All Growed Up
by Mike Grundon (06 Feb 06)

Toyota's wild child of the 4x4 world has grown up. The RAV4, flagged up in 1994 as the four-wheel drive GTi, has finally put aside its youthful ways and moved into mainstream crossover territory.

No longer is there a three-door version, no longer is a petrol engine expected to be its most popular, no longer is it aimed at the young hot-hatch buyer. A dozen years have gone by, the original target buyer is now a dozen years older, and the RAV4 has matured with them. Toyota says it's now trying to capture the hearts and wallets of 35- to 45-year olds - that's me - and it seems to be working.

For those who lament the loss of the short wheelbase, Toyota can point to the falling demand and declare it's neither a niche manufacturer nor a charity. Fashions, trends and markets all change, and today there's no appeal in a 4x4 with no room for passengers and luggage at the same time. The result is the new five-door RAV4 is the first that doesn't look like a stretch job done on something that really should only have three doors.

This, the third generation of the car, looks terrific - like a pocket sized Land Cruiser Amazon - and for anyone not wanting to stray too far from the tarmac, it's also a practical improvement on the outgoing model.

The new RAV-4 has just gone on sale with a choice of four trim levels, three engines and three gearboxes. All models are spacious and comfortable, and most of them have a skip-load of intelligent thingies to improve the driving, stopping and crashing experience.

Engines first. The top seller is expected to be the 140 D-4D, a 134bhp 2.2-litre turbo-diesel which can pull the 1.5-tonne truck up to the 62mph mark in 10.5 seconds. The official combined fuel economy figure is an impressive 42.8mpg. It only comes with the six-speed manual gearbox but that's no drawback. It's a slick unit, matched nicely to the torque characteristics of the 140.

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