Quote Originally Posted by Leon R View Post
The 2 door Rav4 predates the VX
Possibly. Keep in mind that the VX concept premiered at the Tokyo Auto Show in 1993 and the RAV4 wasn't for sale in Europe and Japan until 1994 and the US in 1996. You could argue that for the RAV4 to be for sale in 1994 they must have already been working on it before they saw the VX concept in 1993. But the first generation RAV4 was based on the Corolla so that had to speed development you would think. What is definitely possible is that the cladding was added to the RAV4 at the last second in response to the VX concept and to give it more more of an offroad appearance.

Bottom line is it may not be as clear as you might think based solely on the US production start dates.