What is Chinese Toyota RAV4 made of? Full Disassembly!

There are not many vehicles in the world that are better known or more loved than Toyota RAV4. And today we are following Klubnyi Service Moscow and the one and only Ilya, our host here, who is going to disassemble this China-made Toyota RAV4. The premise here is the fact that Japanese-made Toyota RAV4s or even European-made Toyota RAV4s, people got to love and know them as some of the most reliable, best resellable vehicles. But these China-made ones, they kind of immediately raise a little bit of a concern and assumption that perhaps maybe the quality is a bit lower or perhaps maybe they cut some corners there or use some very peculiar engineering solutions that they use in Chinese brands quite often, as we've seen on this channel, as I've translated for you in the past. So this is a very interesting disassembly. It's not purely a disassembly, but it's a comparison to classic Japan-made RAV4s. Japan versus China. Has RAV4 quality decreased? And before you start listening to me translate this for you further, here is homework for you. Here is my ask for you. Go into the comments below and tell me, do you drive a RAV4? And if you do, do you know for sure where is your RAV4 assembled? You bought it in South Africa, you bought it in Russia, you bought it in Australia, but do you know is your RAV4 coming from a Japanese factory or from a factory in China? Is yours a Chinese RAV4 or a Japanese RAV4? This is my ask for you. And without any further ado, let's hear about our sponsors and then immediately jump into the translation of this very interesting disassembly. This video is sponsored by the old friends of this channel, AutoCast. AutoCast are very well established on the market, manufacturers of wireless Android Auto and wireless Apple CarPlay, AI boxes, which is basically a wireless adapter for your car. AutoCast is one of the major biggest brands that are offering massive discounts to my community to check out. For a change, they start this review with the underbelly of this RAV4 rather than commenting on the interior, as it usually happens. Ilya says straight away that the first striking difference between a Japanese-made RAV4 and this China-made one imported into Russia are these plastic protective screens that have replaced what used to be, and I'm filling in the blanks here as Ilya is not elaborating on this point. I assume that the screens used to be made of metal, and here they are plastic. He thinks that it's a result of Toyota as a company shifting towards a creation of a more energy-efficient hybrid and EV vehicle line. Plastic screen is more subtle, aerodynamic, and lighter, which might be contributing to this RAV4 being more suitable for the modern day and age. Who knows? At least that's Ilya's theory. They'll come back to looking at the underbelly of this car in a few minutes, but for now, they've put this RAV4 on the ground and went ahead to fully dismantle its interior. Looking at the doors, same old and to be expected keyless entries here. Tube-based bar reinforcement from the side collisions in both rear and front doors. Ilya mentions that quality of the metal was kind of a question mark for him, and that's one thing that's sort of to be expected when comparing your generic Japanese vehicle with a China-made vehicle these days. I'm sure you have to agree. But then he says that he actually didn't notice any substantial difference in assembly or the quality of that metal, I suppose, of this Chinese RAV4 as the body panels of Japanese ones are just as thin as the ones that he seems to think are being used here with the mix of aluminum-like alloy that doesn't respond to magnetic pen test and the actual steel sheets. So no real change here. Looking inside, this RAV4 has structural reinforcement bar that's placed lengthwise along the body of the vehicle, which also serves as the base for the seats to be bolted on. And our host here once again points out that this structural solution is time-proven and has not changed between China-made RAV4s and any others. So what is different then, you will ask me? Well, firstly, the multimedia unit here and the screen are much newer, more modern, and larger than on European and Japan-made RAV4s, which in this case is safe to conclude that it's a welcome improvement of this model. Panoramic sunroof is another obvious difference as the models of RAV4 previously available for purchase in Russia and in many other places of the world. By default, they are coming without a sunroof. They used to be assembled either in some of the European plants or in Japanese plants. While the Chinese models definitely have these sunroofs by default because apparently in China, they love their sunroofs. But Ilya rightly points out here that it's not purely China versus Japan thing again. It's actually a bit more of what market the guys produced for. So in the past, even Japan or European-made RAV4s, when they were made for American market, they did have actually a sunroof, while the Russian ones, they didn't. So that's an interesting one, okay? Looking now at the welding methods, seams, and the type of factory insulation materials that are being used here, Ilya says that there is not much noticeable difference here either. Spot welding the same as in Japanese-made RAV4s. Everything is rather clean. There are no rough edges. Everything is executed to a fairly good technical level. So yeah, it's right here on the screen, and you are most welcome to validate this for yourself. Stock standard sound insulation mats are of different color and material now compared to the old ones that used to be made of this black tar-like material that used to be stuck on. But then when the car overheated and