Rav4 - MOT Advisories.. help me

I'd assume an automatic will have some kind of equivalent wear

When it comes to clutch or similar related wear DCT/DSG tends to wear faster especially short journeys with a lot of stopping and starting, CVT and torque convertors tend to hold up much better, in theory - CVTs aren't exactly known for reliability overall.

Definitely want to test drive a Qashqai with CVT before putting money down - the CVT whine can be hit and miss car on car for some reason with some being quite intrusive and others barely noticeable, and rubber band power delivery (which you actually learn to work with quite quickly) isn't for everyone.
 
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Yeah looks like that gen of rav 4 uses the CVT auto which is pretty hateful 'box, if its the same as used in the same time period of Avensis i didn't think they were very reliable
 
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As someone deep in the decision paralysis hole around the "wife needs a small/medium family car and wants an auto and I want to get best bang for buck in a horrendously overpriced market while making sure it's about as safe as can be and avoiding buying a total rustbucket ****box" problem, this thread makes me feel loads better.
 
As someone deep in the decision paralysis hole around the "wife needs a small/medium family car and wants an auto and I want to get best bang for buck in a horrendously overpriced market while making sure it's about as safe as can be and avoiding buying a total rustbucket ****box" problem, this thread makes me feel loads better.
Was a 16 year old Rav4 on your shortlist?
 
Was a 16 year old Rav4 on your shortlist?
Oh you just know it is now!

I should probably start a thread. I tend to stick out of motors mostly but I could really do with some democratisation/outsourcing of my decision.
 
Hey guys, i know you all(most of you) hate my decision making. However, I've had two mechanics & an old colleague who buys and sells SUVs give me their opinions and they're saying it's fine to go ahead with the car. Mechanics have said due to salt spreading on roads and age of car, surface level corrosion is expected on Rav4s. They've said that the coil, shocks and tyre needs to be replaced, which the dealer is doing. They've also said the dealer working on the corrosion and applying underseal is a good sign. They said due to the low mileage of the car, it should last for another at least 5 years or 50k miles if regularly serviced and maintained well. The car has only 67,000 miles on the clock so this makes me think it's not been driven much for it's age and up to 2023 it's got the records of a full dealership service history, from then it's an independent garage service, so that makes me think it has been well taken care of.

Yes I did ask for all your advice and opinions and understand your concerns, so thank you for highlighting. I've searched on autotrader for Rav4s under £6,500 with less than 70,000 miles, and no older than 2008, sold by dealers with FSH and I can't see a better deal than this. I'm not sure where everyone else is looking, but why is this a bad deal? Is it just because of age? I thought Toyota and Lexus' cars are very reliable, especially with low mileage. Is there any other cars of this size I can get which is newer, at the same price? (automatic & petrol).

I can't believe you are still going ahead with this, why ask our opinions if you are just going to ignore everything.

It's all very well him saying he's going to put everything right but underseal is cheap and who is to say that he hasn't just applied it over the corrosion? You won't know any better until you get the first big bill and being a 4x4 things like suspension are going to cost more as they need to be stronger. Before you accept the car check thaat everything he said he was replacing has been replaced, including the fuel line because that is quite a bit of work to do in a day. By that I mean get down on the floor with a torch and look underneath for new parts (I assume you know what they look like). Don't get confused by shocks that have been wiped clean using a can of WD40 and a cloth to look shiny. New parts should be spotless and still have their manufacturers stickers including part numbers on them. Check that the faulty tyre has been replaced by something half decent and not a ditch finder which I suspect it will be. Check that the car has been serviced and the oil to see if it's been changed and that it's not old dirty oil because servicing isn't cheap these days. Don't believe anything they tell you because the majority of dealers (especially used car ones) these days are absolute lying scumbags. Don't be intimidated by them and if you are not happy in any way tell them to take it away.

A 4x4 is still absolutely the wrong choice of car for your mother only doing 10 miles a day. You do know the road fund licence is £415 a year on this? She's probably going to get less than 30mpg out of it as well.
 
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Don't believe anything they tell you because the majority of dealers (especially used car ones) these days are absolute lying scumbags. Don't be intimidated by them and if you are not happy in any way tell them to take it away.

Be interesting to see how it works out - the pictures don't really show any corrosion worse than normal for a car of that age and assuming they actually did replace the coils, shocks if they've leaked or have any substantial damage, ball joints / bushings as appropriate it might be OK for awhile.

Even properly done underseal is only going to buy a bit more time though and it might only pause things for a year or so especially if the dealer half-arses it.

It is certainly not where I'd be spending 6-7K though... but then I've sunk that keeping a 10 year old pickup on the road so I'm probably not the best example.
 
It's planned to be delivered tomorrow at the moment. I've paid a deposit only.

I dunno how long ago you were in touch with them but a smaller dealer/garage probably doesn't have the parts sitting around and would have to order them in and do the work - so probably 2-3 days minimum from when they said they'd do it unless they'd already committed to doing it and had the parts on order. So if being delivered tomorrow I'm suspect on them actually doing any work.
 
Hi everyone, i received the car today, and took it out for a drive but it broke down.

Joking! i know a lot of you probably wanted me to say that if i did go ahead with it, but I've cancelled the transaction and requested a refund of my deposit. Thank you all for your comments.
 
I think you've made the right decision. I wouldn't expect it to break down immediately, my main concern was that it was an indication of the fact the car hadn't been looked after properly and had lots of deferred maintenance. MOT only checks the basics that you can see from a visual inspection of the outside. Its understandable why the things that were flagged in the MOT were flagged given it's age, but if the previous owner was fixing stuff as it arose, the seller wouldnt have been selling it with all the defects still un-addressed.

The million dollar question would have been, what else had the owner not been doing ? Ticking time bomb that wasn't worth the risk imo.
 
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