Toyota RAV4 review - Reliability & safety

Toyota RAV4 reliability

The RAV4 placed an impressive fourth out of the top 50 cars in our Driver Power survey in 2024, which is a big improvement on its 30th-place in 2023. It scored well across the board, coming near the top in categories like economy and running costs, along with interior, comfort  

Toyota is a solid performer in our Driver Power customer satisfaction survey, with the brand coming in 12th place out of 32 manufacturers overall in the 2023 edition, and improving to eight place in our latest results. Just over 18% of owners reported a fault in the first year of having their Toyota, which is around average. 

Owners were also impressed by their Toyota’s running costs, practicality, interior and hybrid powertrains, but ranked infotainment near the bottom of the table for usability and features.

Safety

The RAV4 was awarded the full five stars by Euro NCAP after safety testing in the spring of 2019. That was thanks in part to an upgrade to the second generation of Toyota Safety Sense for the latest model, a suite of technology that includes autonomous emergency braking that can detect pedestrians during the day or night, and cyclists in daylight. Its adaptive cruise control has been tweaked for smoother acceleration and deceleration in traffic, bringing the car to a halt when necessary.

There's also technology to make long-distance driving safer, particularly on the motorway. This includes blind-spot monitoring and a lane departure system that can help steer the car within its lane.