I like your honesty, most people when they buy a new car seldom complain about the things they don't like because they want everyone to think they were so smart making their purchase, but you call 'em like you see them and put your money where your mouth is and I think that is appreciated by your viewers, thanks for this video.
Thanks for saying all this and for watching! I of course have my vehicle and brand biases (both good and bad) but even though I’m a car enthusiast I have little sentimental value and just want to be straight forward. I do miss some of the cool cars I’ve owned like an LS1 Trans Am, a supercharged FJ Cruiser, and a regular cab 5 speed Tacoma but at the end of the day I’m a bit minimalistic and like to swap out vehicles every couple years before they fail. And so I can experience a new brand or platform to better understand. Haha, I wish I started making videos back when I had those more enthusiast focused cars. 🤪🤷♂️
You have the upgraded cablegate solution from Toyota. I was in the market for a vehicle in 2022 when news of this issue was top of mind and lost interest in the Rav4 Hybrid because the issue was still unresolved and I live where roads are salted. The issue was salty water and sand would seep down into the plastic orange covering and have no where to drain so it would create an accelerated corrosive environment. The initial "fix" from Toyota was to put the splash shield on to prevent salt water from get kicked up and cut a hole in the orange plastic so there was drainage if it did get exposed. Toyota started making that change in MY2022, I believe. They may have tweaked it more since the lawsuit but I stopped following it. In any event, any 2025 MY has Toyota's fix. It remains to be seen how effective their fix is, or how prevalent the issue is/was. The initial reports were in the first 3 years of ownership (in Canada) though.
Another fantastic review. I'm currently driving a Toyota Crown Signia, basically a Rav4 hybrid under the floor I guess. While the in town mileage is great (routinely over 40 mpg) most of my driving is highway. I have found that I generally only get a bit over 30 mpg highway, only a bit better than my Mazda CX90 gets ( and it's way bigger). Bottom line know what driving % city v highway) you do prior to your purchase.
My wife’s car is an Outback as we get 5-7 feet of snow every winter and live 5 miles from town on a private road that we have to plow and maintain ourselves. We did test drive the Signia and decided that when the time comes to replace her Outback, it’ll be replaced with the Signia. My vehicle is a 23 Tacoma TRD Off Road, double cab, 6’ bed with the Premium and Technology pkgs. It will be the last pickup I’ll ever own.
Thanks for watching and sharing all of this! I keep hearing from more and more people that the mild hybrid really doesn’t help much at speed and we’re all getting like 30mpg in the winter or interstate speed haha.
I drove a rental eurospec 2022 Toyota Corola hatchback hybrid 1.8L 122hp for about 150 miles on the highway. Cruising at 75mph I got 38mpg (6.2L/100km). I consider it ok for a gasoline powered vehicle. In the city I got around 50mpg. Nice vid on the RAV4 yeah the wind noise and cheap plastics really does sting a bit.
In 21 when we were looking for an AWD car for my wife we naturally looked at a new Rav Limited AWD hybrid because of how nice my 11 Rav 4WD Limited with the 3.5L V6 was. We were NOT impressed with the quality, fit and finish, road and engine noise or the comfort of the 21 Rav at all. We loved the Venza but it was only available with Gloomy Gray or Death Black interior, which became popular in 1990. Some of us have matured past those outdated colors. Ultimately we chose an Outback with the Ivory interior. We’ve decided that when it’s time to replace her Outback we’ll choose the Signia XLE, as we don’t want a sunroof and we want the smaller wheel size so that we can buy tires with taller sidewalls. As for me I’ll keep my 23 Tacoma TRD Off Road, double cab, 6’ bed until I die.
Thanks for sharing this, Doc! I don’t know that I’ve been in a Venza, but I also think the Subarus probably have better interior fit and finish than the RAV4. I’m glad you guys liked the Signia, I’ll have to check one of those out sometime.
So true Doc. In 2015 we bought a Diesel Jetta and we were able to get a beautiful Ivory leather interior. Dieselgate happened and we then ordered a 2017 CRV touring with a nice cream interior, and loved it. Shortly after Honda only offered drab dark colors :-( We just bought a new Limited Rav, and thankfully able to get the light grey/white interior. Manufacturers can save a bit of $ with offering only one interior option. But if numerous vehicles are in our wheelhouse for purchase, interior choice can become a reason for purchase. With Limited Rav being ICE and light colored interior, it became our choice purchase. Perhaps manufacturers should survey purchasers better. Cheers.
