MILES BETTER

Don't fear ahigh-mileage RAV4: it’s built to go the distance

- JOHN EVANS

If a high mileage anything above 100,000 in 10 years - is a good indicator of a car's I quality, then the fourth-generation Toyota RAV4 (2013-18) is an SUV you can buy with confidence. At least 55 listed on one popular website can claim this distinction at the time of writing. In fact, more than 120,000 miles is not unusual and, over far fewer years, some have chalked up the kinds of mileages commonly associated with former Prius cabs.

Naturally, most of these high milers are diesels, split evenly between the 122bhp 2.0 D-4D, which was replaced in 2015 by a BMW unit producing 143bhp, and the 148bhp 2.2 D-4D, which was dropped during the same year.

But there's also a handful of 149bhp 2.0 V-Matic petrols and, perhaps less surprisingly, a solid number of 194bhp 2.5 VVT-h hybrid petrols, a version that was also launched in 2015. At the time, our testers reckoned this 2.5 VVT-h, which has a CVT gearbox, was the best all-rounder, praising its performance, refinement, mid-range torque and responsive gearbox. It sold well such that today there are around as many used ones as there are used diesels.