really don't want to get the gearbox out, the whole front subframe has to come off, and then the power unit drops down, which makes a clutch change breathtakingly expensive.

There were a lot of failures with the diesel engine. The MK1 petrol was pretty bomb-proof, I'm not sure if the Mk2 used the same engine or the one that that burned a lot of oil that killed a lot of Celicas.

fatbelly

Should be possible but you are going to have to travel as good condition models at that price point will be rare.

You will also need a separate pot of money to fix issues that inevitably arise.

This link probably won't last long as this one will go

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202508275808473