Used 2013 Toyota RAV4 LE 4dr SUV AWD (2.5L 4cyl 6A) Consumer Reviews
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Excellent Vehicle
Thomas Michlovitch, Santa Monica, CA, 02/21/2015
Toyota RAV4 LE 4dr SUV AWD (2.5L 4cyl 6A)
23 of 25 people found this review helpful
Overall the car does a great job. I live in the North East and we get our share of snow. The car handles great in the snow. Sometimes we will get 6 to 8 inches overnight. I don't have time to clear my driveway in the morning and the car cuts right through the snow. The car is roomy, handles great, and is fun to drive. There are however some minor annoyances with the car. For example, I would like to push the key-fob lock and lock the doors before closing them however the car does not allow that. If you leave the hatch open while driving the car will continuously beep. Very annoying when you moving something and can't close the hatch. There's no lock for the glove compartment.
Main family vehicle owned for 3 years
Shawn, Helena, MT, 08/08/2018
Toyota RAV4 LE 4dr SUV AWD (2.5L 4cyl 6A)
8 of 8 people found this review helpful
So, this is our main car! We go everywhere in this thing (wife and 4 kids). The Pros: It is a Toyota with great resale value, 0 mechanical problems than regular maintenance (oil changes, brakes and tires), comfortable interior for the entire family, LOTS of cubby hole storage hidden all over this car, handles great on sunny/rainy/snowy days (I feel very comfortable with my wife taking a drive in the snow with the kiddos in this SUV). For the 4 cyl engine, it has a higher tow capacity than any other comparable SUV I have found. The Cons: Not really much to say here though have two very minor things to comment on: 1) the reverse camera does not allow you to toggle for directional tracking of where your car will be with the angle of the wheels. This is a very handy feature to have that is missing here. 2) The USB plug barely charges your phone. As this overrides the BT function of the radio and phone, your music and such are fed through the USB, but your battery will still drain. Leaving BT on and having my iPhone plugged in on a 2hr drive my phone lost 23% battery life instead of charging. Road performance. I have driven Toyota's many times in my life and am a huge fan of the Rav. It has a peppy pickup and go from stop or while in motion. Sometimes (especially in my town where speed limit is often 25mph) maybe a little too much pep? I find myself taking my foot off the gas very quickly to coast and ride the brake time to time in residential areas. The visibility for the driver can hardly be beat than with the Rav. Very few blind spots. A U-turn does require a little more than a standard 2 lane road with the expansion of the wheel base, but still, for the extra foot length of the car to its predecessor, I'll make the swap. Road noise is there but not bad at all. You feel the road without feeling like you are being beaten to death by it, lol. A smooth ride in a vehicle that can still hug curves at decent rates without squealing tires. Interior comfort. My kids have plenty of leg room in the back, and if the front passenger and driver are willing to give up a very little bit of theirs, adults can be in the backseat comfortably. The cup holders for front and back are well placed, and the seats are comfortable. Personally i feel the front seats have a bit more padding in them for the rump than the back seats. As I am a bigger guy and my knees don't like me squatting into and out of sedans much any more, I find the access very easy without having to climb up and in. The back area of the car with the rear seat up is quite large for a small SUV. My Mastiff ( a 160lb dog) fits back there comfortably. If I need both of my dogs to go somewhere, then the seats have to be folded down. Gas MPG is decent for an SUV with AWD. Before we moved to the mountains we were getting approx 26 in city and 32 on highway. Now I need to get my car tuned for the altitude as we are down to 22/28 MPG.
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A+ for safety...
Annie, Sparks, NV, 12/15/2015
Toyota RAV4 LE 4dr SUV AWD (2.5L 4cyl 6A)
16 of 18 people found this review helpful
Overall, I am very happy with this car. I have been able to test out the safety features in the snow and on icy roads and any slippage (due to sub-par snow tires) is immediately corrected. I feel safe, which is my #1 priority. I've read comments about feeling every bump in the road, maybe it is just because I've upgraded from a 2005 Camry, but I feel like I'm floating on clouds in this car. One thing I'm not crazy about is the rear-center seat. The car should be wide enough to have a regular 3-seat bench, not sure why it has this funky belt coming out of the ceiling. Second thing is the lift gate. I think a power lift gate should be standard. It is not easy to get open with your hands full. Especially on the LE model. It has a rear back up camera standard, but a manual lift gate? Why? Even my 2005 Camry had an auto open button on the key fob for the trunk. Then there's the headlights. Instead of just turning off automatically, there is an annoying, high-pitched beep to remind you to turn them off manually. I've never driven a car made after 2000 that didn't turn the lights off automatically when you lock the car. I would gladly give back the back up camera to have auto-off lights and a power lift gate! My last complaint is storage. There is a glove box and small arm rest storage compartment, and under the center console is weird open storage that doesn't fit much. I can tell they were trying to make it look upgraded and modern, I'd gladly have old fashioned and functional! Despite my complaints, I am happy with this car and don't regret my purchase. I've always been happy with the low cost of ownership that comes with Toyotas and I like that I can confidently drive on snow and ice now. The little things do make the experience for me though, and I know the manual lights and lift gate will continue to grate on me...
