Toyota RAV4

Our record puts the RAV4's UK sales period at since 1994. That range is the useful starting point, because everything about the cost of running one turns on where a particular example sits inside it. It came in one body style here, SUV, with 4 fuel types: petrol, diesel, petrol hybrid and plug-in hybrid.

The RAV4 was on sale on both sides of the road tax change of 1 April 2017, and that is the single most useful thing to know before you buy one. An example first registered up to 31 March 2017 is taxed on its CO2 figure under the lettered bands, so engine, gearbox and even wheel size can move two cars of the same year into different bands. One registered from 1 April 2017 pays the flat standard rate instead and its CO2 stops mattering. Two otherwise identical cars a year apart can cost noticeably different amounts to keep taxed, and only the V5C tells you which one you are looking at. The earliest ones predate 1 March 2001, and anything registered before that date is taxed on engine size in two bands rather than on CO2 at all. There is also a quirk worth knowing on the oldest examples: a car registered before 23 March 2006 cannot be charged above band K however high its emissions, so a thirsty old one can be cheaper to tax than a newer car a class below it.

For running costs the fuel matters more than the badge. On the diesels the emissions section is where a neglected car loses its certificate: the particulate filter is inspected and the smoke reading is measured against a limit, and a filter that has never had a long run to clear itself will not pass on a good intention. A plug-in hybrid still takes the full emissions test on its engine, so ask when that engine last did a long run rather than a series of short electric trips. Four wheel drive versions carry more driveline than the two wheel drive ones. Driveshaft boots, propshaft joints and the extra bushes are all inspected, and they are the items that turn a cheap purchase into an expensive first year.

None of that is a substitute for the record of the actual car. The invoices name what was replaced, when and at what mileage, and the same job appearing twice in three years says more about a RAV4 than any statistic about the model ever could. A mileage that goes backwards across a paperwork trail is worth walking away from whatever the badge is.

Toyota began importing to Britain in 1965 and has built cars at Burnaston in Derbyshire since 1992, where the Corolla is assembled with engines from Deeside. It sold the first mainstream hybrid here in 2000 and hybrid now accounts for most of what it registers. Used Yaris and Auris hybrids are common in city private hire work, and their battery packs have proved far more durable than early buyers feared. That is context on the marque rather than on this car, and there is more of it, along with every other model line, on the Toyota page.