The original Toyota RAV4 launched in Australia in 1994 and our reviewers were immediately smitten by the adventurous soft-roader.
Original story by Peter McKay first published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 24 June, 1994
Here comes the RAV4, Australia’s latest automotive fashion statement and one described by Toyota’s marketing brains trust as an Urban Contemporary 4WD
This precocious little tyke with its Coke-bottle styling will prove more popular than a bargain table of half-price Country Road gear.
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A small four-wheel-drive sports car/beach buggy, it’s destined to be snapped up in droves by the top end of the thermonuclear surf-and-sun set, advertising agency types, and habitues of the Double Bay, Neutral Bay and Byron Bay cappuccino strips.
Buyers will be mainly in the 17 to 35 age bracket, and either single or married-with-small-kids. They will earn above-average incomes and up to 40 per cent will be women.
Most will be suntanned, I suggest.
Toyota is also fielding inquiries from rental firms (stand by for an outbreak of RAVs on the Gold and Sunshine coasts), and from public utilities which see the RAV4 as an all-purpose, light-duty, four-wheel-drive vehicle.
Toyota’s extensive country dealer network won’t hurt the RAV’s chances of cracking the rural market in a significant way, either.
The RAV4 is the first entirely new commercial vehicle model series to be launched by Toyota in a decade (the last being the Tarago), and it is designed to suit a myriad of lifestyles and outdoor interests.
It’s a snazzy four-seater passenger carrier that doesn’t baulk at the sight of a stretch of sandy beach or a muddy paddock.
But Toyota does stress that the RAV4 is not a go-anywhere, all-terrain 4WD of the LandCruiser type, but more a passenger leisure vehicle capable of handling sand and mud and moderately rough dirt tracks. Toyota doesn’t recommend owners tackle a trip to the Cape or a Simpson Desert crossing.
For starters, the tyres are a compromise tread, probably closer to bitumen pattern than dirt lugs. And ground clearance, though best in class, is a still modest 210 mm.
With a tendency to understeer, or push the front end, the RAV’s roadholding is consequently not as sharp as a true passenger car.
But there is little body-roll, despite the vehicle’s tall cabin.
This is a vehicle bought by the heart rather than the head, although the head will in all likelihood endorse the purchase because it does have a strong practical side with genuine passenger car levels of ride comfort and features
It is powered by a lively and torquey but surprisingly fuel-efficient 2.0-litre, 16-valve, twin-cam engine from the older Camry and Celica models, upgraded to 96kW and 180Nm.
Transmission choices are the usual five-speed manual and an electronically-controlled four-speed auto with two shift modes.
The three-door RAV4 gets a strong but light car-type monocoque chassis, power-assisted steering, constant four-wheel-drive, all-coil four-wheel suspension, ventilated front brakes (with rear drums), a locking centre differential and a Torsen-type limited-slip rear differential.
The RAV4 hits the showrooms early next month at $28,900, which is a little more than Bolle shades, a Boomerang T-shirt and a pair of Levi 501s. But, according to Toyota’s marketing chief, Bob Miller, the RAV4 pricing marks the start of Toyota’s campaign to refute scurrilous rumours that Japanese cars of the mid-1990s are becoming a tad pricy.
“It’s our yen-buster,” Miller proclaimed in his typically subtle fashion this week.
The RAV4 fills the only logical gap in the Japanese giant’s product line-up, meaning that a great slab of its sales will be the best kind… incremental.
A natural competitor for the Suzuki Vitara and Daihatsu Feroza, the new Toyota will inevitably steal sales from any other vehicles which also scream style and fashion. Small Mazdas and Hondas, for instance. Toyota believes a few 4Runner and Paseo sales will be lost, too.
Options for the recreational runabout are numerous and include airbag and sophisticated anti-skid brakes. There are also a Safety Pack (airbag/ABS) and a Cruiser Pack (alloy wheels, dual removable sunroofs, CD player, power windows and mirrors, and central locking).
Given the youthful buyer profile, there’s also an abundance of accessories – Toyota says the range of add-ons is the most extensive it has ever offered.
While Toyota is still determining the exact cost of its options and accessories, it has indicated that a comfortably equipped RAV4, with air and other must-haves, will retail for about $35,000.
Forecasting RAV4 sales of about 400 a month, Toyota says the vehicle will be its shock weapon in the company retaining leadership in the Australian motor vehicle market this year.
Not that the trend-makers heading into Toyota showrooms will give a rats about that. Peter McKay, June 1994
Was the original 1994 Toyota RAV4 a good SUV?
In a word, yes. The Sydney Morning Herald motoring section (the forerunner to today’s Drive) reviewed the 1994 Toyota RAV4 on 10 September, 1994 and was immediately smitten by the little three-door soft-roader.
Describing it “cheerful” and “cheeky” and with a “cuddly air” in our first-ever review of the Toyota RAV4, was lauded not only for its “look-at-me!” styling but, more importantly for how it performed on – and off – the road.
“I’ve driven both manual and auto versions, with and without ABS brakes, and I have to say the RAV4 is more than a fashion statement,” wrote our reviewer, Bill Tuckey, in 1994. “For me this (or the four-door Impreza 4WD) is the ideal small-medium car. It’s not meant to be a serious off-roader, but it’s still enormously capable, great fun on the sand and able to go anywhere most people will ever ask it to.”
Cabin comfort was also a standout, with particular praise sent to the rear where second-row passengers could easily be accommodated despite the RAV4’s diminutive dimensions. The cargo area and overall build-quality of the cabin, described as “typically neat Toyota”, also came in for high praise.
In calling it the “ideal small car”, our reviewer lauded the RAV4’s ride comfort, detailing its sophisticated independent suspension geometry.
“The suspension is all passenger car, with all-independent double wishbones, gas-filled dampers and coils, plus rack-and-pinion steering,” wrote Tuckey. “Its older rivals have rigid rear axles and ball-and-nut steering, and one has a leaf-sprung rear end,” adding that “the ride quality is excellent for such a short wheelbase, with none of the expected pitching or choppiness, although there is too much tyre noise. The steering is sharp as a tack, and the thing very chuckable and responsive.”
It wasn’t all bouquets, however. While the RAV4’s $28,900 looked good on paper, it remained “dearer than its main rivals, the Daihatsu Feroza and Suzuki Vitara. Anything more than the basic unit costs extra…
“To make this thing habitable it’s going to cost you around $32,000 – still a lot less than a short-wheelbase Nissan Pathfinder or Toyota 4Runner.
“Wind-up windows, manual mirrors and basic noise-maker are fine if you’re into hair-shirts, but I suspect that if the RAV4 is to be used as an urban Mild Max vehicle then most will be ordered with air-con, electric windows, central locking and maybe alloy wheels.”
That didn’t deter us from declaring the new RAV4 a winner on all fronts. And we even boldly predicted that Toyota’s stated aim of 400 sales per month was wildly off.
“Toyota expects to sell more than 400 a month of the RAV4, but I think they have, for once, undershot,” wrote our reviewer. “I can see this thing becoming a cult car with the young buyers for the summer, a ‘must-have’ purchase for young mothers for the idea of two doors, 4WD and passenger-car safety, and as a second or even third car in the suburbs that will be the first to connect to pay-TV.”
What no one could have predicted is the subsequent boom in SUV sales and Australian’s insatiable appetite for the high-riding soft-roaders. Certainly, the 1994 Toyota RAV4 blazed a trail that many have followed, and while it may not have been the first, it was amongst the leaders in setting the automotive landscape over the subsequent four decades. RM
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