We found a used Toyota rav4 with 33000 miles on it at a dealership.  It looked new inside and out. There’s no way they could have cleaned the engine compartment to the degree that it was.  Absolutely mint looking, crawling  underneath the vehicle was the same.  We bought it keeping in mind all the glowing Toyota fans.  This we thought would last us the rest of our lives and be a safe and dependable replacement of our Buick.

We drove it less than 700 miles and it left us stranded.  The water pump went out.  Over $1000 to replace it. I found others had experienced the same problem.

 Reading complaints at https://www.nhtsa.gov/vehicle/2019/TOYOTA/RAV4/SUV/AWD  I discovered that the coolant by pass valve is defective as it comes from the factory.  Multiple complaints about it and Toyota doesn’t offer a recall, meaning $800 to $1000 to replace it with another defective one.

I don’t recall any of the online experts who recommend Toyota’s as being bullet proof, long lasting vehicles mentioning the multitude of complaints regarding some pretty expensive repairs after not too many miles.

Two things stand out, repairs at a dealership are expensive and you can keep anything a long time if you keep putting parts in it.