 I owned this car for 3 years till someone rear-ended me and totaled it. Let me elaborate: I got hit by someone going 45-50mph, the back end of the car was completely smashed in, and I ended up hitting the car in front of me as well, bending the hood/fender a little bit. Despite this, I walked away with a little bump on my head. If that isn't a testimony to this car's safety, I don't know what is. I loved this car. It wasn't fancy, and I bought it used from a private party so there were some quirks to deal with: back door handle jammed sometimes, passenger side power window didn't always go up, and after a while the cruise control became finicky. But other than that, it's a solid and reliable car with an engine that will run forever. You can load this car up, too...we put bikes on top, camping gear in the back, and still had room for 4 people comfortably. Acceleration is a little slow but what can you expect out of an SUV with 4cyl. I bought it with 196k miles on it, and in 3 years put over 60k on it and only had minor repairs. (Other than replace the timing belt, which was overdue when we bought it.) The only major annoyance was the brakes, they worked great but screeched and squealed in colder weather. Only when the car was cold, after it warmed up they were fine. I took it to my mechanic and he said it was because of the back drums getting full of dirt and debris; they vacuumed it out but to no avail. But other than that, I really enjoyed my RAV4.