4 WORST And 7 BEST Things About The 2024 Toyota RAV4 PRIME
Welcome to downshift everyone my name is Paulo and my name is Matt and this is the Toyota Rav 4 this is kind of the de facto SUV that you would see in the segment at least from the sales perspective but if you go online and check out Car and Driver they have it
Ranked 11th in the segment So today we’re going to hit the best in the rest and see just exactly what they’re on about against main Rivals like the Honda CRV let’s get into it now little disclaimer there’s a couple different flavors of Rav 4 that
You can get but here for this video we are in the prime the plug-in hybrid and Honda doesn’t actually have a plug-in CRV to compete with this but Hyundai and Kia do but this Rav 4 also comes in a normal gas engine and a non-plug-in
Hybrid so we’re going to do our best to cover all the nuance and some of the differences even outside of the pev Prime that we have here but with that let’s get into the video peach or salmon you literally look like one of those pokeballs like a master ball like a
Master ball okay I I’m good with the master ball I’m not trying to be like an average Pokeball even a great ball no you do look better than that but Ultra Ball master ball I’m good with now let’s talk about miles per gallon first now
Let’s say you don’t want to spend all of the prime money cuz it’s a lot of extra money and we’ll talk about that in a minute but if you want just a normal hybrid of course Toyota’s going to sell you that however if you’re going to look
At the competitive the CRV versus the Rav 4 the CRV is going to give you a little bit better fuel economy from the EPA it’s about 40 MPG from the CRV that was front-wheel drive though and last year when we had the Rav 4 in the hybrid
EPA estimat said at 38 we actually experiened 43 which is a lot better um this gets mpge I think it’s 93 Matt yeah 94 MPG and then when you run out of electric power or EV Power you’ll start to get an actual realistic rating of how
Your hybrid is performing on its own and I got about mid 37 MPG on the highway what did you get I yeah I guess I did a mix of Highway and City and I was averaging just under 40 39.9 so still pretty good A little bit less than just
A standard hybrid but this is heavier absolutely and this is again with all-wheel drive we’re getting real world somewhere between 37 and 39 MPG in just the hybrid in comparison the CRV in the real world is going to do closer to 35 so you still are going to outperform the
CRV in terms of fuel economy even with the bigger uh heavier Rav 4 Prime and then there’s something that I think not everyone thinks about is the fact that you have the best of both worlds here but you also kind of have the worst of Both Worlds you buy a Toyota presumably
Because you want something simple something dependable and something reliable and that translates generally to Affordable as well but that’s not really the case here a Rav 4 Prime versus a regular Rav 4 hybrid is about $112,000 more to start and yes you do get the added benefit of the completely
EV range and you can charge this thing on a level one normal house Outlet in about 12 hours personally I’d go up to a level two Emporia and I have done it’s a link for a discount in the description but what other people aren’t thinking is you’re also now maintaining and doing
Maintenance and worrying about the reliability of two propulsion systems you have the electric power and the hybrid or the gas engine to think about as well what the what was that this dude’s freaky man this dude’s creepy bro the strangest people come to the park I think so all
The time especially Brown Deer Park and then when it comes to cargo capacity we’ll talk firstly about the hybrid to hybrid not the plug-in necessarily but the hybrid CRV and the hybrid Rav 4 the CRV does Edge the Rav 4 in terms of cargo capacity of about 2 cubic feet but
You add the plug-in component you have a bigger battery pack that lives under the floor a bit here and that takes up some space 18.1 KW hours of space so what do you get here Paulo in the Rav 4 Prime yeah so you get 33.5 Cub feet with the
Rear seats up versus 37 in the CRV hybrid and then if you fold the seats down which you can’t do in the back unfortunately have to do it got to do it up here up there I guess if you’re tall enough you can reach y um but you get 70
Versus 76 that you would get in the CRV but to be honest these are both class leading um so it’s still more than you’re going to get getting like something like a Mazda CX5 exactly the CX5 or the cx50 that we were in So yeah so marginally less than the Honda but
Still basically class leading or near near about and the Volkswagen Tiguan another big trunk that I forgot to mention whatever but we mentioned it now whatever and then there’s things like price and availability and we kind of touched on it before but a Rav 4 Prime
SE the base not even this xse here starts at about 43400 just about so that makes it $112,000 more than a normal Rav 4 hybrid and then there’s the availability aspect these aren’t really sold everywhere at least when they first came out they weren’t so what it results in is there’s
Three for sale within a 100 miles of me I mean within 100 miles you have Chicago Milwaukee where we’re from these are major cities and there’s only about three available and then you jump up another 45,000 is dollar for the xsc that’s all kitted out here this thing as tested is over
$51,000 which is a lot of money but there’s a lot of car to love here so let’s talk about the good thing I wish my ears were level they’re not we notice it it shows um okay and the first thing we’ll get this out of the way
