MEETING up with the new Rav4 after not driving one for almost a
decade was like meeting up with an old flame at the
school reunion and noticing she is looking sexier than ever.
From the puppy-fat looks of the nineties there are now a lot of
muscular angles going on, but to my mind the Toyota is still playing catch-up to
the Kia Sportage and Hyundai ix35, with the two Koreans turning heads with their
fluid design.
Interior
Inside the top Rav4 there is very little for a meat-eater to
complain about. A lot of leather, quality plastics and plush carpets cover the
cabin space with legroom to spare.
To make the dash look nice, most of the buttons have been hidden
around the steering column. But they are all big and easy enough to find — once
you know where to probe.
The seats are a bum’s joy, electrically adjusting any which way,
with an inflatable kidney section that is pure bliss on a long ride.
At the back, the three seatbelt sockets are, however, placed with
just enough space for a child’s hips. Adults have to lift a cheek to get the
belt’s buckle into the slot.
Connectivity
An American owner moaned on one forum that he could not get his
iPhone’s contacts to store on the Rav4’s phone.
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| Logic does not play a role when trying to pair a phone in a Honda CR-V |
According to Prime Research’s “World Car Trends for 2014”,
published at last week’s New York car show, this is a real issue for young car
buyers “who do not care about power trains, maximum speed and emotional driving
any more”.
The Rav4’s BlueTooth link however passed this Luddite’s pairing
test. Simply turn on the phone’s Bluetooth, press “pair” on the Rav4’s
touchscreen and “accept” on the phone. Compare this to the Honda CR-V, in which
the handbook instructions to pair a phone reads: “If a prompt appears asking to
connect a phone, select No …”
No rolling with the punches
Then it was time to compare the claims about superior road handling
when compared to a formidable list of more than 20 sport ute competitors in this
price range.
These competitors include the reliable Honda CR-V, the personable
Ford Kuga, the unsung SsangYong Korando and the very competitive Chevrolet
Captiva.
For the tar test, I took to the R27 near Inanda. It is a narrow
rural road with more curves than Beyoncé.
Corners are not what SUVs do best, and the Rav4 understeers as
expected, with a lot of tyre squeal. But this being an all-wheel-drive like a quattro, I wanted to see if it could be driven like the Audi Q3, breaking hard
into the corner and foot flat on the apex. When Audi racer Gennaro Bonafede
drives thus, the Q3 straightens corners, but the 2,2 diesel in the Rav4 is not
made for foot-flat driving. It rather requires gentle acceleration to get to
that claimed consumption of 15 km/l (6,5 l/100km). But the Rav4 did show little
enough wobble around the corners, putting it on par with the Ford Kuga, Citroën
Aircross and Nissan’s Qashqai.
Bog, what bog?
Taut suspension on big tyres (235/55R18H), while helping to cause
understeer on tar, do ensure a soft ride on dirt, which is where the Rav4
quickly shows it is designed to become a legend on icy surfaces and in deep
snow.
In sunny South Africa the snow-riding Rav4 coped easily with KZN’s
deep axle benders and steep climbs. Trying to find its dirty limits, I went to a
wet spot I’ve taken to calling Snatch-Rope Bog.
Admittedly, the mud was only calf-deep when I parked the Rav4 with
the front wheels flush against the bog’s ledge, but I did not expect the lack of
fuss with which the ute then climbed out of the hole.
With the central differential locked, the all-wheel drive system
instantly and smoothly divided 340 Newtons from just over 2 000 rpm to turn
whichever wheel had grip, quietly turning Snatch-Rope Bog into just another
muddy patch.
Competitors
The 2,2 D-4D AWD VX Rav4 sells for R456 500. This puts it near the
middle of more than 20 competing brands of 4x4 sport utes. On one end is the
top-selling Renault Duster (80 kW/240 Nm) for R244 900; and one the other
Subaru’s Forester (177 kW/350 Nm) for R529 000.
Amid this fray the Rav4 is neither the most frugal nor most
powerful. The Chevrolet Captiva 2,2D AWD LTZ 6-speed auto meets or exceeds the
Rav4 on all counts, while the Subaru Forester arguably has a more capable
all-wheel drive system; the Land Rover Freelander more power and the Kuga better
looks.
But none packs the surprise of an old flame that became sexier,
which may explain why the Rav4 outsold all of them in March, even if in the
Kuga’s case by only one unit.
• Ride supplied by
Toyota SA.
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| The Renault Duster in racing mode. This is the Rav4's real competition, selling 495 units in March 2014, compared to the Rav4's 342 and the Ford Kuga's 341. |
A cross section of
AWD Sport Utes with auto boxes
• Mahindra XUV500 2,2
DCRi AWD (103 kW/330 Nm)
R319 995
• SsangYong Korando
D20T 4x4 (129 kW/360 Nm) R394 995
• Kia Sportage 2,0 CRDi
AWD (130 kW/392 Nm) R408 995
• Ford Kuga 2,0 TDCi
AWD Titanium (120 kW/340 Nm) R435 900
• Chevrolet Captiva 2,2D
AWD LTZ (135 kW/400 Nm) R454 300
• Rav4 2,2 D-4D AWD VX (110 kW/340 Nm) R456 500
• Audi Q3 Quattro 2,0 TDI (130 kW/380 Nm) R466 500
• Nissan X-Trail 2,0 dCi 4x4 (110 kW/320 Nm) R484 300
• Land Rover Freelander 2,5 D4 (140 kW/420 Nm) R494 869
• Rav4 2,2 D-4D AWD VX (110 kW/340 Nm) R456 500
• Audi Q3 Quattro 2,0 TDI (130 kW/380 Nm) R466 500
• Nissan X-Trail 2,0 dCi 4x4 (110 kW/320 Nm) R484 300
• Land Rover Freelander 2,5 D4 (140 kW/420 Nm) R494 869
