My wife and I loved the exterior. It is colour sensitive - it looks small in the dark colours, but large in white. There are two shades of white, the pearl looks better. The interior is very attractive. The front is terrific. The GXL offers a lot. But only the Cruiser has the electric front seats, and the power tailgate. But not much else besides the "leather" seats. We did not sit in the Cruiser. The central over bin arm rest is reasonably high, and it slides forward, so a left arm driver's arm rest is viable. The rear seat was a not as good as I had expected. The GXL's seats felt somewhat shallow and hence too firm under my bum (numb bum perhaps in an our or too). No air outlet from between the seats - rear people will need air directed from the central front vents, which are quite powerful, and their air flow is controllable, plus their direction can be turned through a very wide arc. The rear side windows are quite small, which would save weight and reduce light, and add to a secure feeling. I think a good design. The rear tyre situation is bazaar. If you want a full tyre, rather than the run-flt spare, you pay $300, and they put in a full tyre and allow wheel, and a different floor that hinges over the top of the wheel, and they never deliver the run flat tyre or the flat rear floor. The full tyre equipped vehicle's floor, sticks up about 120mm into the floor in the centre of the floor, hence the floor is no longer flat, its raised above the tyre, sort of like a hill that rises and then is cut off at the top. It hinges revealing lots of space around an in the wheel. But you loose width wise spaces for the rear sun blind, and for a twin alloy pole thing which has a cord carrier arrangement for rear passengers to lean backwards and put things in. For my wife, that would end up in the garage if we took the full tyre. And we would ... Handllng was good, and the vehicle quiet. Adjustable steering / sports mode was not much different. You can feel the road in the wheel, unlike many others in this category. The diesel situation is ridiculous. Toyota won't permit more than 500/550 kg braked towing. Our old Camry will tow 1600kg. A Yaris will tow more. So, Toyota doesn't want you to tow anything in your diesel RAV. I guess therefor, that the transmissions and the motor, have major cooling limitations. Meanwhile, a Mazda CX-5 diesel will tow 1800g braked. The auto diesel we tested, was OK, but not involving. The transmission was a bit like a V6 Camry's of a few years ago - relaxed in its attitude. It did not feel like a 6 speed ... I do not know why - I guess we need to drive it for longer. The vehicle was rolled off the showroom floor, so it probably had 8km on it ... its somewhat lethargic performance was likely due to it being brand new. But ... the diesel engine has quite a narrow power band. So, it takes a bit to get it "going" ie get to about 2000 RPM, and then it doesn't rev out that much. It feels long lasting, buy very relaxed. Unlike some others in this market. My concern with the auto diesel, is that next year, Toyota will update the model with a 2 tonne towing limit, and hence the current diesel will devalue quite a bit. I think its very poor that Toyota cannot sell to Australians a diesel RAV with the towing capacity of a Yaris, let alone a Camry's, and an expensive engine option that has only one third of the entry level two litre petrol's towing capacity.
