Toyota Rav 4: I really like my car and will never buy another Toyota

We purchased a new 2010 Rav 4 V6 AWD after we got rid of our 10 year old Chevy Tahoe.  We needed something to tow a pop-up camper and take us to where the snowboards roam free.  The car has great pickup, sticks to the ground in bad weather, has good rear storage, good power outlets and tows our pop-up with ease.  It is seems like a more stable tow vehicle than our Tahoe was with less bobbing and tail wagging.  The only thing missing is a trailer brake controller. The roof rack is easier to get to for the snowboards and it gets a lot better MPG when running up to the PA mountains 1 to 2 days per week.  (We do miss the space of the old beast though. It was the car we did a lot of family trips in.)

We put 56,000 miles on the Rav 4 in 3 years.

Ridiculous Problems

• Rear Brakes: The rear disk brakes lightly seize every night there is moisture in the air. You hear a dragging sound in the rear when backing out of the driveway. This is followed by a large clunk when the car starts moving forward.  I believe this is when the rear brakes release or brake lose. It has done this from day one.  The dealership says this is normal.  We've owned over 20 cars and never had this experience before.
• Radio: The radio turns itself off when you press certain buttons. It does this almost all the time. The Rav 4 forums indicate this is a fairly common problem.  How is it possible that the number 1 auto company puts a radio in the car that only lasts 3 years.  
• We replaced the battery with one from Advance Auto.  The radio started working after that. The buttons that used to erroneously turn off the radio now work correctly.  Well, it mostly works.  The seek buttons no longer work.
• Battery: The battery is down to 25% capacity at the 3 year point.  It works right now but a Rav4 with electric steering is not a vehicle you want to have an unreliable battery in.  The Rav 4 forums again show that batteries are a problem.  Our Honda Civic has a 100,000 mile battery in it that just now needs replacing after 6 years and 120,000 miles.
• Pay attention when they say the battery is at 25%.  We got stuck somewhere.  The battery was dead enough that we needed one of those big jumper boxes they have on tow trucks.  A regular passenger car wouldn't do it.
• Door Paint: Our driver door has at least 12 chips out of the edge.  Some of them are at places on the door where it is almost impossible to have hit something else. We can't tell if it is the seat belt or something else that bumped the door edge. The end result is a chip out of the door ever 1-2 inches from top to bottom.  We don't baby our cars but have never had more than 2-3 chips in the edge even after 5-6 years.

Generally Bad Design

• Rear Seat Belts:  The rear center seat belt anchors to the seat inside the anchor points of one of the side seat belts.  This means that the anchor point is under one of the cheeks of the person sitting in that location.  The only good news is that you get to see the incredulous look on people's faces when they see how the seat belts are configured.  Toyota engineers should be forced to spend 8 hours a week in the back seat of the vehicle.
• Front Seat Support: The lower back of the driver's seats in the base model have a negative curve where you back sinks into the seat.  The seats tilt too far back pressure on thights. We currently own an Accord a Civic and a CR/V.  Our previous cars were a Ford F150, an Outback, a Miata, a Tahoe, and the rolling living room known as the Town and Country.  All were base models and all had more comfortable seats.   The Toyota seat makes my wife's legs go numb at the one hour point.  I'm not sure what size person these seats are made for.  My wife and I are almost a foot different in height from each other.
• Rear Windshield Door and Wiper:  This one is more of an annoyance because it shows that Toyota didn't think through some changes when designing a car that supported both right hand and left side drivers. The 2010 rear door is obviously made for countries where cars park on the left hand side of the rode.  It opens to the right blocking access to the curb when parked on the right hand side of the road.  The rear windshield wiper clears the window on the side you don't care about leaving the bigger passenger side blind spot covered with dirt and water.  One can only assume that this is a result of some cost savings effort.
• Custom Radio Face: The radio has a custom face that makes third party replacement more costly.  We never had to replace a radio until this one.  Our Hondas have custom faces also but the radios never seem fail at least not in any of the 10 Hondas we've owned. Automakers should stay away from custom radio faces.

Crazy Dealer Costs

Our local dealer is generally pretty good.  We don't know if our replacement costs are high because of Toyota's price structure, because of our dealer pricing or because my wife normally takes the car in for sevice.

• Battery $300:  The dealer told us that our battery was only 25% capacity at the last service.  This is almost exactly 3 years into ownership.  We were just quoted $300 to replace the batter in the vehicle with the OEM equivalent.  This is crazy money.
• We replaced it with one from Advanced Auto.
• Tires $1200 + installation:  They are near bald at 56,000 miles. That is way a lot longer lifetime than we get with Honda OEM tiers.  We're looking at replacing the Yokahama Geolanders with the same thing. The dealer quoted $1200 +for 4 tires plus installation.  That is over $300 per tire +fees from the dealership.  The same tires at Mr Tire are $800 including installation. 
• We got get highly rated Michelin tire at Mr Tire for $680 installed.     

Postlog

This will probably be our last Toyota even though the car is a great size for driving around town and a perfect fit for our lifestyle. 

We're not used to having to having these kinds of problems other than with our Dodge/Chrysler minivans.  One of those died at 80,000 miles with the dreaded "dealer says you should dump this now" engine knock.