How many people have had zero problems with their Rav EV?

[jimbo69ny]

Rav4 EV Owners List - NEW ENTRY

Some of you have probably seen my name around this forum a lot lately. I know I have been posting a lot but I'm just trying to learn all I can before I take the plunge.

I keep reading all these threads that talk about issues their car is having and what they are going through with dealers and its discouraging. They make me nervous to invest so much money, ship the car across the country (I live in central NY), and hope nothing happens. Its amazing to me that Toyota is stonewalling out of state owners, even the ones that purchase their vehicle used. Toyota really hates this car don't they....

So lets talk about the problem free cars that are out there. Please tell us/me about your Rav. Has it been trouble free ownership? How many miles are on it? Does anyone have a guess as to what percentage Rav's have had issues and how many have been perfectly fine?


Edited 9/23/14: I have since taken the plunge. The car arrived 2 days ago and I love it! I also added a link to the owners survey. Please take it!! You can read about the owners list by going here.
http://www.myrav4ev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1300

 

[tjka4231]

I had my 2013 RAV4 EV since October 2013 and is now at 9600 miles. So far it has been problem free. I look forward to driving it everyday. It's the best vehicle I ever had.

 

[DevinL]

Passed 6500 miles yesterday. Had the car since March of this year. No trouble so far even with a road trip to Utah.

 

[Dsinned]

I suspect, "troublefree" owners are in the majority. But, even 5 or 10% of owners having "difficulties" are way more than should be. In truth, my 2012 purchased in November 2012 with just over 7000 miles on it, has been reliable. It has never needed a tow and I'd have to say, most of the Toyota dealer service requirements, were "elective". If I had never taken the car in for any service at all, it probably would be just as reliable. However, I've had the infamous "Check EV System" error fault message once, which cleared up on its own, but ultimately resulted in having the Gateway ECU replaced under warranty. I'm not sure that really "fixed" anything, and all that may have caused that to happen was some kind of "glitch" in the electronics.

Knowing now, what I didn't know then when I bought it, would I buy a new RAV EV again? The answer is YES! :mrgreen:

 

[smkettner]

No real issues yet at 5600 miles and five months.
Gearbox noise is my only concern. Some days it seems a bit much, others I hardly notice. Time will tell.
Be sure to take an extended test drive on that used purchase.
Maybe spend a few days in CA to verify no service is needed.

 

[rav4buyer]

19K+ miles on it in less than a year. Zero problems.

 

[mark_rivers19]

Let me start by saying this,

Most of the people who go into car forums to post are either
1. car enthusiast or
2. finding a solution to a problem or answer to a question ( too lazy to read the manual)
and the rest of the owners are trouble free. You rarely find a post like, drove my car today and everything is fine.

anyway, my 2013 RAV4EV which we took delivery Aug 2013 have 21,400 miles with no major problems.
Firmware was updated and cabin air filter was replaced at 15,000 ( Not part of Toyota care)

i can't claim ZERO problem ( is there really such a thing?) because the charging port door get stuck every once in a while especially after a car wash.
it's an annoyance but compared to everything else, the RAV4 runs great!

 

[user 340]

I've had my 2013 RAV4 EV since June 1, 2013 (14 mo)
5800 mi (I usually ride my bike or fly to work)
0 problems except a flat tire.

 

[miimura]

I love the car, but I cannot say I've had zero problems.

I have never had a "Check EV System" error or any other fault that made my car undriveable in 15 months and 12,000 miles with the car. However, it has occasionally given me scary sounding error messages like "Charging Stopped Due to System Malfunction". That has happened probably nearly a dozen times, but it only actually stopped or prevented charging once or twice. It's mostly just an irritant and no error codes were stored in the computers. The other irritating thing is that my car keeps getting kicked out of the Entune EV Apps. It has happened a few more times that I have not discussed in that thread. Percy at Toyota has been helping me with this and there seems to be more than one cause and I seem to be the only one who is having this problem. Again, not a show stopper, just irritating because I have to log back into MyEntune.com and re-enter my SafetyConnect Contract ID each time it happens.