I love your description of the exterior old, out of date colors. After one gray car too many, I chose a VW in Blue Silk and a light color interior Now I have a RAV4 in Calvary Blue but I'm not happy with the black interior. No choice.
@SusanMiddleton1 I hear you Susan. Profits over pleasure. When competition for your vehicle dollar tightens, things may change. Best of luck on the next buy, cheers from Canada :-)
Oh, if I said that I don’t remember that and it probably wasn’t what I had meant to say. I knew going into the RAV4 that only a few attributes of it would be better than the Subaru, and others including the acceleration performance would be worse haha.
That $10,000 price difference is plus sales tax. Invest that for 2 years and you will likely have $12,500 to put towards your next vehicle. The bank of Toyota is real; but less depreciation is still depreciation, and it has to overcome the Toyota tax.
Given a $10k difference between the base model and the trim that you landed on it sounds as though you got the XSE as opposed to the less expensive SE version. If so, did you consider the other trims in between such as the XLE or XLE Premium?
The cable has been upgraded with new models, featuring a plastic cover that now includes drains to prevent water accumulation. RAV4 Hybrids are most efficient for city driving. However, you won’t achieve the advertised mileage if you consistently drive at speeds of 80 mph or higher. For optimal fuel efficiency, maintaining highway speeds around 65-70 mph will help you reach the advertised MPG. I currently average 42 MPG, primarily from city driving and maintaining 65 mph on the highway. Additionally, running the heater at high settings can reduce the effectiveness of the battery’s cooling system. The cooling fan draws air from the cabin, so if the interior is hot, the battery may overheat and deteriorate more quickly. It’s unclear if the system automatically detects this and adjusts battery usage accordingly. In very cold climates, heavy heater use causes the RAV4 Hybrid to rely more on the gasoline engine. The engine needs to maintain a temperature of around 200°F, preventing it from shutting off, which in turn disables the hybrid system and reduces fuel efficiency.
I don't know about in the USA but in Canada the LE model has keyed ignition instead of push button. I bought the SE RAV4 mostly because I could get the Calvary Blue 😂 but I do love the push button ignition.
If the redesign is just a new front bumper, sure, wait (but it's a whole lot more than that). If all new...absolutely wait! Even first-model Toyotas are iffy. I am a total Toyota fan and just bought my well-worked-over 2024 RAV4 SE Hybrid.
Always try to buy a redesign after it’s been out for 2 years or so. Any issues would have been resolved by then for the most part. If any, and you’re good for like the next 5 or 6 years before a new design comes along.
RAV4 is probably likely reliable long term, better resale, more dealerships to work on it since Toyota is the largest auto maker. But in many ways it doesn’t perform or feel as good as my Outback Wilderness did. The Subaru corners better, decently better in snow, feels smoother to drive, and has fewer quality control issues. Not exactly apples to apples as the Outback is technically a mid sized rather than a compact crossover.
Sounds like bottom line is - if the AWD is very important to you, the non-hybrid trim is a more cost-effective choice. Because with this one you don't get true AWD, AND you don't get much MPG advantage either. Unless you're doing a lot of city driving, in whcih case the AWD is probably less important and the MPG advantage is far bigger
Besides liking the outback, when I first test drove it, I did a lot of research, and a lot of examining of the vehicle before I made my final decision, and now that I've had my outback for exactly 3 months to this date, I have no regrets whatsoever in my decision... I absolutely love everything about my outback with the exception of one annoying feature, which is not just limited to the outback, or Subaru for that matter, and that is the auto start/stop function.... extremely annoying and down the road would be costly. Also considering you are going to be changing your starter much sooner than expected
Congrats on 3 months of Outback ownership! I miss mine, but I’m still enjoying the Toyota for now. The hybrid Subarus coming out in a few months will be interesting!
