There are times when I wonder just how many four-wheel drive and all-wheel drive vehicles actually get taken off road.
When we bought our 10-year-old Honda CR-V it was fairly obvious that it had never seen any off-road work and I seriously wonder if it had ever been out of the garage on a wet day and I’m sure that most SUVs are treated the same.
Well maybe they’ve been used on wet days but I doubt that any of them see any rougher terrain than the grass on the front lawn.
So I guess that it’s not surprising that Toyota have introduced a two-wheel drive version of their very popular RAV4 and they come at a considerable saving. Now if you’re not going to take your SUV off-road wouldn’t you like to safe $3,000 on the list price?
Yes I’m sure you would … just like lots of other people would … and now you can with the Toyota RAV4 2WD.
The two-wheel drive RAV4 is available in two equipment levels and the price for the basic CV version with manual transmission starts at $28,990 RRP. The manual Cruiser version has a RRP of $33,990 and options on both versions include automatic transmission at an extra $2,000 and metallic paint at $350.
There’s also an enhanced safety pack available for the CV version only at an extra $1,250. This pack includes extra airbags and dual-zone climate control.
Engine and transmission
Both Toyota RAV4 two-wheel drive versions come with the standard 2.4-litre VVT-i four-cylinder petrol engine that delivers 125kW of power. This engine combined with the manual transmission will return 8.4L/100km and that’s an improvement of 0.7L/100km.
The automatic version uses 9.1L/100km and that’s an improvement of 0.5L/100km.
Both the manual and automatic transmission used on the two-wheel drive model of the RAV4 are similar to what we’ve already seen in the all-wheel drive model although internal and final-drive ratios have been adjusted to suit two-wheel drive.
Equipment levels
Standard equipment across the two-wheel drive RAV4 range includes:
- Stability control
- Traction control with anti-ski brakes
- Dual front SRS airbags
- 17-inch wheels
- Electric power steering
- Air conditioning
- Tilt and telescopic steering column adjustment
- Rear spoiler
- USB/Bluetooth compatible audio
- And downhill assist control on vehicles fitted with automatic transmission.
The two-wheel drive RAV4 Cruiser features a higher equipment level that includes:
- Five additional airbags
- Five-spoke alloy wheels
- Over-fender flares
- Roof rails
- Fog lamps front and rear
- 6-CD audio system with colour LCD screen
- Dual-zone climate control air conditioning
- Footwell illumination