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Good and the Bad
virga_studios, Portland, OR, 09/11/2013
Toyota RAV4 LE 4dr SUV AWD (2.5L 4cyl 6A)
14 of 16 people found this review helpful
Overall this car is very nice. I was previously an owner of a 2006 Honda CRV. When I compared the two in the 2013 models the Rav4 won out. However, after owing the car for a couple weeks I have some issues that I don't like about the design. First the low beam headlights are horrible. They are the worst of any car I have ever driven. There is a line across the lights that makes it so when I am driving I can't see very far up the road. It is fine with the high beams but you can't run those all of the time. I hate the rear pass' windows. They are small and they slope up toward the back blocking visibility making a blind spot. The rear window does not open so you can't haul anything.
Follow-up review at 4 years
4bras, Denver, CO, 03/24/2014
updated 09/26/2017
Toyota RAV4 LE 4dr SUV AWD (2.5L 4cyl 6A)
19 of 28 people found this review helpful
A great SUV for zipping around town, short highway travel, commuting, or heading to the great outdoors for fun weekends. One of the reasons I chose this vehicle amongst others in its size class was because, at the time of purchase, it had more cargo room with decently adjustable back seats. Even so, I did add a Thule cargo carrier for occasional extra luggage capacity. The transmission is versatile with three modes. Its 6 speed transmission with a 4 cylinder engine shifts gears more often than a 4 speed transmission with a 6 cylinder engine, but we also enjoy 27-29 mpg in the city using Eco mode. The three modes respond as follows: - Normal mode: Responsive shifting, great for busily driving around town and on the highway. - Eco Mode: Slower to shift, but shifts more smoothly, not as jumpy or punchy. We see better gas mileage during city and mixed driving. - Sport Mode: Favors shifting down 1 gear from Normal mode so that the transmission is wound tighter and the vehicle is more responsive. This is helpful on snowy and icy roads. Headlamps create a very clear wall of light for night driving with great visibility. On the interior, everything is well lit except for the power side mirror adjustment. There is no light behind this control, leaving you to feel around for it in the dark. It's a Toyota, so quality is good as expected. Oil changes uses synthetic oil, so they costs $80-$90 each, but they are only recommended every 10k miles, so that would average to about $40-$45 every 5k miles. I have kept up with the recommended 10k oil changes plus their recommended 5k checkups in between the 10k intervals. I needed a set of front brakes and new set of tires about the times expected. There were two repairs needed that were disappointing. Around 80k-90k miles, there were a few "spits" of coolant in the engine area. At the service department, we wiped them clean and kept a watch on it. Within 5k miles there were new drips--easy to see because Toyota uses a bright pink colorant in the coolant so that leaks are easy to detect (even slow leaks like this one). The water pump was replaced, which was a normally about a $500 repair. That was disappointing, but fortunately the extended warranty I bought at the time of purchase covered it. The second repair needed was at 107k. One morning there was an obvious leak from one of the seals. Fortunately this, too, was replaced under extended warranty, but otherwise it would have been an $800 dollar repair--$30 for the part but lots of labor as they have to take an entire day to remove the transmission to replace the seal. I talked with two service techs (separately) about whether I should be concerned and trade in the vehicle. But both said that either one of these repairs could have happened to anyone at any time and that I should not think it is an indicator of other problems to come. There are a few design downsides to be aware of: 1) The 4 cylinder engine is under-powered when you load the vehicle with people and luggage. Highway mileage on the interstate (75-80mph) + hill country + wind + rooftop cargo carrier reduces the mileage to 22mpg. Even without the cargo carrier, the same conditions reduce mileage to 24mpg. I WISH Toyota would have never dropped their 6 cylinder option. This vehicle needs 6 cylinders to be a good interstate highway travel vehicle. 2) The headrest design is crazy bad! It is too far forward and causes neck and shoulder tension. But for this problem I found a safe solution. Remove the headrest, turn it around backwards (which now makes it a bit too far from your head), and then purchase a headrest pad from http://www.addonheadrest.com/order.html. The distance to my head is now perfect (not too close, not too far), and this makes all the difference in the seating comfort. 3) A thin paint job that scratches easily--too easily. So if you have an option of getting some kind of extra paint protective coating applied on a new vehicle, get it. 4) No rear seat air vents, USB port, or power socket. For a vehicle of this size, Toyota should have included all three as does the Hyundai Santa Fe (which I also tested, but it had other issues that led me to purchase the RAV4). 5) At about 85k miles, a small and intermittent transmission rumble occurs momentarily when it is 5th or 6th gear, the rpm's are between 1500-1900 rpm, and you accelerate slightly. It's the same rumble if you've driven a manual transmission and you're driving too slow in a higher gear and try to accelerate and get a little rumble that indicates you need to downshift. The senior Toyota service tech said this can happen as friction changes over time, and unfortunately cannot be adjusted. I now tend to use Sport Mode around town which changes the shift point and mostly eliminates the rumble.
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