I only have a few thousand dollars for a vehicle and I was happy to find a Toyota Rav 4 for sale at $2500 by the owner. I live in a remote area so I have to drive 4hrs to pick it up but I want to know if it's worth it. It is automatic, 152 thousand miles but it does not run and has been sitting for almost a year. The owner says the ECM needs to be replaced. If I can turn the key three times and just reset it that would be great but others are saying it's still not worth it. What do you think?
Thank you from Washington
Don't even think about buying one. 2002 Rav4's had notoriously weak automatic transmissions and in your case, the one you found does not run and it sat for almost a year. $2500 is way too much and I wouldn't even pay $1000 for that thing. I would look for an upper model year Rav4 since they eventually fixed the troublesome transmissions after 2004.
also consider watching these videos.
from my understanding Toyota’s of that time and mileage usually end up requiring a water pump, timing belt replacement and valve cover gasket job etc. I would recommend going on carfax and looking up similar car and their service records. Cars of the same make and model usually behave more or less the same.
Absolutely not. You would be buying a $2500 boat anchor.
