Am I about to make a huge mistake?
Hey, gang. I recently negotiated and decided to buy a practically mint condition 2010 Toyota RAV4 AWD that's out on the west coast, and was just about to send them a cashier's check when I noticed something...the car is modified to be towed behind an RV; there's a tow bar mounted on the front of the car.
Having no experiencing with a car that's been used as a toad, I started googling, and found out that Toyota unequivocally does not recommend using this particular make/model car for this purpose. Same same found on the RAV4 forum. But used it was, and for more than a few trips, apparently.
I'm nowhere near the seller, so I sent a trusted friend of mine who knows cars to kick the tires and take it for a test drive. He gave it a glowing review, so my question to you: With all the DIRE warnings about flat towing an automatic AWD RAV4 of this generation, would any damage have shown up on a test drive? Or are the differentials and/or transfer cases just filled with chunks of metal and shavings now, waiting to ruin my entire day down the road? Taking it to a dealer for an inspection is problematic, as I would rather not inconvenience my friend that much, but I suppose it's an option. Assuming the seller would agree...it's a seller's market for used cars these days, as we all know, and they might just tell me to pound salt.
I'm going to reach out to the seller this afternoon after I hear back from you guys, so I'm armed with proper information. They're an older retired couple who've been RV'ing, but sold their RV and now don't need their RAV anymore, they say. They SEEM like honest folk, from what we can determine...
Having no experiencing with a car that's been used as a toad, I started googling, and found out that Toyota unequivocally does not recommend using this particular make/model car for this purpose. Same same found on the RAV4 forum. But used it was, and for more than a few trips, apparently.
I'm nowhere near the seller, so I sent a trusted friend of mine who knows cars to kick the tires and take it for a test drive. He gave it a glowing review, so my question to you: With all the DIRE warnings about flat towing an automatic AWD RAV4 of this generation, would any damage have shown up on a test drive? Or are the differentials and/or transfer cases just filled with chunks of metal and shavings now, waiting to ruin my entire day down the road? Taking it to a dealer for an inspection is problematic, as I would rather not inconvenience my friend that much, but I suppose it's an option. Assuming the seller would agree...it's a seller's market for used cars these days, as we all know, and they might just tell me to pound salt.
I'm going to reach out to the seller this afternoon after I hear back from you guys, so I'm armed with proper information. They're an older retired couple who've been RV'ing, but sold their RV and now don't need their RAV anymore, they say. They SEEM like honest folk, from what we can determine...