@@philweiland5391 .... that's exactly what I do, but I wish it was permanent 🤣... on occasion I'll forget to shut it off and then I come up to a traffic light and the car shuts off and it drives me crazy 🤣
I would definitely not wait for the rav4 redesign, get the current version. I wouldn’t consider a Subaru either, unless you REALLY need the prowess of Subaru’s AWD… because the interior quality is currently “below average” at best, even in the flagship Outback model!!!
If you’re happy with it I’d say you made the right choice! I really like the Hybrid SE and think it was the right choice for me. I wouldn’t have been as happy with a base model long term. But I do think the base LE is a steal of a deal! Diminishing returns the higher up you go in trims as the extra features don’t benefit you as much as the basic vehicle does.
Yeah, that’s a good point! I was just surprised the base model didn’t have intentionally cheap or weird materials. Kind of like the base model Subarus that have the dual screen. It’s just strange lol.
@philweiland5391 They have 2 plants in Ontario, Lexus and Toyota, a lot of Rav 4s made in Canada end up in the US, all NX and RX are made in Canada. Canada will retaliate with tariffs on all US cars, so will the rest of the world. Nobody wins....it gets even worse with autoparts between US, Canada and Mexico
I like your honesty, most people when they buy a new car seldom complain about the things they don't like because they want everyone to think they were so smart making their purchase, but you call 'em like you see them and put your money where your mouth is and I think that is appreciated by your viewers, thanks for this video.
Thanks for saying all this and for watching! I of course have my vehicle and brand biases (both good and bad) but even though I’m a car enthusiast I have little sentimental value and just want to be straight forward. I do miss some of the cool cars I’ve owned like an LS1 Trans Am, a supercharged FJ Cruiser, and a regular cab 5 speed Tacoma but at the end of the day I’m a bit minimalistic and like to swap out vehicles every couple years before they fail. And so I can experience a new brand or platform to better understand. Haha, I wish I started making videos back when I had those more enthusiast focused cars. 🤪🤷♂️
You have the upgraded cablegate solution from Toyota. I was in the market for a vehicle in 2022 when news of this issue was top of mind and lost interest in the Rav4 Hybrid because the issue was still unresolved and I live where roads are salted. The issue was salty water and sand would seep down into the plastic orange covering and have no where to drain so it would create an accelerated corrosive environment.
The initial "fix" from Toyota was to put the splash shield on to prevent salt water from get kicked up and cut a hole in the orange plastic so there was drainage if it did get exposed. Toyota started making that change in MY2022, I believe. They may have tweaked it more since the lawsuit but I stopped following it. In any event, any 2025 MY has Toyota's fix. It remains to be seen how effective their fix is, or how prevalent the issue is/was. The initial reports were in the first 3 years of ownership (in Canada) though.
Thank you for sharing all of this!! I hope you’re happy with whatever you ended up purchasing instead.
This review is why I paid a bit more for the Adventure trim in 2024. Toyota should have never scrapped the Adventure/TRD Offroad trims.
Another fantastic review. I'm currently driving a Toyota Crown Signia, basically a Rav4 hybrid under the floor I guess. While the in town mileage is great (routinely over 40 mpg) most of my driving is highway. I have found that I generally only get a bit over 30 mpg highway, only a bit better than my Mazda CX90 gets ( and it's way bigger). Bottom line know what driving % city v highway) you do prior to your purchase.
My wife’s car is an Outback as we get 5-7 feet of snow every winter and live 5 miles from town on a private road that we have to plow and maintain ourselves.
We did test drive the Signia and decided that when the time comes to replace her Outback, it’ll be replaced with the Signia.
My vehicle is a 23 Tacoma TRD Off Road, double cab, 6’ bed with the Premium and Technology pkgs.
It will be the last pickup I’ll ever own.
Thanks for watching and sharing all of this! I keep hearing from more and more people that the mild hybrid really doesn’t help much at speed and we’re all getting like 30mpg in the winter or interstate speed haha.
Have you been on track for that much snow this winter! We’ve had like none, which is strange. 🤪
I drove a rental eurospec 2022 Toyota Corola hatchback hybrid 1.8L 122hp for about 150 miles on the highway. Cruising at 75mph I got 38mpg (6.2L/100km). I consider it ok for a gasoline powered vehicle. In the city I got around 50mpg. Nice vid on the RAV4 yeah the wind noise and cheap plastics really does sting a bit.
