I own a land rover discovery 2 TD5. Very reliable vehicle, 17 years old now and apart from a recent issue with the clutch slave cylinder, nothing but routine maintenence. Never let me down.
And that's what too many people don't do, good routine comprehensive servicing, by the time most cars are reaching some expensive items (or inexpensive but mucky DIY stuff), like brake lubing, brake fluid changing, transmission oil and coolant changing, the car is often on its second or third owner who can't really afford a car of that type, can't be bothered or incapable of DIYing it, so before you know it on vehicles like this you've got dry swivels or CV's, rusty hardy spicers and a gearbox and transfer box and two diffs on oil that is actually overdue for its second change.
Toyota's bigger 4x4's don't tend to suffer these problems (can't comment on Rav4, know nothing about them), and i put this down not just to attention to OE component quality but to Toyota's very sensible service regimes, transmission oils will have been changed at least once and probably twice during the warranty period as will brake fluid and a Toyota major service includes brake strip clean lube, all for very reasonable costs.
Daresay if LR service regimes copied Toyota you'd see a different reputation for the formers durability in very short order.
Whatever the failure is of the OP's car, i'd wager if it had Toyota type servicing during its life, half these problems wouldn't occur.
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