This is One Of The Best Plug In Hybrid Cars in 2024 and Here’s Why
Plug-in hybrids they are the proper stepping stone between a hybrid or a gasoline car and a full-on electric car with many folks wondering about electric cars and are not ready to make the pledge plugin hybrids are actually a great option for those who are on the
Fence they want an electric car but they don’t want a full electric cars because of the range of anxiety because of various reasons in today’s video I’m want to share with you one model that kind of flies under the radar a a little bit it is not perfect but it is in my
Opinion we’ve reviewed now a lot of plug-in hybrids this is one of the best on the market with one thing that kind of puts it down and that model is the Toyota RAF 4 Prime plug-in hybrid in today’s video I’m going to share with you why this is a car that actually
Flies under the radar of some and why if you’re nervous about electric cars you should actually give this car a chance we’re going to talk about some technical stuff we’re going to look at the inside and the outside we’re going to share with you some things you should know
About this and more importantly some things that are not good about this particular car which I wish they would fix let’s get started we’ll talk about it some more let’s start with the most important question well we’re talking about this car that is a plug-in hybrid what is a
Plug-in hybrid let’s just Define that in a simple fashion here so if you are curious you will know exactly what that means so we’re all familiar with hybrids you know gasoline engine electric motor they work together we get a very efficient powertrain plug-in hybrids are actually hybrids that are modified to be
The plug-in part so basically this R 4 Prime is exactly the same with some tweaks of course but exactly the same otherwise to ra 4 hybrid just a regular ra 4 hybrid except this has a much larger battery the high voltage battery it has a much larger one which enables
You to charge this battery up and drive it in electric mode only and once that electric range depletes you can actually drive it as a regular hybrid here’s the engine there’s an ecvt here and it drives exactly the same as a regular hybrid that’s the special part and some of you
Will will say wait a second so what is exactly the purpose of this that’s a very good question see this particular ra 4 Prime gets right around 40 mil of charge so you can drive it in electric mode for 40 miles that some will start laughing usually Tesla drivers will start
Laughing at that number and that’s okay but plug-in hybrid drivers will start laughing when there is a line at the charging station and it’s really cold outside and all the cars are disabled on the side because after you are done with your small but decent actually 40 Mi of
Range your engine will come on and this will become a hybrid and just like any other hybrid we go anywhere this is who is going to end up buying a plug-in hybrid for the right reasons you have a daily commute of say 10 to 15 mil one
Way you’re going to charge this car up overnight doesn’t charge fast not electric car you don’t need to go to a station you can put a level two charger but you can even charge a regular at a 110 outlet overnight should give you pretty close to the fold you do your
Daily commute which you’re going to do every single day to work and back you get back from work maybe you’ll take your family to grocery shopping whatnot well you’ve depleted your 40 miles you plug it in overnight you wake up in the morning and you do that over and over
And over again then once or twice a year you want to take your family in a very long road trip you basic basically just start the car and go you don’t have to plan your trip according to the where we’re going to plug in this electric car
You don’t have to worry about anything cuz this is basically turns into a hybrid you put gas we keep going it’s very efficient and life is great this is the mentality of the plug-in hybrid buyer CU otherwise if you’re going to buy this and not charge it not utilize
That EV range save your money buy a hybrid because they’re exactly the same that’s the bottom line let’s talk about the raft 4 Prime itself because in my opinion I we have tested a lot of plug-in hybrids now we have researched this a lot and I keep coming
Back to this one this one is possibly one of the best plug-in hybrids currently available for sale in 2024 and here’s why first Toyota actually pioneered the hybrid system they were the ones that stuck it out from the beginning and didn’t give up many other companies gave up and now they’re back
To it but Toyota never gave up they actually got their system to be efficient reliable and wellmade and long lasting and these are the things that make Average Joe buying a car today very happy this is not an exciting car although it’s a little bit more exciting
Than the usual RVE for it is not a thrilling car it is not a car meant to move your emotions no this is as kitchen appliance as they come but you know what everybody needs a kitchen appliance not everybody needs that high-end fridge that that fragile and scary everybody
Needs a kitchen appliance this one is a very good one and here is why this is basically nothing new that’s the best part Toyota took their regular hybrid system from a current ra War hybrid and they modified to make it into a plug-in hybrid this engine for example
In the ra 4 Prime is an a25a an engine that has been around since 2018 where there has been many examples with a lot of miles on them well over 200,000 miles there hasn’t been really any disaster patterns that’s what I call them in the mechanics world we don’t have repeated problem after
Problem after problem and trust me I have been doing this for a long time I will share with you a this small piece of information problems with engines they start from the beginning you start seeing these problem patterns from the beginning and they only get worse with time this
