Say Mon

 Waw.. quite a disaster as you said. Hope it's all gonna be over for you soon !

After all the reading I think I'm gonna consider other 4wd because I don't want to get stuck with the idea that this issue may or may not happen (I'm aware i coud always face other problems with other cars but at least I won't feel stressed whenever I'll be driving).

You probably have a lot to do atm but if you have some spare time, i would really appreciate some assistance as I don't know much about all this.

Again, thanks for your replies and all the best.

11 minutes ago, jb1411 said:

Hi Simon

I would recommend you get in writing any/all  representations made . There have been so many Toyota RAV4's with this problem its not funny!

Maybe take the car somewhere to get the computer checked - a reading might show up problems you should know about

That's actually a really good idea, I'll probably have the car checked. Haven't tried to drive the car yet but I guess if the problem is already there, I will feel it pretty quickly right ?

11 minutes ago, jb1411 said:

It seems to me that once the computer goes, the transmission is not far behind - even with a new computer.

Someone suggested replacing the fuel filter on my car to see if that helps make it go faster up hill..haven't done it yet as a Merc smashed into it last November!!!!

Ow.. sorry to hear that. You got insurance for that ?

Hello, 

My name is Simon and I arrived in Australia a month ago. I was about to buy a rav4 edge 2002 with 190ks in Perth, when I read all this.

So now obviously I'm thinking about finding another car, but I have a few questions before that, because I was quite interested with this one. 

This car would come with a one year warranty which apparently should cover the ecu/transmission problems.

I'm only in Oz for a year or two and need a car to drive long distances, in the bush and everything and I'm looking for a proper car to do that (as many, we're probably gonna do a road trip at some point). 

I haven't checked in the book if the ecu got changed yet, but even so, do you think the problem could happen again with a new ecu? 

I don't know a lot about cars and I clearly won't be able to pay this amount if the problems were to happen after this 1st year of use.

Do you have any recommendations ? I'm a bit lost here.

Thanks a lot for your help.