That sounds like it was a cool experience, thanks for sharing and watching!!
In 21 when we were looking for an AWD car for my wife we naturally looked at a new Rav Limited AWD hybrid because of how nice my 11 Rav 4WD Limited with the 3.5L V6 was.
We were NOT impressed with the quality, fit and finish, road and engine noise or the comfort of the 21 Rav at all.
We loved the Venza but it was only available with Gloomy Gray or Death Black interior, which became popular in 1990. Some of us have matured past those outdated colors.
Ultimately we chose an Outback with the Ivory interior.
We’ve decided that when it’s time to replace her Outback we’ll choose the Signia XLE, as we don’t want a sunroof and we want the smaller wheel size so that we can buy tires with taller sidewalls.
As for me I’ll keep my 23 Tacoma TRD Off Road, double cab, 6’ bed until I die.
Thanks for sharing this, Doc! I don’t know that I’ve been in a Venza, but I also think the Subarus probably have better interior fit and finish than the RAV4. I’m glad you guys liked the Signia, I’ll have to check one of those out sometime.
So true Doc. In 2015 we bought a Diesel Jetta and we were able to get a beautiful Ivory leather interior. Dieselgate happened and we then ordered a 2017 CRV touring with a nice cream interior, and loved it. Shortly after Honda only offered drab dark colors :-( We just bought a new Limited Rav, and thankfully able to get the light grey/white interior. Manufacturers can save a bit of $ with offering only one interior option. But if numerous vehicles are in our wheelhouse for purchase, interior choice can become a reason for purchase. With Limited Rav being ICE and light colored interior, it became our choice purchase. Perhaps manufacturers should survey purchasers better. Cheers.
I love your description of the exterior old, out of date colors. After one gray car too many, I chose a VW in Blue Silk and a light color interior Now I have a RAV4 in Calvary Blue but I'm not happy with the black interior. No choice.
@SusanMiddleton1 I hear you Susan. Profits over pleasure. When competition for your vehicle dollar tightens, things may change. Best of luck on the next buy, cheers from Canada :-)
@@billmcmeekin7909 Canada too. ☺️ I spell colour as color as not to confuse my American friends.
When you sold your Outback, you mentioned seeking better performance; I was surprised it was a RAV4.
Oh, if I said that I don’t remember that and it probably wasn’t what I had meant to say. I knew going into the RAV4 that only a few attributes of it would be better than the Subaru, and others including the acceleration performance would be worse haha.
That $10,000 price difference is plus sales tax. Invest that for 2 years and you will likely have $12,500 to put towards your next vehicle. The bank of Toyota is real; but less depreciation is still depreciation, and it has to overcome the Toyota tax.
Absolutely!
Given a $10k difference between the base model and the trim that you landed on it sounds as though you got the XSE as opposed to the less expensive SE version. If so, did you consider the other trims in between such as the XLE or XLE Premium?
The cable has been upgraded with new models, featuring a plastic cover that now includes drains to prevent water accumulation.
RAV4 Hybrids are most efficient for city driving. However, you won’t achieve the advertised mileage if you consistently drive at speeds of 80 mph or higher. For optimal fuel efficiency, maintaining highway speeds around 65-70 mph will help you reach the advertised MPG. I currently average 42 MPG, primarily from city driving and maintaining 65 mph on the highway.
Additionally, running the heater at high settings can reduce the effectiveness of the battery’s cooling system. The cooling fan draws air from the cabin, so if the interior is hot, the battery may overheat and deteriorate more quickly. It’s unclear if the system automatically detects this and adjusts battery usage accordingly.
In very cold climates, heavy heater use causes the RAV4 Hybrid to rely more on the gasoline engine. The engine needs to maintain a temperature of around 200°F, preventing it from shutting off, which in turn disables the hybrid system and reduces fuel efficiency.
Thank you for sharing all of this!!
I don't know about in the USA but in Canada the LE model has keyed ignition instead of push button. I bought the SE RAV4 mostly because I could get the Calvary Blue 😂 but I do love the push button ignition.
Yeah! The LE I filmed had the key 🔑. I’m glad you’re enjoying yours, Calvary blue is a fun color!
