This car checks nearly all the boxes for a great first car. Mine has seen periods of being absolutely babied and periods of being absolutely thrashed and stays strong through both. This was my first car I've had since I was 15, and now I'm 17 and I still absolutely love this thing. It's probably one of the most practical cars you can buy in the US, the seats fold down, it has plenty of space, and overall tons of quality of life features, and it does all this while being very compact, I've parked next to some of the newer Mini coopers to find out they're about the same size. Great for people who love the outdoors since it comes with 4wd, but even my fwd model can hold its own on the dirt, mine is 150k miles going strong with absolutely ZERO issues. The car is amazingly easy to drive yet not at the sacrifice of fun, as you'll be surprised to see how quick it can move as it shares an engine with a Scion sports coupe. While the interior shows it's age, if you're like me and don't want an ipad as your center console it's quite nice, but even for the time it was rather just on par, as this isn't a luxury vehicle by any means. The stiffness of the suspension will also reflect that as it can be a little bit of a rough ride at times. But despite those issues, this car do about it all and I'm proud to say I will own this car for a whole lot of time to come.

I'm a first owner of a 2004 Toyota rav4, almost 19 yr old and 176000 odo in it. I can't praise this car enough, this car is nothing but good to me all this years. This car has never failed on me, betrayed me or leave me behind.Like other people have mentioned it's going to be very very hard to part from it. My car has a soul . Even after hurricane ian, when the car got flooded, my car is still running strong. When the insurance company came out and checked it out they totaled my car.i Remember calling my husband crying and telling him , how the insurance will take my car away because it's totaled. So I told him, no matter what they will offer me, that car is going nowhere. Just thinking about , how they would take my car to the junk yard and press it flat, no I don't think so! So there you go, that's how much I love my Toyota rav4.

The only negative I have to say about our 2004 RAV4 FWD is that it will be extremely difficult to replace if that time ever comes. It is as close to the perfect vehicle you can get for driving on Oahu because it is so compact with a high driving position for visibility. RAVs are not the same since they enlarged them in 2006. The 2004 is well thought out with lots of cubbyholes for storage plus folding and removable rear seats. The a/c still works fine, which is important here. The accelerator is a bit touchy but it has surprising get up and go. The white pearl finish still looks brilliant after 19 years (garaged) and the seat upholstery has held up quite well. The design is timeless so it could pass as a much newer vehicle. My wife thinks it rides a little rough over the broken pavement that is common here. No surprise with the short wheelbase and sprung for AWD. But it's fine for me and I value the ground clearance. I am 6-3 and fit well. Lots of headroom and the driver's seat adjusts enough for me to find a comfortable position. I would not want to drive it for many hours at a time but that is another reason it works so well in Hawaii. Our car has been completely reliable with and exceptionally low cost of ownership. I will keep singing the praises of this car. There is nothing out there today that is quite like it.