Toyota

The address of this page was a stock listing on a used-car dealer site that no longer exists. The stock is gone; what follows is a reference to the marque itself — what you will meet on the UK used market, and what is worth checking. Nothing here is offered for sale.

Toyota’s UK used market is dominated by full hybrids — the badge is usually a trailing h, as in VVT-h — in which a petrol engine and electric motors work together and the battery is charged by the car rather than from the mains. On four-wheel-drive hybrid models the rear axle is driven by its own electric motor.

The hybrid battery warranty, and why the service record is the warranty

Toyota’s hybrid battery and components carry a manufacturer warranty defined in years and miles. The part that matters on a used car is what happens afterwards: cover can be extended year by year, up to a cap measured from first registration, by having a hybrid health check carried out at an authorised dealer, with each check adding a further period.

That makes the service record decisive in a way it is not on a conventional car. An unbroken run of hybrid health checks may mean the battery is still covered; a missed year may mean it is not. Ask to see them.

The faults that do occur

Toyota ranks near the top of manufacturer reliability rankings and the RAV4 has taken class honours as a used large SUV, but no model is fault-free. Reviewers of the RAV4 flag a coolant bypass valve that can fail and cause overheating, corrosion and failure of the high-voltage cable running to the rear electric motor on four-wheel-drive versions, and the usual population of ignition coils, water pumps and air-conditioning compressors.

Driving a hybrid on a viewing

There is no conventional gearchange to assess. What you are testing is the transition between electric and engine power — smooth, without hesitation, and without unusual noise under load — and that the car will run on electric power at low speed.