Headed to the Toyota dealership..appreciate your feedback!

[Ileanafg]

Hi everyone:
My husband and I are headed to the Toyota dealership this afternoon to lease a Rav ev. We have been very happy with our Prius models over the years and thought the Rav ev, being Toyota, would also be a reliable car. We own a Tesla and have been very happy with it, so we thought that the Rav would have the best of both worlds however as I read through these posts I am hesitant and feel that perhaps I need to do more research before getting this car.
Any comments/feedback/suggestions will be very much appreciated
Thanks much
Ileana

 

[user 340]

The RAV4 EV is a very low production volume car, unlike the Prius or even the Tesla. It has great performance, but its engineering is a little rough around the edges: occasional charge timer bugs, a bit of a mishmash of parts (charge port where the gas fill used to be, Prius shifter). A few RAV4 EVs (maybe 5%) have had significant problems (check the EV System Error Screen of Death thread) that have taken 2 days to several weeks to straighten out. Hopefully those problems will be reduced in frequency and the dealers/Tesla will be able to fix them faster now that they have some experience.

On the plus side, its power and range are unbeaten by any other EV except the Tesla, and it has a large amount of space inside for people and cargo. I've been quite happy with mine and have taken good advantage of these unique features.

For the RAV4, EV means "experimental vehicle" as well as electric vehicle. Are you comfortable with a car that is a bit experimental?

 

[Ampster]

I love my car even though I have been inconvenienced by the bug mentioned above.

 

[David Grigg]

I just leased a White Rav4ev 2013 for the lease special w unlimited miles at Hayward Toyota on Mission. My salesmen was Lamaine Willams with Phone: (510) 889-8000. He was really easy to deal with and gave a very fair deal despite no additional purchase incentive this month. The experience with entire dealership was no nonsense and very straight forward. I recommend Lamaine highly. The car was really fun to drive home. Only 3 days of the lease special left. Good luck

 

[Ileanafg]

Thanks much for the feedback! We went to Irvine Autonation (thanks anyway David) since we have purchased and lease all of our Prius cars there. This time we settled on a pearl white model. Transaction was fast (well, as fast as these things go :0) ) we got a standard discount of $15,400, they were not sure about whether we get the 7,500 ourselves or if Toyota does.
The car drove great on the way home. Now this morning as we charged the car Tim heard some strange clicking noises and I believe he has reported the problem in detail to this forum. This isn't something we had heard in the Tesla or in the electric Focus we had. I was open to the idea that we would have to work through the kinks but not right off the gate. I hope that it is normal, otherwise here goes our first trip to the dealer

 

[eplantz]

I got my RAV4 EV a week ago. I was surprised by the noises it makes in the garage when charging. I'm used to a Volt which is much quieter.

The noises sound like pumps and also some "groaning" noises. Nothing excessive or noticeable outside the garage, just surprising. I'm guessing this is normal stuff.

It even makes noises when I open the drivers door.

 

[madcow]

My car makes all kinds of noises when it is charging, mostly clicks and the sound of the cooling pumps running. I've gotten used to it and from reading the forums, it sounds like most people have the same experience. I believe that it is also normal for the car to make some noises when you open the driver's door. I think it's some kind of pump preparing the car to be driven, maybe like a brake assist or steering assist pump or something.

 

[Dianne]

tick and clicks.
That's odd.
Mine warbles and wheezes.. and chirps Backstreet Boys songs! I caught it trying to harmonize with Dave and Hillary from Lady Antebellum yesterday.
:lol:

No these do make unusual sounds... even PHEVs do too.