over the time of use in summers and extreme weather conditions, apparently that tar-like material used to crack and sometimes even detach itself from the floor. So it was really unreliable, those splotches of, I suppose, insulation material that they used to use there at Toyota. And now this new material, whatever it is, it looks more resilient and modern, if you like, which is good news, obviously. The other difference from previously available Japan-made RAV4 versions is this electric wiring. So the new wires used in this China-made RAV4 are visibly thinner, but it is, again, not just China, not on China as a manufacturing origin of this vehicle. It's on Toyota. Ilya says that he is noticing that big automotive companies these days, such as Toyota, started saving on the electric conductivity materials. And this is not only visible in this China-made RAV4, but also on very expensive Japan and American-made Lexus models, even. So that's what they're doing. They're thinning out their wiring, my friends. Unsurprising for my regular viewers is where Ilya moves on to mention their own aftermarket sound insulation services and thermal insulation services that they provide. And it's very neat. They do it very neatly. And while this RAV4 has some kind of stock standard sound insulation, as we've just seen, it's insufficient, obviously, as we got to know from following many videos from Klubny Service over the time. There is no point arguing about that. So they are going to replace all that stuff and augment it with their very neatly placed solid layer of nice sticky pads that they line the whole interior with, as always in the disassembled vehicles, making this RAV4 a much more pleasant ride once the work is complete. He also mentions that their auto service center now works as part-time dealership where some lucky people could reach out to them in Moscow, presumably, and they could buy this exact car, this RAV4. Yep. Finally, we're back looking at the underbelly of this RAV4. I've promised to you that we will look back. So rear suspension is very classic, rear axle, levers, and arms, everything as per Japan-made RAV4. Luckily, Chinese factory did not add any of their own engineering ingenuity here and kept everything classic. No unnecessary complications or complications or unproven innovation that Ilya, as a old school mechanic, he always frowns upon. He's only a fan of proven solutions. We can see the rear transfer case and shafts. Again, no change compared to the good old Japanese RAV4. Few, one would say. Here is the fuel tank and the actual bottom of the vehicle's body, completely naked and exposed, unprotected by anything other than, well, welding seams, I suppose, if you were to see those as some kind of reinforcement rib of this construction. Frontal section here, once again, is by, you know, unsurprisingly the same as the classic RAV4 suspension, and the drivetrain, which are all continuing to be rolling out as good news, I suppose. Good news, per pleasure to hear for any RAV4 drivers out there. Ilya is summarizing that this Chinese RAV4 is 80 to 85% the same old Japanese RAV4, which came to him as a surprise. So it seems like we've been just confirming that yep, the same, yep, the same, but he didn't know what to expect himself and neither did I. So I think that this, once again, is very welcome news for himself and for a lot of RAV4 drivers out there all over the world. China-specific additions are minor and mainly can be seen in the sunroof, larger and more modern multimedia screen, and some changes to the branding of like basically the supplying brand of the frontal suspension coils that he briefly mentioned earlier, quality of which can only be seen over time as this car will spend physically on the road. So it's too early to tell, but that's the only noticeable difference. So all in all, great news, and Ilya wasn't disappointed by the quality of this RAV4 and says that he wouldn't expect any major issues with it over the intended lifetime. And this is it, my friends. I hope you've learned a lot about this China-made RAV4 and how it is different, not very different, right, from a Japanese-made RAV4, which I'm sure is a relief for you and I, and it's great to hear. So I hope you've enjoyed this video. If you have, please give it a like. Please don't skip this step because YouTube algorithm is a very ruthless, but rather simple thing as well. The more people like my videos, the more videos I can produce for you because I'm motivated by more views being on videos, by this video being promoted to more people. If you skip this step, you can only blame yourself if then some content doesn't align with your interest or standards because I need motivation to produce more of the high-quality content, and the ask of you is very simple. Just give it a little like and subscribe for more to support the growth of this channel and general kinda wellbeing of mine if it's of any interest to you. Speaking of wellbeing, some of you periodically accuse me of taking content from Klubny Service or from somewhere else, but those people show fundamental misunderstanding of derivative works and added value. I never just steal content and republish it like a lot of channels that are just producing slop. I am recutting it. I am translating it. You are seeing a lot of added value, not to mention promotion of the content of Ilya's channel to English-speaking audiences. Hopefully, this answers some questions for those of you who have their eyebrows raised or who are simply uneducated. Okay, so hopefully this satisfies you. Please give the video a like once again if you haven't already and subscribe for more, and I'll talk to you next week about something else value cars related. Goodbye for now.