Literally few days after posting this, someone ran a red light and t boned me in my new to me Rendezvous. So now I'm looking to buy my first Toyota. I've always been a gm person and its getting harder to find well-maintained gm cars made before 2008.
I've learned to do my own car repairs, so having said that, are the 2013-2018 Rav4 easy to work on? I'm looking at the non hybrid, fwd 6 speed. I've looked up videos how to change the atf, water pump, alternator and seems fairly easy. Any special tools specific to toyotas i should buy?
What other reliable Toyotas that are straightforward for diy repairs and reliable?
Ouch! Did you get hit by a bus? I guess any one you can walk away from without serious injury is a win. Since this is a completely different topic it's been split off and linked your previous topic where referenced in your post.
Basic DIY repairs on RAV4s and Toyotas are like most other vehicles on the road today. For general maintenance you need a good set of metric tools, a decent scan tool and access to a service manuals, which can be found at https://lemon-manuals.la/Toyota/Any special tools specific to toyotas i should buy?
You should be aware that 2013-2015 RAV4s are prone to transmission shudder due to faulty torque converters from the factory. If looking at one from those years I'd want to see proof that Toyota fixed the problem. Link to the TSB is below:
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2015/MC-10111559-9999.pdf
A Toyota dealer should be able to look up whether the work was performed via the VIN.
I can't address how easy or difficult those vehicles are to work on as I have never owned a Toyota and the only one I've worked on was a friend's 1969 Toyota Corona many years ago. (That car was easy to work on but my experience with it is not applicable to modern models.) The list of tools that @hixster suggested is a good place to start in terms of what you'll need. You might also want to take a look at the maintenance section of the site FAQ.
And, of course, you need to have a good mechanic thoroughly check out any used vehicle before purchase. (As many have found out the hard way, after purchase is too late.)