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Prices Paid: Buying & Leasing Experiences Toyota RAV4 Prices Paid and Buying Experience
3148 messages, Last post on Dec 01, 2009 at 11:43 AM
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I received a message from a couple of the dealers I am checking for prices, saying that the Base Rav4 with Third Row Seats is not available anywhere in the St. Louis area. Can anybody comment if that is true, and why that might be? Without the third row seat option the CR-V looks like a better value than the RAV4. Thank for your help. Darien
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Replying to: darien1 (May 26, 2009 11:48 pm) Hypothetically, 3rd row seats are offered on the base RAV4, I doubt that any dealers actually stock this configuration, however.
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Replying to: gf2020 (May 27, 2009 12:05 pm) My question is if the dealer is saying the truth about the option not being delivered to any dealer within 6 hours driving distance of St. Louis. If so, WHY is that? Paying extra $900 for the flexibility of having 2 extra seats is a selling point for me. IF I can't find the RAV4 with 3rd row seats, the CRV is a much better value by maybe 1.5K and higher safety ratings, better seats, better interior, better wiplash neck protection. Besides the fact that it is a piece of cake to get a Honda dealer to go down to close to Edmunds Invoice while it has proved annoyingly hard and time consuming to get a Toyota dealer to go down within thousands of invoice. They actually start by quoting prices above MSRP and then "pretend" to go down 1K or so. I am starting to think the cockiness others complained about with Toyota is not an imagined trait. I want to buy even today, but it is proving impossible to get straight answers. If you have the money why can you get the car and options you want? Darien
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Replying to: darien1 (May 27, 2009 12:23 pm) Toyota always have low inventories (probably by design). I am not sure if your dealer is telling you the truth or not but it is possible that you won't fine 3rd row configuration in your state. I am speaking by experience, I was looking for black LTD RAV4 with backup camera and i could not find single one in my state. I found one in different state (5 hours away). Not only that dealers told me "it's a regional thing". I emailed Toyota and their response was your local dealer should be able to get the config you want provided it is available at other dealers or available in production (if you are willing to wait). But the fact is dealers are more interested in selling what they have, they have little interest in getting what you want. Although Toyota did said they can force the dealer to get what you want but I didn't do that because in that i will not get the price i wanted. so it's a catch 22. Another thing, I did saw one RAV4 with 3rd row seat at one of the dealer, believe me you don't want that. It had about 2 inches between 2nd and 3rd row seat. You could only put little kids and they won't even have any room to move. If you really needs 3rd row seat, I would recommend getting different SUV. I would disagree about CRV. Personally I didn't like CR-V interior, it has less power, less MPG, more road noise, Does not feel solid like RAV4, Consumer Reports has RAV4 as the best in the class. Hope this helps.
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Replying to: funguy123 (May 27, 2009 3:42 pm) http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/rankings/Affordable-Compact-SUV- s/grid/overall/ are the same only because they say the RAV4 has better exterior design which I beg to disagree. I don't really care much how they look, but side by side the RAV is the uglier of the two. Gas and power I think they are tied 1MPG is not much difference, and power is kind of relative since according to all reviews the CRV is the peppier of the two (better utilization of power?) Thanks about the comment of road noise, I will have to go and test it both in 4 cylinders, 4WD to see how they do. I agree that is very important, a long noisy ride can be very annoying. About the 3 row seating, I am single. I want a small SUV because of the flexibility and practicality. I only like the 2 extra seats because they stow away. Else, I wouldn't want driving 2 extra empty seats 98% of the time. But when you need to drive extra friends for a short trip. The extra flexibility is well worth paying ~$800 for, IMO. Darien |
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I disagree with Darien. I've driven both the 4cyl Rav and CR-V on several occasions. The issue isn't horsepower or peppiness...its torque. The CR-V feels like a Civic. The Rav-4 feels like a raised Camry. CR-V has more road noise, less power (with lower mileage?). Read the James Healy review in USA Today. He sums it up best. Think about it, if the CR-V has less hp (or is atleast noticeably slower than the RAV4) then it shouldn't get less mileage at all. His observation was that it needs either 15% more power or 15% more fuel economy. I agree with him. As for the interior, the Honda feels more refined but only when you are sitting still. Drive it and the engine feels a bit like a sewing machine. Cute for grocery moms but I can't imagine any grown man feeling comfortable in it. As for looks, the Honda has a better coat of paint and is more stylish with the hidden wheel but it comes at a cost of less interior cargo space. Either way, looks are personal preference. I guess the argument goes back and forth but the Rav4(even with the 4spd) still has more usable power (for merging, etc.) than the CR-V with better fuel economy to boot! Good luck with your purchase.
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I too had a hard time deciding between the RAV4 and CR-V. I can't even remember what exactly was the deciding factor now, but I ended up getting the CR-V. I think it had to do with the consistent quality of Honda in Consumer Reports and Toyota's inconsistency lately, plus the monopoly that Southeast Toyota dealers have on this region that pretty much force you to pay $800 for their advertising no matter which state you buy your new Toyota in and the fact that it seemed like it took a lot of expensive options to get the Toyota the way I wanted (no spare tire on the back, sunroof, etc.) that upped the price of them even more and of course, the fact that Toyota, like Honda, knows people want their products so they don't have to try hard to offer incentives or lower prices (being an Apple user, I'm used to this, but I still don't like it). In the end, they are both great vehicles and I don't think you could go wrong getting either one.
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Replying to: johnray (May 30, 2009 5:32 pm)
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Replying to: taxlawyer (May 30, 2009 4:50 pm) It's simple.. RAV4: More Power, More MPG CR-V: Less Power, Less MPG Unless you are all about looks... |
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I'm in the process to buy the RAV4 2009 6 cylinders, leather seats, mirror bk cam, 6 disc cd, ipod interface. So far, I have received one offer of $28,980. I would like to know if someone has bought the same car recently and how much paid. Any help or comment will be appreciate it. |
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