Not Worth Raving About

>>When I saw the test vehicle in my driveway, I thought there’d been a mistake. This large gray sport utility wasn’t the 2009 Toyota RAV4 the delivery company said I would receive. It was too big to be Toyota’s compact sport utility.

Wrong.

Like so many other vehicle models, the RAV4 has gotten bigger over the past decade.

For 2009, Toyota offers three RAV4 models—base, sport and limited models. The base model gets a new four-cylinder engine that generates a respectable 179 horsepower (up from 166 last year) and a four-speed automatic transmission. The Sport offers a V6 with 269 horsepower and a five-speed automatic. The Limited model offers a choice between the two engines.

Standard safety features are plentiful, including antilock brakes, skid control, traction control, side curtain airbags and front-seat mounted side airbags. The exterior of the 2009 RAV4 has been "freshened," in Toyota’s words, but the interior has enjoyed a nice upgrade. Our sport model had charcoal leather seats that gave it a luxury-vehicle feel. Of course, the bottom line on the window sticker read $30,369, so we had every right to expect luxury. It included such items as a navigation system (no voice control), rear-view camera, power everything and a superb sound system.

On the road, the RAV4 handled well. Gone is the imprecise steering I remember from models years ago. And the rpm drops to a low level at interstate speeds, helping the V6 to return 27 miles per gallon on the highway (19 in the city).

But putting 269 horsepower to the front wheels was not a good move. Under full acceleration, the RAV4 experiences severe torque steer, the tendency of a front-wheel-drive vehicle to move left or right.

The rear camera display proved troublesome, as well. The view from the camera becomes a matchbook-sized image to the extreme left of the rear view mirror.