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The TRD Off-Road, like the Adventure and Limited flavors of RAV4, uses clutches in its rear diff for a torque-vectoring effect, and you can feel it working, adding agility in the slop.
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So it goes for the RAV4, which digs in its Falkens and hounds the Rubicon around the wallow, even playfully hanging out its tail. In mud, as with sand, you want to go aggressive from the start. Now let's see how you handle some muddin'. When I stop to inspect the front end, I expect to see a yard sale of underbody trim in my wake. Now, I'm not confusing the twee Toyota with a Chevy Colorado ZR2, but it actually handles some wheels-up action with reasonable aplomb once I remove the Styrofoam-encased jack that's crashing around under the rear floor.
#Toyota rav4 2004 off road full#
But go a little faster and the suspension starts running out of travel, until the front end is cycling through max droop and full compression as the chin spoiler detonates showers of sand across the front end. Drive at maybe 8 mph and you settle into a jaunty bounce, trotting across the ruts. The undulations vary in both wavelength and amplitude. Let's test those red springs, twin-tube dampers, and TRD bump stops. Or at least that's how the guy at the carwash sees them: both too hard core for his suburban operation.įirst up, some light calisthenics: the Baja rhythm section. Splash enough mud on a Wrangler and a RAV4 and you can hardly tell them apart.
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Can a faux off-roader's performance remotely match the promise of its attitude? Or will you end up on an unscheduled hike, contemplating man's hubris, the trees disturbed only by the force of your profanity? We grabbed a Toyota RAV4 and decided to find out. Just get in the Kia Sportage and don't harsh my mood board, Chet.īut let's say you wanted-or needed-to make the cosplay real and steer your family crossover into a mud bog, a sand pit, or a pond. Suspension of disbelief allows millions of Americans to buy the cars they really need dressed as the trucks they think they want. And sure, we all know that's how it got there, but that's okay. Then the director yells, "Cut!" and everyone climbs into the helicopter that airlifted the ute to this spot. Ah! Now this is why you bought one with all-wheel drive: adventure.
#Toyota rav4 2004 off road driver#
A small crossover pulls up to the summit and its driver steps out and inhales the crisp mountain air. Imagine a rugged trail leading to a wind-swept mountaintop. From the June 2020 issue of Car and Driver.