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The 2014 Toyota RAV4 range of configurations is currently priced from $8,800.
Our most recent review of the 2014 Toyota RAV4 resulted in a score of 8 out of 10 for that particular example.
Carsguide Contributing Journalist Ewan Kennedy had this to say at the time:
You can read the full review here.
This is what Ewan Kennedy liked most about this particular version of the Toyota RAV4: Dirt road ready, Practical, Roomy
The 2014 Toyota RAV4 carries a braked towing capacity of up to 800 Kg, but check to ensure this applies to the configuration you're considering.
While it’s much less common to see a leaking rear main seal these days, it’s certainly not unheard of and definitely not an impossibility. While ever cars have seals and gaskets, they can fail, even if it’s not a common occurrence.
The rear main oil seal is the one located at the rear of the engine and is designed to allow the crankshaft to spin inside the engine without leaking oil through the rear main bearing to the outside world. When this seal wears or becomes hard with age and heat cycles, oil can get past it and that’s when you’ll start to find oily patches on the driveway under the car.
This seal is sandwiched between the engine and gearbox, so it’s quite a bit of work to separate those two components to gain access to the seal and replace it. It can easily be one of those $5 parts that costs $1500 to replace.
But before you commit to this, you need to make absolutely sure the rear main seal is the culprit. The best way to do that is to thoroughly clean the engine to remove any oil and then take it for a drive where it gets fully up to temperature. From there, you should be able to see where the oil is coming from and whether that place is the rear main seal. It might take a couple of journeys before the oil leak starts to show up again.
Don’t be surprised if the leak actually turns out to be from some external plumbing or even a seal or gasket at the back of the engine near the top, where the oil is escaping, running down the back of the engine and appearing to come from the rear main seal. Oil leaks can be tricky little devils, so take the time to diagnose the source carefully or you may find you’re replacing a seal that is perfectly fine. At which point you’ll have spent your money and still have an oil leak.
You have a CVT transmission. Take it to a Toyota dealer, or an automatic transmission specialist and have them assess the transmission. It could be that it needs to be serviced.
Either one would do the job, but I would choose the Forester over the RAV4, it’s a better all round all-wheel drive that should serve your son well.
The Toyota RAV4 2014 prices range from $8,910 for the basic trim level SUV GX (2WD) to $20,570 for the top of the range SUV Cruiser (4x4).