kingkos
Member
Hi guys, after waiting patiently for Toyota to come up with a remedy for the wiper recall (had to wait for all recalls to be fixed before importing it to Canada), I finally jumped on one of these puppies a few weeks ago. Took about 3 weeks or so to work through all the paperwork back and forth with the dealer, then another week to have it shipped to Buffalo, NY, where I went and picked it up to bring it home to Toronto. I owned a 2013 LEAF for just over 2 years before this, so I'm not new to EV's.
The 2 main reasons for selling the LEAF were size and range. We recently had a third kid, and the LEAF was starting to feel a bit tight, particularly since it was our "go to" car 80% of the time for family outings. Over those 2+ years, the car did not give us a single issue, drove as good on the day we sold it as the day we bought it. We put 44K km (28K Miles). The LEAF would get somewhere between 100km-140km (62-90miles) depending on speed, heating/AC, temperature, etc... while it was enough for what we needed, there were several occasions where we could have used an extra 20 or 30km's. On paper, the Rav4 EV is the perfect replacement.
I've read through this forum and had a pretty good idea of the risks and potential problems, and decided to take the plunge anyways. Picked up an off-lease 2013 Blizzard White with 65K miles on it.
So here are my impressions after a few weeks:
The Good: Car is in excellent shape. It doesn't look like it was abused. Drives very nice. Doesn't pull or shake, no weird rattles. Exterior looks great. No noticeable chips, dents, dings, or scratches. Interior also well kept. Heater works, everything seems to function as it should.
The Bad: 2 common issues presented themselves immediately: "check EV system" light is on and there was a definite motor hummmm, even at very low speed. I had a pre-purchase inspection done at Tustin Toyota and no mention of either of these two issues?!?!?! $140 well-spent I suppose.
The Ugly: Service was obviously a potential issue out here. Took it into a local dealership earlier this week and they said they simply can't work on the car. Not entirely unexpected, but still disappointing. I called Toyota Customer Care and they were more or less useless. I later called Kevin Spillane and he was very helpful. Scheduled a field tech to take a look at it in Buffalo later this week. The car is still drive-able and other than the humm and the check EV light, all is good.
Overall, the car accomplishes the two things I bought it for....more space and longer range than my LEAF. The LEAF probably beats the Rav 4 in most other categories though. Time will tell whether or not this was a good purchase, but works still rather take my chances with this than go back to another ICE vehicle.
If there are any Canadians wondering about the importing process, it was pretty straight forward. The biggest thing is to make sure the recalls get fixed, and get a proper pre-purchase inspection done (not sure how), but the Toyota one is a waste of money. There's a setting to change the digital Speedo to km/hr. You'll have to "fix" the Daytime running lights to always be on when the car is running, but that's not too difficult either.
I know there are a bunch of out-of-state owners already and i'm guessing there will be more with all the off-lease ones hitting the market. Maybe time for an "out-of-state" owner section?
Anyways, glad to be here.
The 2 main reasons for selling the LEAF were size and range. We recently had a third kid, and the LEAF was starting to feel a bit tight, particularly since it was our "go to" car 80% of the time for family outings. Over those 2+ years, the car did not give us a single issue, drove as good on the day we sold it as the day we bought it. We put 44K km (28K Miles). The LEAF would get somewhere between 100km-140km (62-90miles) depending on speed, heating/AC, temperature, etc... while it was enough for what we needed, there were several occasions where we could have used an extra 20 or 30km's. On paper, the Rav4 EV is the perfect replacement.
I've read through this forum and had a pretty good idea of the risks and potential problems, and decided to take the plunge anyways. Picked up an off-lease 2013 Blizzard White with 65K miles on it.
So here are my impressions after a few weeks:
The Good: Car is in excellent shape. It doesn't look like it was abused. Drives very nice. Doesn't pull or shake, no weird rattles. Exterior looks great. No noticeable chips, dents, dings, or scratches. Interior also well kept. Heater works, everything seems to function as it should.
The Bad: 2 common issues presented themselves immediately: "check EV system" light is on and there was a definite motor hummmm, even at very low speed. I had a pre-purchase inspection done at Tustin Toyota and no mention of either of these two issues?!?!?! $140 well-spent I suppose.
The Ugly: Service was obviously a potential issue out here. Took it into a local dealership earlier this week and they said they simply can't work on the car. Not entirely unexpected, but still disappointing. I called Toyota Customer Care and they were more or less useless. I later called Kevin Spillane and he was very helpful. Scheduled a field tech to take a look at it in Buffalo later this week. The car is still drive-able and other than the humm and the check EV light, all is good.
Overall, the car accomplishes the two things I bought it for....more space and longer range than my LEAF. The LEAF probably beats the Rav 4 in most other categories though. Time will tell whether or not this was a good purchase, but works still rather take my chances with this than go back to another ICE vehicle.
If there are any Canadians wondering about the importing process, it was pretty straight forward. The biggest thing is to make sure the recalls get fixed, and get a proper pre-purchase inspection done (not sure how), but the Toyota one is a waste of money. There's a setting to change the digital Speedo to km/hr. You'll have to "fix" the Daytime running lights to always be on when the car is running, but that's not too difficult either.
I know there are a bunch of out-of-state owners already and i'm guessing there will be more with all the off-lease ones hitting the market. Maybe time for an "out-of-state" owner section?
Anyways, glad to be here.