My Toyota RAV4 vs Subaru Forester vs Honda CR-V decision

Writing by on Saturday, 21 of August , 2010 at 8:40 pm

I drive a Honda Civic EX which is perfect for my urban-style commute (home, work, gym, errands, visiting friends etc.). My wife needed a new car after her Bimmer got “totaled” (some guy hit it from behind), so I started researching SUVs around $20K. She has pretty much the same commute as I do, but we also wanted to factor in some ski trips we would make to the Lake Tahoe area. We’ve been taking the Bay Area Ski Bus and doing day trips last few seasons which worked out great but another reason we refrained from driving was the lack of a 4WD or AWD vehicle. At least the idea was to not be stuck when there’s a whiteout.

In addition to skiing, we also do a lot of indoor rock climbing at Planet Granite Sunnyvale and make a lot of trips to REI where the majority of the cars you see in the parking lot are Subarus. Great! Major pressure to be “cool”. Sounds similar to the Mac vs PC decision or what? The Subaru has this ultra-cool image of love-the-outdoors. The good thing about Subaru is that they only make AWD vehicles. Simple. With Toyota and Honda there are so many options and so many choices.

To sum it up here were the requirements:

  • Japanese SUV which looks good in White or Black (absolutely no Red, Burgundy, Green or Gray)
  • Under $20K – for a fairly new SUV (no more than a year old) with low miles (under 10K miles)
  • Good gas mileage
  • Reliable, Safe and Good life expectancy
  • Preferably have 4WD, AWD, 4×4
  • Preferably have roof rails with cross bars to mount ski rack etc.
  • Preferably have Leather Seats and Blue Tooth Hands Free Calling

For some reason, my wish list looked like:

  • Choice 1: Subaru Forester Limited
  • Choice 2: Toyota RAV4 Limited V6 4WD
  • Choice 3: Honda CR-V 4WD EX

…until I started test driving them!

  • Choice 1: Subaru Forester – RULED OUT. The Subaru was extremely comfortable and the interior looked great. Easy to drive. But since it wasn’t the powerful XT, the acceleration 0-60 was painfully slow. Worse was the stopping 60-0. When it didn’t stop the way I’d expected, that image I had of the Subaru just crumbled. It was too scary and way too slow for Bay Area driving. Sorry climbers, snow junkies and REI fans! Can’t join the cool-club. I’ll just stick with Linux and Windows.
  • Choice 2: Toyota RAV4 Limited V6 4WD – LOVED IT. I know it’s not a fair comparison – V6 vs I4s. But such a fun car to drive. Comfortable, looks good, sporty feel. Only drawback is the Limited doesn’t have Leather, No Moon-Roof either. You have to pay more for those “features”. What the @#$%? I still don’t know what the Limited offers. My wife seems to like the smart key system. As long as the keys are in your pocket you don’t need to touch they keys (ever!).
  • Choice 3: Honda CR-V 4WD EX – LIKED IT. It just wasn’t as powerful as the V6 RAV4 but very close even being a 4 cylinder. Very comfortable, spacious etc. I really liked it, but it seemed pricey. The optional accessories like roof rack and cross bars etc. would quickly add up. It would be a lot harder to stay under budget.

Next step was car hunting and trying to negotiate deals. The problem buying a relatively new Subaru Forester is that nobody is selling them! It has such a niche clientele. Only the dealers carry them and they have high mileage on them. Now, I have been ripped off by a car dealer once already and I wasn’t going to fall into that trap again, so I was cautious when negotiating Subaru deals. Since the Subaru Forester was RULED OUT already, only an exceptional deal – $17K (Out The Door) would have made me buy it.

I found a couple of Honda CR-Vs on CraigsList, but wifey didn’t like the colors.

Finally we saw this White 2009 Toyota RAV4 Limited V6 4WD with only 4500 miles on it but it was in Lodi, CA (two and a half hours away) on the way to Lake Tahoe. So I wrote to the owner and a couple of calls later, we bought it the following weekend! This one even has the 3rd row seat which is not the most comfortable, but hey, I’m not going to climb in there – so who cares? =) This one even has the new car smell.

I personally think that all these SUVs are really great but it all boils down to what you really need and what price you’re willing to pay. If your requirements are similar to mine, then I believe you should be able to satisfy most of them and still strike a deal for under $20K. There are lot of other websites like Edmunds etc. (even YouTube) that will provide more helpful information and tech specs for your research but IMO the RAV4 V6 4WD will not disappoint!

The RAV4 has been very good so far. I need to take it up the mountains and drive it in whiteout conditions to see how it performs but the next project is finding a good in dash Navi/BlueTooth system.

Choices were:

  • Kenwood DNX 6160 from Fry’s
  • Kenwood DNX 7160
  • Factory Fit Chinese Stereos from eBay

Just installed Kenwood DNX 6160… Stay tuned for the review!

2009 Toyota Rav4

Comments (2)

Category: Reviews

2 Comments

Comment by JJ

Made Saturday, 4 of September , 2010 at 11:52 am

WAIT TILL THE GAS PEDAL STICKS AND YOU GO FLYING OFF THE SIDE OF A MOUNTAIN. HONDA CR-V EX 4WD FOREVER. LOVE IT. 78,000 MILES ON FACTORY INSTALLED EVERYTHING INCLUDING BRAKES AND FIRESTONE DESTINATION LE TIRES (BALANCED AND ROTATED EVERY 7500 MILES) AND ANNUAL FRONT END ALIGNMENT. 25 MPG CITY 32 MPG HIGHWAY AND THIS VEHICLE RUNS LIKE A SWISS WATCH. HAS NEVER SKIPPED A BEAT IN FOUR YEARS.

Comment by Sandra Baxter

Made Thursday, 21 of October , 2010 at 10:29 pm

If i want to write about Toyota RAV4 review, it is a perfect family hauler! The most affordable SUV in its class, the quality of interior material used is superior quality, the braking and controls are perfect, the electric steering is great, seating arrangement is very practical with an additional inclusion of third row seats! My ideal car :-)

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Shivdev Kalambi's Blog

Shivdev Kalambi is a Software Development Manager, previously a Principal Software Engineer at ArcSight/HP. With over 16 years' experience in software development, he's worked on several technologies and played different roles and contributed to all phases of projects. Non-tech activies include Ping-pong, Rock Climbing and Yoga at PG, Golf, Skiing, Swimming & a beer enthusiast.