Engine though there has been couple little things the first year that it came out things have been quiet you take care of this engine it’s going to take care of you and that is really good there’s been a few quirks here and there which we’re going to talk about in a bit
But not much else and then the transmission in this p810 this transmission is actually not exclusive to the R 4 Prime and that’s the best part this is the same transmission from Sienna hybrid this is the same transmission from Highlander Hybrid they do not have any exclusive stuff some stuff
Yes they are exclusive the RAF 4 Prime but the big big ticket items they’re not and that is the cool thing here the inverter for example it’s a very similar inverter to the regular hybrid yes it is modified for the plug-in part but it’s very similar in operation it doesn’t add
A lot more to make it a plug-in hybrid but the best part about this is if you research Toyota and electric cars Toyota currently have one electric car it is abysmal sorry Toyota but the truth have to be said and the reason for that is not because they can’t make a good
Electric car they don’t believe in electric cars to their own saying don’t take my word for it they’re not fully convinced that current electric cars and their current technology in current shape is the way to go and secretly this is just my humble opinion from just reading the narrative here this is where
They think the future is and they did this very very well there’s a few things about the RAF 4 Prime that make it special and I’d like to share them with you because every other plug-in hybrid I drive they always miss the point the biggest thing about the RAF 4 Prime is
It is a normal car it does not feel like there is too much going on in the background you get in the car you start it has a normal key it has a normal switch gear inside it looks normal yes it’s slightly different but like the packaging or whatnot but the car itself
Feels like a normal RF 4 if you own a ra 4 regular R 4 even non hybrid you get into this oh it’s just like my car let’s keep driving and that is the first important thing that they did here they did not over complicate this into some h
Per spaceship is because it’s the prime no they actually didn’t do that and the second thing is they put a Powertrain that is shared with other models the engine the transmission most of the inverter they’re the same stuff and that is a typical recipe of Toyota they tried initially I feel like
To Market it as this fun it is the fastest ra 4 Ever it goes from 0 to 60 something like 5.4 seconds I am sorry to say this Toyota nobody cares not a single ra 4 Prime owner cares you buy this because it is functional and it is
A good plug-in hybrid and the most important thing is it’s reliable there has been now two three cars that have come in the shop one particular one that I remember it is now approaching 160 165,000 miles there has been another one that had over 200,000 mil on the same transmission
They run perfectly fine just like this particular one with 7,000 mil that’s why you buy the ra 4 Prime because not only are they good as a plug-in hybrid they’re reliable because they did not go overboard but let’s talk about some things that are actually different
Between the RAF 4 Prime and the regular RAF 4 hybrid because those things add one or two things that you should know about them here’s the differences between a RAF 4 Prime and a RAF 4 hybrid so they basically took a RAF 4 hybrid and they slowly solved problems as they came
Getting to the plug-in hybrid state so the first problem is which is where I think kind of the party piece of the ra 4 Prime is the hvc system see most plug-in hybrids they’ll even later luxus is we’re starting to see that on the luxus side they take the easy route
Out how do you heat the cabin when it’s cold and you’re in EV mode that’s the biggest question mark so the way most manufacturers do it is they use a coolant heater that heater will come on it will heat up the coolant that coolant goes in the heater cor and you have heat
Inside the car some of them have used PTC heaters inside they but they’ve always been around that realm while Toyota or the ra for Prime they did not go that route CU that would be the easy inefficient throut because that electric heater needs to come on
And it uses so much electricity and it just kind of become coun productive here they went the extremely complicated route but the good one efficiency wise and so far there has hasn’t really been issues they went with a heat pump system if you look at this giant
Contraption of hoses and lines and all kinds of components look so scary just to look at it it’s like this is going to be my kids college fund goes into fixing this actually it’s not the case because there hasn’t been much that has gone wrong with this the way the heat pump system
Works to make to make this not super complicated and along they took the regular AC system where the cold side is inside and the hot side is out and they they have they gave the system the ability to flip that where the hot side
Is in cold side is out and now you have heat it’s very brilliant system actually heat pump system is nothing new or exclusive it’s actually used in homes as well it’s very efficient system up to a certain temperature though and this is where you got to know about this up to
-14° F the system works great it’s very efficient very quiet just kind of works in the back and you don’t even feel it up to when you get to -14 the engine gets forced on because the engine is the biggest heat generator because there’s combustion engine gets forced on it kicks you out
Of EV mode and now the engine is running because you have to run the engine to maintain heat in the cabin that’s the only downside of the heat pump system so one of the questions you want to ask yourself if you’re buying this car is are you going to be operating this in
-14° F pretty regularly if that’s the case this may start to come out of your shopping list because the system will simply become ineffective at that point and then the other difference is the battery see in the R4 hybrid you have a very tiny battery sit right underneath
