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None of this is available as standard on the lesser models, but what the XT5 shares with all the others is a very impressive amount of room. Luggage space amounts to 586 litres when the rear seats are up and 1469 litres when they're down, and there is no question of this being achieved by short-changing the passengers.

On the contrary, and in keeping with Japanese designers' general aptitude for packaging, there is an enormous amount of room for people sitting in the rear. The test car's duties included transporting four adults - one with her leg in plaster - on a 100-mile journey, and there was not a whisper of complaint about discomfort from anyone.

A couple of days later, I made a solo trip of nearly 1000 miles without any trouble. Normally I can't go much more than two hours non-stop without having to get out and stretch various muscles, but this time I could do three hours no problem.

That was partly because of the ride quality, which had not impressed me at the start. The RAV4's suspension is very soft, so there's an amount of body lean which seems quite alarming at first. It soon becomes apparent, though, that nothing is likely to go wrong unless you do something silly, and on motorways most road imperfections are well soaked up before they are transferred to the cabin.

As with many other Toyotas past and present, the RAV4 is an easy car to forget, but this is because it does its job efficiently and without fuss. There's a lot to be said for that.

Price: £24,495
Capacity: 1998cc
Power: 150bhp
0-62mph: 10.6 seconds
Maximum speed: 115mph
Economy: 39.2mpg extra urban, 32.8mpg combined
CO2 emissions: 202g/km
Towing capacity: 1500kg braked, 750kg unbraked
Insurance: Group 12
Toyota figures.

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