BUY WITH CARE

Recall 20V682000 (an expansion of 20V-012; covers 2019-2020 RAV4 and RAV4 Hybrid among about 1.5 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles): the Denso low-pressure fuel pump inside the tank can fail and stall the engine while driving. The corpus carries matching fuel-pump and stall complaints on these years. The remedy -- an improved pump assembly -- is free.

Check — Run the VIN through Toyota's recall lookup and confirm 20V682000 (and its predecessor 20V-012) is complete. A 2019-2020 car that stalls, cranks long, or hesitates at startup may have an unrepaired or failing pump -- treat as urgent.

A recurring complaint on the 5th-gen RAV4 is a fuel tank that will not take a full fill: the pump clicks off around three-quarters (roughly 9-10 of the ~14.5 gallons), and owners then see the gauge read low with fuel still aboard and trip range fall well short of the sticker. It is reported on gas and hybrid cars from purchase, so it reads as a design/fill characteristic, not a wear item; Toyota has addressed versions of it through service bulletins, and no federal recall covers it.

Check — Fill the tank on the test drive and watch for the pump shutting off early; ask the seller how many gallons it takes and the real-world range they get. Not a recall and nothing to repair -- but expect reduced usable range between fills.

The gas RAV4's 8-speed automatic (Direct Shift-8AT) is widely reported to hesitate then lurch at low speed -- a delayed, abrupt response when accelerating from a stop or a slow roll, with harsh low-gear shifts. Owners describe it from new; Toyota has treated it as a driveability characteristic addressed by software reflash rather than a covered defect, so a test car may behave exactly as the complaints describe. Hybrids use an eCVT and are not affected.

Check — Accelerate gently from a full stop and from a 5-10 mph roll and feel for a lag followed by a lurch, plus harsh 1-2 / 2-3 shifts. Ask whether the transmission software has been reflashed; a reflash can soften but rarely eliminates it.