The back seat pretty simple and standard in this you have a massive lithium ion battery that sits actually on the outside of the car underneath it it’s very heavily protected and it is not air cooled it actually uses refrigerant from the HBC system to cool that battery and
An electric heater to heat it up because lithium ion batteries they’re very tricky you can’t get them too cold or you can’t get them too hot they have to operate in a optimal operating condition and one thing about the batteries and some folks will be concerned wait a second that batter is extremely
Expensive and sounds like what’s going to Total this car you would be right but here’s something about Toyota they are so conservative about their battery management that’s why they’re bz forx experiment was not very good because they’re way too conservative they kind of went at that electric car like they did here except
Here it works because that battery is going to last a long time in the bz 4X you don’t have an engine that’s why things didn’t work out very well the battery management here Works hyperactive is the word I’m going to use first many plug-in hybrids you
Can actually fast charge them not to the same level as electric cars but you can still fast charge them well they don’t allow you to do that here most plug-in hybrids out there they allow you to charge directly to the battery without using the onboard charger this you
Cannot do that you are limited by the onboard charger because you’re supplying power to this onboard charger and it will charge the battery as it deems necessary to make sure that this battery will last a long time that’s why one of the we’re going to talk about this a
Little bit the downsides of this car is the charge time for a plug-in hybrid they’re actually pretty long but just know if you’re going to operate this car at the proper way it was intended and not try to drive it like an electric car you’re going to realize that that charge
Time is not long at all you’re plug it in overnight if you really need faster charge times go to level two there we go you can charge it much faster and we’re good the only other thing that is different is of course we just talked about the onboard charger this has an
Onboard charger this does have its own dedicated cooling system that is air cooled that have a filter that is for the on board charger which now sits underneath the back seat otherwise this is not really that much different than a hybrid the regular ra 4 hybrid same maintenance two cooling
Systems one for the engine one for the inverter the transmission is an ecbt p810 takes WS fluid drain and fill re 60,000 Mi and that’s about it rear differential it’s an MGR from any other unit drain and fill every 60,000 Mi and we are good to go the only additional
Maintenance that got added for the RAF 4 Prime is you need to service the HVAC system like the refrigerant in the AC every 880,000 mil and the reason for that is they want to make sure that your system is not low or slightly low where it’s working but not working 100%
Capacity the only reason for that is this cools the battery and they do not want your AC system to be overloaded and not working properly and not be able to cool that battery properly that’s the only reason they added that otherwise I mean it’s just it’s a c system that is able to
Reverse operations very complicated if you want to know actually how complicated it is I did make a video explaining exactly how the system works I’ll leave that right here but that’s the only additional maintenance on the raat 4 Prime so let’s talk about other maintenance things the negative
Maintenance I’ll call it there’s no alternator there’s no starter there’s no drive belt there is a very high likelihood that you will not replace your brakes until well over 100,000 Mi because this uses heavy regenerative braking and the brakes the hydraulic brakes don’t get used as much so that’s some of those
Benefits and something else you should know know about the rap 4 Prime remember that this is a gasoline engine you got to keep that in mind see here’s what I see people will do they will buy this and they will never want the engine to
Come on and I already see this I read it on Reddit I read it everywhere people will have competitions how long can we go on this tank of fuel that is not a good idea now the refer Prime does have a mode that is programed into it every
Don’t cope me in this exact number but every 6 months it will force the engine to come on for an entire drive cycle to avoid fuel getting stale now most people will say well that’s efficient that’s sufficient we don’t need any more that’s actually not good you’re basically going to get this fuel
In the car every 6 months you’re going to use it once and then it’s going to keep going that it’s Flying Too Close to the sun you’re gonna end up with a lot of problems because of that don’t do that this is not an electric car you
Want that engine to run here and there don’t overdo it that’s what I’m trying to tell you here basically let’s talk about the scenario we talked about you have a 50 m commute you’re going to charge the car overnight you’re going to drive to work and back go to the grocery store take
Your kid to to piano practice whatever the case may be then you’re back you never use the engine one day out of the week we’re not going to charge this car and let it sit we’re going to use the engine cuz even at that point you are
Still way ahead of having just a regular RAF 4 hybrid because the rest of the week you actually use electric only one day of the week we’re going to use it as a hybrid not going to charge it let the gas run through that way if you’re going
To fill up every 2 3 months of you daily using it that’s still very good and you’re recycling you’re reusing that gas now some folks have mentioned why don’t we use stable or something that stabilizes the fuel why don’t we not why don’t we just drive it once a week in in
Hybrid mode and not have to worry about that because average OE will forget and then we have all kinds of problems that’s the important thing and the second important thing to the gasoline the maintenance of the engine see regardless of how you’re driving this car you still
