Hi all.
My wife and I just bought a new 2014 Rav4 LE AWD one week ago. We have driven it 250 miles and we realize that the ride is too firm and it’s making my wife and son car sick and I don’t find the seat comfortable at all (During test drives I assumed the seat would get more comfortable as I got used to it). We should have bought the Venza.
I’m wondering what everyone thinks my best options are. I’m guessing I should sell the car ASAP before we put more miles on it to minimize the loss and buy a Venza. Is there any point in going to the dealer to trade up or will our loss be too great?
Run back to the dealer ASAP with out putting any more miles on the car. RAVs sell like hot cakes and Venzas sell very slowly so you may not loose much by trading… We went to replace my wife’s RAV and found the new one too hard riding also for our old fat astoroids and bought a Venza which is much nicer. But, be prepared. Even though you may not loose much, the Venza is still more expensive…but go NOW. You might be very surprised especially if there is another perspective RAV buyer on the lot.
But, don’t just buy the first Venza either. Take it out over a couple of days to be sure with everyone riding in the car at the same time. You are going up in price and the dealer may want to keep you as a repeat customer…and help you out.
Concur w/above, stop driving this car and contact the dealer immediately. They should have no trouble selling it for close to the price it would sell new. Likewise, they should want to keep you as a customer and be willing to do some kind of trade to one of the cars on their lot you like better. Not sure what a Venza is, but if you want the best ride, stick to a four-door sedan style like a Corolla, Camry, or Avalon. If the selling dealership for some reason won’t cooperate, contact other Toyota dealerships in the area and see what they can do for you. Still a no-go? Contact Toyota directly.
The most important thing at this point is to not put any more miles on this car until this issue is resolved.
In 2005 I made exactly the same mistake you made. I had to trade a brand new Corolla after only two months. It cost me $2500 in depreciation. I mentally “wrote it off” to a health care cost and never regretted it. My health is far more important than a lousy $2500.
This time, make sure you test drive the bejezus out of whatever you’re considering.
First step, see what the total $$ would be from the dealer to go for the Venza. I’d also get a bid from CarMax for the Rav4, see how that compares to what the dealer is offering for the Rav4.
We all make mistakes, better to have something you like for years to come. Now you know not to expect the seats to ‘break in’. If it doesn’t feel right, don’t buy it.
All car shoppers should be aware that the “cool” looking 17,18, 20" wheels popular on todays new cars make the car ride like a truck…Many of these cars still have 15 and 16" wheel options which greatly improve the ride…
On a given car, lower aspect ratio tires will ride more firmly. But on different cars that come equipped with different aspect ratio tires the assumption cannot be made that the lower aspect ratio will ride more harshly. My Corolla had 70 aspect ration tires on 16" wheels, yet my tC, the same year made by the same company and of a comparable size and weight, but a totally different design, uses 45 aspect ratios on a 17" wheel, yet the ride is much, much better.
And I would guess, probably correctly, that a Caddy with low profile tires rides better than a Fiat 500 with higher profile tires.
There’s far more involved in the ride of a vehicle than the aspect ratio. And the ratio itself is only a relationship to the tire’s section width, which varies widely among different cars. The only way to know if a ride is acceptable is to ignore the tires and take lots of long test drives.
I agree with @same
The aspect ratio when read alone is deceptive. The cushin effect of the tire is enhanced by the additional sidewall width assuming the the sidewall stiffness is constant. The aspect ratio times the tire width gives the approximate sidewall width. So, just saying a 55 tire ratio rides stiffer then a 65 or 70 may not be true. If the tire is 245mm wide, then .55 times the width yields a 5.3 inch sidewall width on 19 inch rims. Comparing that to .65 times 205 on 17 inch rims for example would give you 5.2 inches. So the lower profile tire on bigger rims gives you more cushin and much more air between the rim and road surface, theoretically resulting in a softer ride. The summer rims on a Venza is 245/55/19. The sidewall depth of 5.3 inches is less then the winter rims 5.8 inches with 245/60/18 tires. Really, not a huge difference and both are a good compromise between handling and ride.
I was very poor as a child. So, when I became an adult, I was very frugal. Always looking to save, not a dollar, but every possible cent.
Over the years, I learned that in the end it doesn’t matter that much. As someone pointed out, your health, mental or physical, isn’t worth $2500 or whatever amount.
Also, we are going to make mistakes in life. No one avoids that. I judge the cost of all mistakes I make by comparing it to my first marriage. That was one hummer of a horrid mistake. So far 41 years later, I have made no other mistakes whose cost even rises above the ground level in comparison.