Right away but the main competitor this Rav 4 is the CRV and there’s a number of things that you can get here that you can’t on a CRV things like a panoramic roof things like cooled front seats heated rear seats a fully digital gauge cluster a 360 camera a digital rear view
Mirror maybe uh head- up display let’s not forget the whole plugin hybrid thing you can get that here on the Rav 4 but you’re not going to get that on the CRV and this is at the end of it a pretty long list of in demand features that you
Can get here on the Toyota that you’re not getting on the Honda and since we just mentioned it let’s talk about the prime thing this is the plug-in hybrid component you get the upgraded 18.1 KW hour battery pack made it to that 4 cylinder 2.5 that we’re used to from
Toyota and what that gets you is actually 42 M of fully electric range and that’s the benefit of having the plug-in thing but you also get a bunch more power 302 horsepower and a bundle of torque and what that means is 0 to 60 in about 5.5 seconds making it like the
Second or third fastest Toyota what is it Paulo third behind the uh Supra 3 l and the gr Corolla incredible so with the battery topped up this thing is good for 94 MPG e which is actually pretty competitive with something like an ionic 5 and then with the EV battery depleted
And just functioning as a normal hybrid this thing is rated for about 38 MPG and we talked about that a little earlier we’ve even been outperforming that or pretty close to it this week and this thing will charge itself on a level one charger in about 12 hours which is
Probably enough for most people to charge overnight after work when they get home but me personally I’m kind of risk averse so I would go for a level two charger and on my Emporia charger which again Link in the description below if you want to save some money on
That uh I charge on this thing in just over 2 hours 2 and 1 half hours just about so that is pretty good and then there’s the looks the style and the thing that everyone sees as you go down the road now personally I kind of like
The look here it’s very different from the CX5 that we were just in the CX5 is very swoopy very elegant looking and the CRV is even kind of more upscale or expensive looking but this has more of a geometric rugged I guess even off-road approach to the design it’s a little bit
Older now that we’ve seen it for a few years here but you do get LEDs and vertical LEDs there are specific to the xse you get some Vader Chrome in your grill and some blacked out accents generally speaking across the car we’re not going to talk about everything but I
Do kind of like the fact that you still get the blue surround Toyota that’s how you know it’s one of their more previous generation High hbd vehicles but around the side you really wouldn’t be able to tell that this is the Prime versus the hybrid that we had last year aside from
This plug-in hybrid badge here you do have some specific Wheels here talk about uh Towers there and then the two-tone black roof is specific to the xsc and then the only other place that you can really tell that this is the Rav 4 Prime is you have the charge door here
And you have a Prime logo back here other than that it’s a normal Rav 4 and it looks pretty handsome but what do you think this oh it’s like a lemon oh but what do you think about this P I think that it looks good I agree with you I think it’s more
Masculine uh ma more masculine than the CRV for sure I would say though IMO in my opinion I think that the cx50 is the best looking in the segment um but I do not mind the way that this thing looks especially the two-tone I personally wouldn’t get this color you
Wouldn’t get the skyscraper metallic no what would you get I think I’d get the what’s the blue called oh if you could get Cavalry blue on this yes done and in terms of the Driving Experience this is where the pev thing really shines with Toyota’s hybrid
System not only is the system smooth and predictable but it’s quick 0 to 60 in about 5 and 1/2 seconds this feels proper fast here and fast enough to be faster than anything else Toyota sells except for the 6-cylinder Supra and its gr Corolla the xse here also gets the
Sport tune suspension and to be honest I do feel like I have a nice communicative front end and the car behaves in a corner even though it’s been wet all week I don’t know if it’s good grip from the tires or just a fast steering rack
But there is a sharpness that I get from the front that just feels kind of satisfying the ride is soft and comfy when you want it to be the cabin is quiet and refined and the transition between Gas and Electric it’s really smooth and it’s hard to notice unless
You’re really really looking for It ultimately it’s a great experience behind the wheel and then in terms of the technology stack that you get here you are still getting some of the stuff here that you’re not getting in the CRV specifically stuff like your big 10 I
Think it is inch full color headup display and this is really cool it shows you your lane keep status your adaptive cruise status uh your charge or recoup it shows you a bunch of stuff and then you also have a fully digital instrument cluster which again is not something
You’re getting in the CRV or really much of anything else in the segment you’re not going to get it in the CX5 or the Subaru or the really anything else so this is pretty nice it doesn’t change a lot but you can see some nice and useful information nice animations when you do
