ALL POSTS-No Motor Power/Power Steering, turned off on road

[TonyWilliams]

Has anyone attempted ( or been successful) at breaking their lease based on these continuous problems? Maybe a Prius hybrid would be better so at least I am not stranded or worried about safety every time I drive the car.

Yes, there have been a number of successful Lemon Law Rav4 EV returns. Actually, quite a few.

Toyota isn't so concerned with that since they already accomplished what the car was sold for; those three CARB-ZEV credits when you purchased and registered the car in California. Beyond that, the crusher is probably in the future of many lease returns. The good news, when they start pumping out hydrogen cars (and the Rav4 EV is sold out), they'll earn nine credits and get to crush them all at the end of the lease.

I was not successful in Lemon Law, and will have to go to court to unload my 2012. It continues to have problems, but since I'm fairly high profile and public, Toyota seems to want to fight me.

Post subject: Lemon Law, Arbitration, Song-Beverly, Magnuson-Moss Warranty, Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2013 6:57 pm

 

[amgdad]

I am wanting to buy a Rav 4 EV, but am concern about all the problems that I am seeing on this board. Do you know if they have been fixed and would you recommend that I not purchase the Rav?

 

[TonyWilliams]

I am wanting to buy a Rav 4 EV, but am concern about all the problems that I am seeing on this board. Do you know if they have been fixed and would you recommend that I not purchase the Rav?

I would lease. If you really want to purchase, you can make that decision in 36 months.

 

[amgdad]

I plan on leasing for 36 months with $0 down. The terms right now seem to be good. I can get into the Rav 4 EV for about the same price as a Prius plug-in advance. But, I do you think that they have fixed the problems?

 

[ocdxfv]

I plan on leasing for 36 months with $0 down. The terms right now seem to be good. I can get into the Rav 4 EV for about the same price as a Prius plug-in advance. But, I do you think that they have fixed the problems?

Leasing is definitely the way to go. Regarding "fixing" the problem... I wouldn't bet on it. You could easily be lucky and have no problems, or you could easily not. This forum is mostly filled up by comments from people who have had problems so it may seem a lot worse than it is. I had my motor replaced after only 4 months and it's been 2 months now with no problems. My fingers are crossed. I love the car and if the motor holds up, I'll probably buy it at the end of the lease, but I'm very glad I have that option. I've still got 29 months to go.

 

[pchilds]

I am on my 13 month, no problems.

 

[Dsinned]

Honestly, you should give this car SERIOUS consideration. I actually have had nearly ZERO problems with mine, although like many others here, I have been super sensitive to any and all "potential" problems; the Check EV System error message on the dash prominent among them. Luckily, I live very close to my dealer should any serious problems arise, and the car is only used for "around town" driving. I have only put about 7k on it in 16 months. The reality is, this car has been virtually trouble free and has been one really terrific EV, with a hidden Tesla performance pedigree as well. It has saved me mucho $$$ with no fill up at the pump required, and is really effortless to keep charged with my own L2 EVSE installed in my garage. The cost to keep it running, aside from auto insurance and annual registration fees, has been ZERO $$$. It's really nice to drive in the commuter lane anytime I want too. :mrgreen:

 

[ufojoe]

12k miles here and have not had any issues.....

 

[aboxer]

When the car works it has many good qualities. Problem is if you are one of the ones who are unlucky enough to have one with problems it is a nightmare at best and totally unsafe at worst. We have owned ours for barely 6 months and have been stranded three times, had the ECU replaced, the power steering go out while moving and all the time the car is at the dealer, (and trust me, only certain dealers have competent service techs for the EV but you will have to pay to tow it to them if they are not the closest to where it breaks down)you get to continue to pay the lease payments, hassle with Toyota Corporate who seems to care very little about customer service and try to remember that you bought a brand new car that you thought would be safe to drive. Our car is currently at the dealer ( it takes forever for anything to get repaired because Toyota Corp techs and often Tesla need to get involved ) and even if they tell us it is " fixed" we have no trust in the safety and reliability based on what we have experienced. In my opinion if you like the thrill of Russian Roulette, go for it. If you want a reliable, safe vehicle that is backed by the manufacturer, this is not it.

 

[pl804]

I spent a lot of time reading this forum before purchasing the car. In the end, we bought the car and have fallen in love with it. Only 600 miles on it so far, but we both enjoy it so much, my wife won't let me drive it anymore - she likes it too much. =)

What we like:
- Tons or space, incl. nice surprises like the empty space under the rear seats, which can hold quite a bit there
- Tight steering
- Quiet ride
- Great acceleration - in fact, so much so that the tires really can't handle it

What we don't like:
- Over-sensitive suspension (compared to our Leaf and Ody)

I wound up getting it in Blue, which looks great! But which shows dirt much more than our Ody in Slate Green (metallic blue-ish color). If I had to do it again, I might get it in Silver.