As long as a mistake isn’t the worst mistake i ever made, I don’t lose much sleep about it.
So, don’t beat yourself up. Do your best on getting another car, then take any loss as just the standard cost of living and let it go.
How does that song go? Don’t worry; be happy. It’s only a car, and it’s only money
And if you end up with a car you love (fingers crossed) the money will be soon forgotten. The Venza is a very soft-riding vehicle, and if that’s what your family prefers, they should be happy with it. It is basically a Camry wagon, so if you like the ride of a Camry or Avalon, the Venza should feel similar. I like a slightly firmer ride, but I do like the Venza a lot. It’s very comfortable, roomy, and just feels like a nice car. Plus, I like station wagons, based on nostalgia for my childhood and the big Ford wagons we owned. With those, all six of us could go anywhere, from camping in the mountains, to month-long cross-country vacations.
Getting on a plane and arriving in Boston six hours later is not the same, though it is magic, too. I miss all the in-between parts, and it saddens me that I’m unlikely to ever see most of them again (my health has caused me to cancel vacation trips the last two years.) At least, courtesy of Google, when I am reading a book I can pull out my tablet and see what a place looks like. That’s pretty amazing, too.
We bought a new 1985 Ford Tempo that my wife didn’t really like. It was reliable, had no real problems, but just wasn’t a good fit for us. Usually I drive a car way past the 150,000 mile mark. However, on one trip, my wife said “Do we really have to keep this car until it falls apart?” The car was three years old and we had about 36,000 miles on the odometer. When we got back from that vacation, we traded it for a 1988 Taurus. I’ve learned to buy a car that fits our needs.
I don’t know what Ford did so badly wrong, but almost nobody liked the Tempo. Many of the complaints were that it was cramped, which probably came from it being built on a modified Escort platform. That’s why the headlights looked too close together, because most of the front end was shared with the Escort.
Tire construction is a big factor also. Stiff sidewalls. Load rating. I had identical blizzaks on my heavy sedan and could really notice a softer ride. Plus, some tire sizes are very limited in choices. About 300 to choose from in 215/70/15 size and 4 choices in 255/45/19 size. It is ironic though, friend has new mustang 302 seca model with 19" tires. And there is a snow tire for it. About $330 each though. Not good for summer use.
@irlandes
I hear you. I had a good friend who after his third divorce and moving out of his third house, was lamenting how much it had cost him and how poor he was getting . I reminded him how expensive changing houses and wives were and he should just but new cars instead. He then, remarried his third wife, stayed with her for the next twenty years and bought a new car every three. Just before he past away, he reminded me of our conversation and indeed admitted, cars are " relatively" cheap…compared to houses and divorces.
@MarkM: I miss all the in-between parts, and it saddens me that I’m unlikely to ever see most of them again.
I do understand that. The first 300,000 miles or so after I retired were much like that. While I prefer to live in another society, for personal and political reasons, the US has to be one of the most physical interesting nations easily available to us. In one day you can go from the Rio Grande Valley well into bayou country. I really like that 18 mile bridge on I-10 in Louisiana.
And, though I will never go again, I really enjoyed seeing rural Maine the time we went.
My dad always had registered Holsteins, and on the way to Maine, we drove right by the national office of the Holstein magazine. But, it was not office hours.
But, even the most interesting things eventually become b-o-r-i-n-g. And, so the US highway trips are that way for me, now.
Yes, but at least you got the chance to drive by the Holstein offices. And a lot more. Unfortunately, I’m sure I’d not be as entertained by the long drives as I was at 12 or 20, but I sure wish I could be, and I’m fairly easily entertained, so who knows? The western part of the country has no truly dull roads (OK, I5 down the San Joaquin Valley is deadly once you’ve done it a time or two.) I haven’t been to Utah, Colorado or New Mexico in close to fifteen years, and even longer for the Pacific Northwest. Those are places I love and they’re only a couple of days away. But I kept putting return visits off and maybe it’s too late now. At least you’re being realistic about your limits, Irlandes. I respect that and know it isn’t easy to make those decisions. Anyhow, for those who can still make the trips, don’t put them off too long. You never know when you’ll find car trips just aren’t possible, and many incredible places can’t be seen any other way.
Thanks for all your help everybody. I took the car back to the dealer and they were accommodating. Unfortunately they didn’t have anything in stock we want. So we’re just going to sell it. I posted a question about using Escrow.com to handle the money transfer. Anybody have any experience with them?