Faults:

Mechanically, I don't feel I can legitimately comment yet, because I haven't had it very long. No problems - so far.

General Comments:

Before I bought this, I couldn't speak highly enough of Toyotas. My previous car was a 1999 Camry V6, which I had for eight years (purchased with 175,000 km and passed on to a friend with 460,000 km). That car, though admittedly a boring drive, was brilliant. The only things that ever went wrong were a sensor in the engine shortly after I bought it ($200 and never troubled me again) and the indicators went dicky at about 400,000 km. I only bought a new car because I felt like treating myself. It's still going fine. So with such a positive experience, I thought I couldn't possibly go wrong with another Toyota.

Well frankly, I'm really disappointed. I've had the car for three months now and I haven't been able to fix its highly irritating problems. I hate it and really wish someone would steal and burn it, so I could get the insurance and buy a Nissan X-Trail, as I was originally intending to do.

This thing rattles, squeaks and whines like my old car should have, but never ever did. The interior quality is very poor. The cheap plastic dash and glove boxes constantly vibrate and rattle, and if I stuff something in one join, a rattle will start somewhere else instead.

I can't begin to tell you how frustrated I've become with the stupidly designed tailgate! If you google 'tailgate squeak rav4' you will read of many owners in my predicament. The damn thing squeaks like you are driving on a road paved with live mice! None of the fixes I've read about seem to permanently solve the problem. The squeak will go away for a week or two, then gradually come back as bad as before over a day or so. I ended up taking the spare wheel off the tailgate and put it in a footwell of the back seat to take the weight off the door. It helps a lot, but there's still a squeak every now and then.

The transmission makes a quiet, but high-pitched and highly irritating whirring noise at highway speeds when the accelerator is depressed or the cruise control is on. It started to appear at 80km/h the other day, but I changed the transmission fluid today, and now it seems to only make noise above 100km/h again. I'm not holding my breath about that lasting.

These irritations, due to poor design and build quality, are such a shame because in many ways I actually really like the car. It's very comfortable, I like the slightly firm ride, the storage and associated flexibility of the interior is great, and contrary to what other reviews say, I find the engine power perfectly adequate and the road and engine noise is not bad either. But the irritating squeaks, rattles and whirs, and the inability for anyone to provide lasting solutions is really driving me crazy, and makes me really resent paying good money for this piece of junk! As soon as I pay off the loan, it's gone!