Switch the yeah you go into Sport and it shows you the Rav 4 and the wheels light up and whatever color so that’s kind of nice and then the big thing here is of course the main Center screen and it’s running the Toyota connected Services thing that all of the Toyotas that we’ve
Reviewed in the last 2 years is running so it’s a big screen full touch screen uh unlike the little dial that you had in the CX-5 Wireless Apple carplay Android auto overthe aair updates dual Bluetooth connection so that’s really nice if you share this with a partner in
Your house um you do have again not in a CRV but you have it here a 360 camera and not only that you have the useless egg view which is over here for some reason and this is where super helpful yes and not only that you can change the
Color to Cavalry blue which is the color you should get if you can and then the last thing I think we should mention is just the digital rear view mirror again something that you’re getting in the raft 4 that you’re not getting anywhere else in the segment what am I doing with
My hand we’ll see you in post let’s just let post deal with it I’m post I have to deal with it I’m just making more work for myself right now that’s what I’m doing all right three one of us has to carry the boats this is true okay David go just
Relax we’re shooting a Toyota is not that serious and then in terms of the interior design it is showing its age a little bit compared to the newer CRV but it’s thoughtfully done for humans to live and drive in this thing your seating materials your soft Tex makes a
Lot of sense you’ve got this red stitching on your door card and your seat and your dash to signify that you got the sporty xsc and you have rubberized areas for your door handle so it’s easy to grab you’re not going to lose grip on it and then you even have
Your Toyota family Cavern that’s also kind of rubberized in here versus the Kona from Hyundai that we were in a couple weeks ago had that same Dash cubby but it wasn’t rubberized so anything that you put in there slid around it made a bunch of noise so this
Is thoughtful you’ve got rubberized HVAC controls for your climate you love to see that even physical and then rubber Riz is even better and then of course physical controls for your heat and cooled seat and then thoughtful place to put your phone wireless charger you’ve got cup holders that could easily have
An expander in here if you’ve got a bigger water bottle and everything in here is designed for the human element to live and drive in and the last thing we’ll do is talk about the back seat but before we do let’s talk about these rear doors for a second because in the CX5
And cx50 you got 90° opening and here it’s just not quite there it’s still pretty practical and easy to load stuff in but not quite as easy as it could be but then you sit back here it’s not quite as big as a Forester or a CRV but
It’s still plenty big I’ve got 3 to four 5 Ines of knee room in front of me I’m 61 that’s where I would sit in front of me driving and I even have head space with my nub you guys know how I hate to hit my nub on the ceiling but even still
With the Pano roof which again you’re not getting in the CRV I’m not hitting my nub love that but I have plenty of room back here you step in and you see you have climate Z or climate vents back here not a dedicated climate zone but
Vents and you do have two USB C’s two map pockets and you can even get heated rear seats and that is pretty good in a back seat and then before we go for a drive there’s just a handful of little things that I think we should cut cover
Here like for one you get this package I think it’s called the weather package or something but it gets you a couple things it gets you these windshield deicers which is fantastic to have uh in I don’t know Milwaukee in January would be a great place to have it you’ve Al it
Also gets you the heated rear seats it’s just the Outboards it’s not the middle but I think it’s fine and then it also gets you your heated steering wheel we mentioned it on the exterior walk around but I do like the fact that the rav for still gets you the Classic Blue hybrid
Designation on your logo there’s also a button on the key you can see here it says hold AC now it’s not going to do anything today because I want the heat to go on but if you hold this it’ll precondition the cabin with air conditioning if you’re on a hot day so
If you live in a hot climate or if it’s July here then that would be a nice thing to have and again I think it’s kind of weird that the shock towers are are painted red here and this is a little bit of a small thing but I
Noticed it and so did my wife you get in the car and the door handle is pretty far forward on the door so you’re not grabbing it back here with a bunch of Leverage so you do have to pull it noticeably harder to get the door closed
Than you would if the door handle was back here or maybe more in the middle it would be cool to see the sun one day sun it’s all right the depression the seasonal depression is real people laugh but it is real dude you want to talk about being depressed my whole life
Changed in 24 hours I I I your depression level is directly correlated to how much and how quickly you text me back I know I know your mood exactly launch in the raft 4 Prime sport mode hit it it’s got great power I mean my neck is having to work it has great
Power for being a performance this I think this is the best like you get everything here you get the best of everything here you get the best fuel economy the best performance let’s talk about our Pros let’s have you start yeah and I think that is one of them is just
