Do you drive around with 3 grown men in the vehicle all of the time?
No, I don't normally drive around with 3 grown men in the vehicle. Certainly not "all of the time."
But sometimes I do. Heck, sometimes there's even four of us.
Just by having 3 men in the 4-cylinder 4.3 RAV4 during my test drive, some of which was going up a normal freeway entrance ramp from an underpass under dry, daylight (read: ideal) conditions, more than proved to me that the 4-cylinder version didn't have enough power for its weight plus even moderate occupancy to be able to be operated in what I considered to be a manner that was safe enough.
It can be hard enough to merge with traffic even when you do have enough power to achieve the same speed as existing traffic.
But not having enough power to get to traffic speed makes it worse, or at the very least more complicated and thus more dangerous, for everyone in the vicinity.
A loaded vehicle always drives differently than a lightly loaded one and it is up to the driver to operate it safely.
Agreed. Although if you've got it floored (as I did) and still can't keep up, what could the driver possibly do to operate it more safely? (Heh...toss someone out? ;-) )
That's why I'm thankful my test drive was under more-than-minimal load conditions, and they weren't
much more than minimal and were by no means extreme.
It taught me what I needed to know in order avoid picking a vehicle that was clearly underpowered. I belived the 4-cylinder 4.3 RAV4 was borderline dangerously underpowered, at least under some very reasonable conditions. Toyota puts the same basic engine power in other vehicles, but I think at least most (all?) of those vehicles are significantly lighter than the RAV4.
It was (is) unacceptable to me to purchase a vehicle that even, say, 10% of the time would put my safety and the safety of my passengers and even strangers (other drivers) at higher risk due to lack of power to perform adequately on the road.
Maybe the new 6-speed transmission in the 2013 RAV4 4-cylinder will greatly improve that situation. And maybe the 2013 model will be noticeably lighter than the 4.3's, too.
I'd sure love to know what the 0-60 mph time in the 4-cylinder 4.4 is, particularly compared to the 4-cylinder 4.3. It would at least be indicative of improvement, which is what I'm hoping for, and expecting.