Also, last week, took it in to get some accessories installed, and they did a firmware update. They also adjusted the latch on the fuel door (was a little sticky).

Good luck to everyone deciding on this!

 

[Airton]

2012 (vin# 1099) with 6,581 miles on the clock now. Most of the miles have been driven through the wild and cold NJ winter of 2014 - 0 issues and loving it!
p.s. Being that I am on the east coast I am obviously running with the original software/firmware to boot.

 

[VQ EV]

12K on mine in 1 year. Zero problems and love the car. Long-term I bet my 2011 Leaf will last longer (with a battery replacement) just because of future Tesla to Toyota interface problems. I don't expect to replace the battery in the Rav4 EV for atleast 10 years. I plan on replacing the battery in my 38 month old Leaf in about 2 years and expect that one to last 8-10 (not just 5).

 

[reeler]

I have two 2012 models. I also have a 2011 Leaf. The RAV4s have had no issues as has my Leaf. Driving electric is very liberating . . . a car with only 3 moving parts in its engine has to be more reliable.

 

[Incredulocious]

I am wanting to buy a Rav 4 EV, but am concern about all the problems that I am seeing on this board. Do you know if they have been fixed and would you recommend that I not purchase the Rav?

I would lease. If you really want to purchase, you can make that decision in 36 months.

It sucks that some people have been stuck with serious issues but I'll add my vote that this can be a great vehicle. Got mine in Oct 2013, just over 5000 miles now and mine has also been trouble-free. Very happy with it:
http://crimdom.net/2013/10/brought-home-a-tesla/

And yeah, definitely lease (free money!) and decide at the end of the lease whether to buy it!

 

[RAV4Elly]

I did turn the car on and off and the screen stated take the car to the dealer.

There is a specific procedure that can clear some errors if the cause of the error is no longer present. Clearly, based on your description, your situation has a persistent fault and would not have been helped with this procedure.

1. IG ON (press the "Start" button 2 times with foot OFF the brake pedal).
2. Wait 10 seconds for the system to complete the start-up check to look for existing errors.
3. IG OFF (press the "Start" button 1 time with foot OFF the brake pedal).
4. Wait 1 second.
5. Repeat steps 1 through 4, four times.  The warning message may no longer be displayed.

This was taken from Toyota Tech Tip T-TT-0206-12 "EV Charging Station Incompatibility - 'Check EV System' Message"

I did this as I have the Check EV Message again and it worked. Thanks, miimura

 

[miimura]

Please remember that this is just a work-around to get you back on the road after an intermittent failure. You should still take the car to an EV Certified Dealer at your earliest convenience.

 

[sierrabill]

Just a heads up on another experience with our 2012 RAV4EV. We've had it for 15 months, racked up 16K miles so far and have had no problems. Many times the screen of death ("Check EV something or other, take it to your dealer") has reared its ugly head on the right side display but has continued to run normally.

We plan on taking the L2 EVSE with us on some "extended" trips this summer, maybe even take it to the dealer 151 miles away....

 

[cwerdna]

Just a heads up on another experience with our 2012 RAV4EV. We've had it for 15 months, racked up 16K miles so far and have had no problems. Many times the screen of death ("Check EV something or other, take it to your dealer") has reared its ugly head on the right side display but has continued to run normally.

We plan on taking the L2 EVSE with us on some "extended" trips this summer, maybe even take it to the dealer 151 miles away....

Re: the bolded part, if the message came up even once, in my book, that already contradicted your statement about "no problems".

So, it sounds like you've never taken it to the dealer for this issue?

 

[4min]

The screen of death greeted me this morning, as I was going for a short trip that I had decided to do extended charging for. The car had 395 miles of it, I've only had it for less than 2 weeks. Not cool, but I guess that's still better than in the middle of freeway.

Towed it to Piercey Toyota in Milpitas, and service advisers there told me it'll be until Monday before they can take a look at it, due to scarcity of EV-qualified guys and overall high load.

I guess I'm getting a firmware upgrade.

 

[4min]

Oh, a thing to note - in my case I was able to move car away from a hard-to-get-to parking spot by driving before system check completed. Once done, it would shut down the engine and power steering, but if you absolutely need to move car a little bit without resetting the error code - that's an option. Just be fast!