The first-generation Toyota RAV4 was a game-changer when it was launched in 1994: arguably the first of the SUV/crossover breed as we know it today, a vehicle that looked like an off-roader but was designed mainly to be driven on-road.
It was pretty wacky in its original production form: a high-riding three door with lots of plastic cladding. But that’s positively staid compared with the true original, Toyota’s RAV Four (note that’s “Four” the word, not the number) concept for the 1989 Tokyo Motor Show.
It sat on the stand alongside the Sera gullwing (which went into production and was later a common sight on Kiwi roads as a used import) and 4500 GT super-coupe, so we’re already talking about a Toyota trio of epic weirdness.
If a Suzuki Samurai crashed into a Honda City, you might get the RAV Four. According to Toyota at the time, it was a “neo-urban 4WD car designed to the active lifestyles of young city dwellers”. Could have been written yesterday.
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Toyota first came up with the idea of a compact on-road off-roader in the mid-1980s and the RAV Four was the first publicly shown fruit of this genre-bending thinking. Ha ha, who would really want a vehicle that looked like an SUV but had very limited 4x4 abilities? With three decades of hindsight, everybody.
After going a bit wild with the RAV Four, Toyota toned down and mainstreamed the concept considerably for the debut of the production RAV4 at the 1993 Tokyo Motor Show. Sensible given the incredible success of the model and its evolution into today’s family five-door, but it’s a shame we never got the chance to buy the one with the offset grille, “EMERGENCY ONLY” winch and room for a dirt bike inside. There’s still time, Toyota.
