Car blogs

It isn’t often I have the chance to come to the defense of a car over a design element many nitpicking critics repeatedly criticize as wrong-headed — not to mention potentially dangerous. We’re referring to the right-hinged rear door on the Toyota RAV4. Many say this configuration makes sense in places like Australia and the U.K., where people drive...




It isn’t often I have the chance to come to the defense of a car over a design element many nitpicking critics repeatedly criticize as wrong-headed — not to mention potentially dangerous. We’re referring to the right-hinged rear door on the Toyota RAV4. Many say this configuration makes sense in places like Australia and the U.K., where people drive (and therefore curb park) on the left. When they go to load stuff in back, no problem — the door opens to the right. But in the United States, where we load from the curb on the right-hand side of the street, the rear right-hinged door requires us to actually move stuff around the door before it can be stowed in the cargo area.

Photo by James Gaffney/The Times-Picayune

Still others claim — and without a shred of data to back it up — that these right-hinged rear doors (at least in North America) are potential safety hazards.



I spent a week with the RAV4 and loaded and unloaded camera gear all week long without once feeling inconvenienced by the rear door (in fact, I prefer them to top-hinged hatchbacks) or feeling that my safety was in peril.



Equally important, do we remember the precise moment we became a nation of wimps? Better make sure the Snuggies you’re wearing are packed with bubble wrap just in case the sky falls.



All-around player

If critics and consumers agree on one thing, it’s that the 2011 RAV4 continues Toyota’s tradition of delivering one of the most highly agreeable, spacious and comfortable, durable and road-worthy SUVs on the market today. In fact, editors at Consumer Reports recently gave this reliable and fuel-efficient, family-friendly pack mule top marks as the Best Small SUV — for the fourth time in the past five years.



Photo by James Gaffney/The Times-Picayune

“This really matters,” Kevin Freedman, retail development manager at Gulf States Toyota in Houston, said of the positive publicity. “Consumers are researching cars more than they ever have.”



Keep in mind Toyota virtually invented the compact crossover segment — effectively combining SUV design sensibilities with family station-wagon pragmatism — when the RAV4 was introduced in Europe and Japan in 1994. U.S. sales began two years later. Many credit Toyota as the automaker that “launched a thousand CUVs,” because between then and now the market has become so competitive that the RAV4 is no longer the only hot crossover on the catwalk. Nowadays the RAV4 can count as serious rivals the Honda CR-V, Chevy Equinox, GMC Terrain, Subaru Forester and Kia Sorento, all of which have taken to heart Toyota’s challenge to the rest of the automotive world. While other models may offer this or that advantage over Toyota’s premier crossover, the consensus is the RAV4 hits all the notes by being among the best and most versatile all-around players on the field.



Case in point: the top trim-level Limited tester I drove featured an optional, flip-up third-row bench seat, albeit big enough just for small kids but still kicking the total passenger capacity from five to seven. When the 60/40-split rear folding second row is folded down (which can be done without removing the headrests), the total cargo space balloons to a segment-leading 73 cubic feet. Thus, with the RAV4 Limited, you can take the kids and their friends to soccer practice by day and roadie for your favorite cover band by night.

Photo by James Gaffney/The Times-Picayune

Under the hood is a 2.5-liter four-cylinder powerplant pumping out 179 horsepower and 172 pound-feet of torque, mated to a four-speed automatic transmission. Despite the absenc

Tags: Toyota, is-featured

---

RAV-worthy: Is 'the best small SUV' really all that? was originally published by New Orleans Auto Reviews: Toyota. Read the full story by clicking here.