Specifications - RAV4 VVW-I XT3
Price on the road:
£18 995-£26 995 (R207 800 - R295 300).
Maximum speed:
185km/h, 0-100km/h 10.6sec (as tested).
Combined fuel economy:
8.65 litres/100km.
The SUV craze of the last decade shows no sign of abating. Car companies continue to queue like 747's over Stansted to land their poshed-up Jeeps on our driveways.
To judge from their advertising, they seem to have got it into their heads that we all own Labradors and go surfing with Calvin Klein models. In fact, the massive demand for SUVs has nothing to do with Cornwall or wet dogs. I blame Big Trak.
Ask yourself this: who's buying this kind of car? People in their 30's, that's who. And what was the most desirable toy when they were kids, in the late 1970's? That's right, Big Trak*.
Back in those days a Big Trak cost roughly the same as a real car. Any child lucky enough to have rich and indulgent parents to buy him one would find himself the toast of the playground after the Christmas break, showered with more Texan bars and Smarties than he could ever eat.
Meanwhile, the reality for most of us was a childhood of unfulfilled dreams.
Of course this is just a theory (and I hereby invite further research from leading universities) but I suspect the Big Trak Effect has played an important role in the design and the success of the SUV. Consider the oversized wheels; the pseudo-military detailing; the heavy, angular looks.
Consider how Big Trak would struggle with even moderately challenging terrain, such as bathroom shagpile. See what I mean? Jump into a new RAV4, for instance, and you are confronted with a dashboard straight from the Big Trak School of Design: it's vaguely robotic-looking and a bit sci-fi, like a computer bank out of the movie "WarGames".
Outside, following a comprehensive redesign, things are more humdrum. The old RAV4 was tarty, admittedly, but at least it was easily identifiable. The new one (
It is really very dull. Clearly, RAV4 owners are growing up and earning more money and Toyota felt that too many of them might be tempted by the BMW X3 (another car from the Big Trak school). So, as well as having a more conservative exterior, the new RAV4 is longer, taller and wider than the old car.
It's costlier too, with a top price of £27 000 and no cheaper three-door available.
Crowded beach
You can understand Toyota's thinking on this. Though it is the world's best-selling compact SUV, there's a host of good-looking, decent-quality options (Honda CR-V, Nissan X-Trail, Suzuki Grand Vitara, Kia Sorento) snapping at the RAV4's heels.
The compact SUV market is a crowded beach. The trouble is, the RAV4 will find itself punching beyond its weight against larger models such as the sexy Nissan Murano and the gargantuan Pathfinder. This will be a tough sell, I reckon.
I have a deep admiration for Toyota but this new RAV4 doesn't match its usually exemplary levels of quality.
The doors shut with a slap, not a thunk, the plastics feel brittle and cheap and the engine, though easily capable of pulling a trolley laden with apples, is very rough.
There's a lightweight feel to the thing that suggests bits will soon start snapping off or wearing out.
In other words, just like Big Trak.
IT WAS A CLASSIC: BIG TRAK
"Well done, Big Trak!" cried the slightly too presentable young boy in the TV ad as his space-age tank delivered an apple to Dad from its trolley. And a generation yearned.
Of course, to the PlayStation-obsessed pre-teen of 2006, MB Electronics' Big Trak would seem risibly basic, but it was one of the first programmable toys and, to all of us who grew up in the 1970's, its computer-chip technology was evidence that the space programme had been worth the expense.
You see, Big Trak didn't just deliver apples. As the brochure explained, it could "lurk silently before continuing on its course, and can fire either a single shot or a volley from its 'photon' cannon" (note the quotes around "photon", just in case we thought it came with a genuine laser) - a boon to small boys with slightly jumpy elder sisters.
There was a catch, of course: the batteries. There were four of them and they lasted about as long as a strawberry Quality Street on Christmas morning.
No wonder Spirographs were popular. - The Independent, London