Yours is the RAV4 that plugs in. Say so before it is priced.
Two Toyotas wear the RAV4 name here and only one of them takes a plug. Yours is that one, and it spends its life being written down as the other.
So we establish which car we are talking about before anybody puts a figure on it, and the gear that came with it is counted as part of the sale.
- Plug in hybrid
- Australia wide
- Finance settled directly
4.9/5 from 500+ sellers across The Car Buyers group
Which RAV4
One word apart on paper, and not the same car at all
The name your car shares with another one is the reason it keeps getting assessed as something it is not, usually by somebody who never asked.
It happens in small ways and they add up. Somebody writes down RAV4 Hybrid because that is the version they were expecting to hear. A form offers one RAV4 and you choose the closest thing to yours because there is nothing else to choose. A person on the phone hears the nameplate, stops listening at the point where the two are still identical, and prices the car they already had in their head. None of it is done to you on purpose. It just means the figure that comes back belongs to a vehicle that is not sitting in your driveway.
If reading that has made you wonder which one you actually have, go and look at the back of the car, and then at the registration paper. There is no shame in not knowing, and it takes a minute. If it turns out yours is the one that never gets plugged in, then the RAV4 Hybrid page is the one written for your car and the questions on it are the right questions to be asked. Nothing is lost by having been on the wrong page for a moment.
What actually turns on the name is the equipment. A car that plugs in came with charging gear, and there may be a box on a wall at home as well, and every bit of that is worth something in a sale. Somebody who has written down the wrong car never asks about any of it, so none of it goes into the figure, and gear that was never in the figure is gear that leaves with the car for nothing. That is the cost of being priced as the other RAV4, and it is the easiest one in the world to avoid. Say which car it is, then say what came with it.
Naming it first
Five questions that settle which RAV4 this is
None of this is a test of how much you know about your own car. It is how the figure ends up being about the one you actually own.
- What does the badge on the back actually say?
- Go out and read it if you are not sure. Plenty of owners have never had a reason to. Tell us the words that are on the car rather than the category you think they belong to, because the words are what we work from and the category is where this goes wrong.
- What does the registration paper call it?
- That is the second answer and it is the one that ends up on a contract. If the paper and the badge do not seem to agree, tell us both and we will work out which is which. It is quick to settle before a sale and slow to settle in the middle of one.
- What was handed over with it when you bought it?
- Some owners were given a bag of equipment on the day and some were given the keys and nothing else. Both happen and neither one is a problem. Tell us what you actually have, because what is there is priced with the car and what is gone is better said now than found on the day.
- Is there a box on the wall at home, and is it yours?
- Some belong to the person, some came with the house, and some are the landlord's. We do not assume any of them. If yours is coming off the wall with the car then it is counted, and if it is staying where it is then that is a complete answer and nobody will push you on it.
- Has anybody quoted it, and did they say hybrid or did they say plug in?
- It is worth remembering which word they used. If the figure was worked out against the other car it was never a figure for this one, so there is nothing there to argue about. You start again with the right name and at least the number is about your vehicle.
Once it is named
Three things that follow from getting the name right
- The car gets named before it gets priced. Nobody here puts a figure on a RAV4 without establishing which of the two is in front of them, because a number worked out for the other one was never a number for yours.
- The charging equipment is valued with the car. What is in the boot and what is coming off the wall are both part of what is being bought, so they go into the offer rather than travelling out of your house for free.
- If it turns out to be the other one, nothing is wasted. We buy that car as well and the call carries straight on. The questions change, nothing else does, and the page written for it is linked above.
Before the call
Three questions from owners of the one that plugs in
I am not certain which one I have. Can you work it out from the paperwork?
Usually, yes. Read us what is on the registration paper and what is written on the back of the car and we will sort it out with you on the call. Nobody expects an owner to be across the difference between two badges that are one word apart.
Some of the gear went missing years ago. Does that ruin it?
No. Tell us what you have and what you do not and it is simply part of the picture before anybody comes out. What costs a seller money is gear that was never mentioned, because that is the gear that quietly leaves with the car.
Is this one harder to sell than the other RAV4?
That is not how it works here. We buy both, and the only thing that changes between them is which questions get asked before a figure exists. A car described accurately can be priced accurately, and that is the whole of it.
Tell us which RAV4 it is and what came in the boot with it.
Or call us on 03 9000 0075 and talk it through first.