The um the efficiency that you get here but the power as well that’s definitely my number one um my second favorite thing is just the comfort from the ride like yeah it’s not as engaging or spirited as like a cx50 or a CX5 but I just think in a straight line which
You’re probably going to drive this thing most of the time it is just extremely comfortable not only the ride and the dampening but the seats as well yeah totally would agree really really comfortable and then the normal everyday person is going to appreciate this ride
More than a CX5 yes I think so and then my third thing is the um just the reliability and safety features that you get with uh Toyota um I just think you know it’s it’s been the number one or close to the number one selling in this
Segment for such a long time and that’s just because it’s tried it and true you know these things are going over 300,000 Mi like they just reliability is great here yeah yeah I mean a plug-in hybrid is more of a New Concept in the last 3
To 5 years and of all the people that you could buy a plugin hybrid from you know Hyundai Kia Toyota Lexus Toyotas is going to be the one that I would go with I would feel the most secure with it they have a really robust hybrid technology system and I would just I
Would have nice peace of mind like a longevity perspective do you have any uh Pros that were different than mine mat uh I just think that everything everything kind of about this thing just works really well like you have a great backseat space you have a great trunk
Space maybe it’s marginal with the CRV in those two places but there’s nothing like there’s no real place to ding this to ding this thing objectively speaking but let’s talk about the cons then if you were going to ding it where would you ding it yeah I think one of them is
Just the price and Rarity of the actual Prime that we’re in uh very expensive I think we said over 12 Grand more expensive to get the prime um than just over the the regular hybrid yeah and the regular hybrid is Fabulous by the way right it’s really good um a big ask to
Go to the pricee so price is is one of them the second is like driver assist features like this has Lane keep but not like Lane centering it’s just it’s just definitely not as good as like your Hyundai or um like the Tucson for example I would say it’s probably on par
With what Mazda the CX5 cx50 was doing but yeah I would give it like maybe a half Step Above Mazda with it as it was this week but I know that Toyota has a little bit more robust system available yeah and then I think the third thing is
That uh although like the interior is really practical and it has a lot of things I just don’t think it’s as nice as um like I just think the the CX-5 just had a more elegant um interior 100% And then also compared to like the
Tucson I just think that that just is a bit more elegant inside as well but I I think you you get the the durability of stuff in here it’s like made to last it’s a bit more rugged built which is fine because I think yeah so those are
Kind of my three I just have like maybe two and I think I I’m trying to rationalize this whole thing by thinking like okay car and driver has 10 cars that are better than this that they think and I can’t really think of 10 cars that are better than this like this
Is very good the places that I would ding it on is the price the availability the interior feels old like it does feel older compared compared to like you know we’re going to get a new Tucson this year we’ve got you know a Mazda CX5 which still feels pretty new the cx50 is
Pretty new you know like some of the other other options feel newer but this isn’t bad in an objective way and then the only other thing is and again this is again kind of like a double-edged sword but the plug-in hybrid thing you don’t get from everybody and it is a
Newer technology and you are then maybe worrying about some reliability or some newer propulsion technology and maybe there’s some relatively new Toyota right yeah but you know that being said if anyone’s going to get it right it is Toyota so I mean in this segment I probably would have this this would be
What I would buy if I could find one and afford it we were talking about it over the year I think I would get a Rav 4 probably just a hybrid I don’t think that I need the prime the benefits I come with that it’s a big expense to go
Up um or a or a Tucson but I just think here you just know what you’re getting you know the reliability I I still think you know the Hyundai has an amazing powertrain warranty and like that but these are just so tried and true um again like there’s it’s a reason it’s
Class leading yeah no I think it’s interesting that you mentioned Tucson as as your other one that you would consider because we are going to get a new Tucson this year so stay tuned for that but until then thank you to Toyota for letting us have a go and you’re very
Good RAV four definitely better than 11th in the segment I would say I definitely think it’s it’s it’s top five for sure for me but totally agree but thanks again to Toyota thank you to you for watching and we’ll see you in the next one see you guys
Toyota RAV4 PRIME, RAV4 Hybrid, or CRV Hybrid?
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0:00 – Intro
0:24 – RAV4 Flavors
BAD
0:49 – MPG
2:15 – Best & WORST of both worlds
2:59 – Cargo space
4:16 – Price
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GOOD:
4:59 – Things the CRV doesn’t have
5:38 – The PRIME thing
6:50 – Looks
8:31 – The driving experience
9:20 – Tech
10:49 – Interior
12:03 – Rear Seats
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12:55 – Odds and Ends
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14:03 – Duo Drive