 

[Incredulocious]

You rarely find a post like, drove my car today and everything is fine.

Drove my RAV4 EV today and everything is fine!

No, really! 8200-ish trouble-free miles since October 2013. Yes, I would do it again! It's a great EV, worth the risk of potential Toyota/Tesla service issues, but then that's easy to say since I'm in California. If I were outside of California, I suspect I wouldn't be able to resist the temptation to grab one up anyway!

That said, I fully expect to sell it once a small (not Tesla Model S/X), all electric hatchback with 250+ miles range (and hopefully all wheel drive) becomes available from somebody.

 

[Luckyduckie]

Another "I love this car even with all the problems I've had!".

Only other car that I've ever loved as much was my old Fiat Spyder convertible ( also blue ) ... Now that car had PROBLEMS!!! But so fun to drive I can't wait till they come out with an affordable convertible EV.

 

[fooljoe]

Like others I can't say I've had "zero problems", but I don't feel like anything was major in the ~20k miles I've driven my 2012 so far. I had the "Check EV System" error light that was fixed with a software update, but it didn't make the car undriveable or anything like that. I recently had the "gearbox noise" that led to a drive unit replacement, but again it's something that was only a minor annoyance, and if I weren't an avid forum user I probably would've never even realized that I could get a new motor out of it. Had a flat tire which was annoying, but that doesn't really count.

To me the biggest issue with the car, which most likely will never be fixed by Toyota and almost prevented me from buying the car in the first place, is the lack of a reliable charge timer. But thankfully I was able to make an app for that! :mrgreen:

 

[jspearman]

I've thought a couple times that I was having problems, but they were driver error, except for the charging timer. So far, no issues, and I'm glad since I don't want to flatbed the car to Palm Springs for repair. Keeping fingers crossed until we can get Model S. 22k mi so far.

 

[jimbo69ny]

Thank you all so much for your responses! It's really good to hear such positive comments!

I think I may have found one but I'm still working out the details. I'll be assuming the person's lease. It's a 2013 with 27k. It's a lot of miles for a year of driving but the motor has already been replaced and I'm hoping buying this car with a few miles means the kinks have already been worked out. It's coming from a very reputable person whom many of you know. I feel pretty good about it. I did find another one, a 2012 with 7k for $31.500 but it was a Trac car for a dealer with a very early vin. Seems a lot riskier.

 

[locman]

Zero problem, zero error messages. 27k mi in 16 months.
I don't use timer. Still on original firmware.
I think I have slight gear/motor noise, but not sure.
I'm not going to worry about for now since I'm Planning to buy extended warranty 6yr/125kmi.

 

[ekcanzano]

I have had my 2013 RAV4EV since October 2013 and have 9,800 miles on it now. I have had no problems. Additionally, I have been driving a 2012 RAV4EV for work since August 2013.

On the 2012, I did have one problem. After a long sweeping right turn on a freeway interchange, a warning screen came on and the car went into "turtle mode." I traveled about six miles and exited the freeway. When I got to a safe area to stop, I turned the car off. It would not restart for about 30-45 minutes. Then, it just started and operated normally. My employer took the car to the dealer to have it checked out. The dealer found no problems but did do a software upgrade. I have had NO problems since then (since September 2013).

The RAV4EV is the best car I have ever owned! I have had several Toyotas and this car is absolutely as reliable as all my other extremely reliable Toyota vehicles.

Good luck on your purchase in New York.

 

[jspearman]

I forgot to mention, I'm also on the original firmware. Even if I could easily get the update, I probably wouldn't. I'm in the, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," camp at this point.

 

[doug401]

Zero problems, 16K miles, out of state, original firmware

 

[mikegerard]

I have not had any problems that required service.

Just hit 19k.

I think I'm developing the engine hum problem but it's still pretty mild and no louder than the gas version of the Rav4 in the "loud" speed range. If I do need service for that it will probably be a pain in the butt. I would buy another one if I could get the same out of state deal as last time.

Mike

 

[hendry98]

0 problem for me as well. close to 16k in 11 months. Plenty of wish list (L3 etc) but car work for daily commute and weekend road trip around bay area.