If the redesign is just a new front bumper, sure, wait (but it's a whole lot more than that). If all new...absolutely wait! Even first-model Toyotas are iffy. I am a total Toyota fan and just bought my well-worked-over 2024 RAV4 SE Hybrid.
My 2019 RAV4 has been great and I have 70km on it
Nice!!
Always try to buy a redesign after it’s been out for 2 years or so. Any issues would have been resolved by then for the most part. If any, and you’re good for like the next 5 or 6 years before a new design comes along.
Well said!
What are these few attributes?
RAV4 is probably likely reliable long term, better resale, more dealerships to work on it since Toyota is the largest auto maker. But in many ways it doesn’t perform or feel as good as my Outback Wilderness did. The Subaru corners better, decently better in snow, feels smoother to drive, and has fewer quality control issues. Not exactly apples to apples as the Outback is technically a mid sized rather than a compact crossover.
thank you for the answers. I'm trying to understand, why you chose RAV4?
I would buy now. First batch is always shit.
Sounds like bottom line is - if the AWD is very important to you, the non-hybrid trim is a more cost-effective choice. Because with this one you don't get true AWD, AND you don't get much MPG advantage either. Unless you're doing a lot of city driving, in whcih case the AWD is probably less important and the MPG advantage is far bigger
Haha thanks for summarizing up the video!!
Besides liking the outback, when I first test drove it, I did a lot of research, and a lot of examining of the vehicle before I made my final decision, and now that I've had my outback for exactly 3 months to this date, I have no regrets whatsoever in my decision... I absolutely love everything about my outback with the exception of one annoying feature, which is not just limited to the outback, or Subaru for that matter, and that is the auto start/stop function.... extremely annoying and down the road would be costly. Also considering you are going to be changing your starter much sooner than expected
Congrats on 3 months of Outback ownership! I miss mine, but I’m still enjoying the Toyota for now. The hybrid Subarus coming out in a few months will be interesting!
@@AutomotiveAnonymous208 Yes, but i hope they don't remove the spare tire. That would be the dumbest thing
first thing I do when I start my Crosstrek is turn off the auto start-stop on the home screen.
@@philweiland5391 .... that's exactly what I do, but I wish it was permanent 🤣... on occasion I'll forget to shut it off and then I come up to a traffic light and the car shuts off and it drives me crazy 🤣
@@philweiland5391 In a hybrid you don't need to. It is completely seamless
I would definitely not wait for the rav4 redesign, get the current version. I wouldn’t consider a Subaru either, unless you REALLY need the prowess of Subaru’s AWD… because the interior quality is currently “below average” at best, even in the flagship Outback model!!!
ah I just bought this exact this car :( ... did I make a mistake???
If you’re happy with it I’d say you made the right choice! I really like the Hybrid SE and think it was the right choice for me. I wouldn’t have been as happy with a base model long term. But I do think the base LE is a steal of a deal! Diminishing returns the higher up you go in trims as the extra features don’t benefit you as much as the basic vehicle does.
When I looked at Toyotas the last two times I was car shopping, the interior materials was the biggest disappointment.
"Not $10,000 nice"..exactly. That will apply to quite a few cars/vehicles actually. Look at the new 4Runner's..way overpriced!
Yeah, that’s a good point! I was just surprised the base model didn’t have intentionally cheap or weird materials. Kind of like the base model Subarus that have the dual screen. It’s just strange lol.
Wind noise is awful (A pillar)
Buy now, thanks to Trump tariffs on auto parts and auto manufacturering it will be at least 4 grand more next year .
Haha, that’s a good point! 😬
@AutomotiveAnonymous208 unfortunately it's going to come true.
I'm guessing Toyota will shift more of their assembly to KY to try to avoid this. I'm not sure what % of these come from Japan.
@philweiland5391 They have 2 plants in Ontario, Lexus and Toyota, a lot of Rav 4s made in Canada end up in the US, all NX and RX are made in Canada.
Canada will retaliate with tariffs on all US cars, so will the rest of the world. Nobody wins....it gets even worse with autoparts between US, Canada and Mexico
The RAV4 is a cheap-looking vehicle that costs twice as much as it looks like it should cost.