Have to follow the maintenance of the engine not say well this engine is not coming on I’m not going to have to do that oil change don’t do that folks because if this engine comes on once in the 6 months that you’re trying not to
Get it to run come on that is enough to get enough fuel into that crank case every by the way gasoline engines when you turn them on you will have some fuel in the oil that is normal not in an alarming rate where it’s fuel delusion
But you will have some fuel that make its way on a cold engine when it starts leave that fuel sitting there and one warning about this engine this engine has a tendency of building up moisture because it’s very sealed that moisture just sitting there sitting there never
Gets warmed up never gets cycled never gets changed eventually we start all kinds of problems so with these engines even if you don’t use them which you shouldn’t but in case you do that keep your maintenance 5,000 Mi oil changes 6 months do a maintenance because remember
You bought this car for its reliability not to be a Tesla like if you want to have an electric car don’t buy the bz 4X that’s a terrible car go buy an electric car this is not it you still have to maintain this engine and you still have
To let it run periodically so you wouldn’t have issues and kind of negate the whole point of buying this reliable car nothing is perfect in life including the R 4 Prime it’s an imperfect machine made by imperfect humans so there’s got to be something that’s not good about it
Now there’s actually quite a few stuff let’s start so you can really get the full picture here the first problem is there is only two trims in the RAF 4 Prime for reasons I do not understand there is the SE and there is the xse let us iterate one thing that we already
Said this is a very good kitchen appliance it is not an exciting car it is not a car that makes you smile it is an efficient everyday car that the masses will drive and it’s a very good one for that but I don’t understand the insistence of this being a sports model
This is the furthest thing from a sports model we only have two sport models we have the SE and we have the xse and the problem with that that that brings is we have the prices this raap 4 which is basically for other all intensiv purposes a standard R
4 starts in 2024 at around $43,000 plus destination plus everything else and then if you top it out like similar to this one the xsc model the premium package $552,000 for a rat four that’s the problem at that price point any sensible person will take one good look at this
And be like yeah I’m going to buy a Highlander Hybrid or I’m going to buy a grand Highlander which is an excellent three row SUV why would I buy this I don’t need all these options that are to in in the average car buyer mentality that’s buying kitchen appliance all
These gadgets that are going to break that’s all the words I hear all the time and even though with Toyota most of these gadgets have proven reliable but still the more stuff you have in a car the more likely things will go south 10 15 years later
So it is a great mystery to me why we don’t have a base model cuz if we did have a base model that brought this car under the $40,000 range 37 36 now it’s more in tune with the regular prices of R Forest put hop caps
Take out all the options just a strip down version we don’t need the different look and different fasia and the special weel that doesn’t buyers of this car they’re not looking at that they want a good value and the value in these is how efficient they are how well they work
And how reliable they are not about their options and the thrill of driving and then that takes us to the second problem with the ra 4 Prime because it is currently priced at where it’s priced at it is extremely loud I mean it is something unbelievably loud for its
Price range one thing I will say they do ride better than the regular hybrids and the reason for that is you have the giant battery underneath the car it lowers the center of gravity so they noticeably ride better the second thing about them is they are impeccable they
Are as close to perfect in the build quality and kind of the fit and finish as they come these are exclusively made in Japan and they made in a very good Factory and the thing is just made well you get into this and you get into a
Regular rif for hybrid that is made elsewhere you’re going to notice the difference not going to affect your reliability and whatnot but just the fit and finish and how everything feels and how everything’s put together you feel a difference but the problem is at that price
Point it’s way too loud and what makes it even louder is the rof Rax and the giant panoramic sunroof it is Extremely Loud and this is has been always a complaint about the R 4 why can’t we make it quieter just a little bit I mean we drove a CRV it was
So nice and quiet why can’t this be the same and this is a historic thing with the ra fors but then in the prime it becomes a much bigger problem because now you’re paying a small fortune for this very fancy car but it’s very loud and that’s a
Serious problem with it I think and lastly there is small just this is my personal thing it might not bother 90% of people to buy this car but it really bothers me I have to mention it here you bought this for its quality for its reliability and how well built it is
And it is all that but then the part that makes this special over the regular R 4 hybrid is the plug-in part so when you go plug it in you open that charge door it is the flimsiest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire career working in the
Automotive industry why does this door have to be this massive and this flimsy I don’t understand doesn’t affect your function there’s been no reports of it falling off or breaking otherwise yet but we could have made it a little bit more solid feeling I would have been nice I
Think let’s talk about some things you might not know about the R 4 Prime and some important things that you should know the first thing is one of the Hallmark Fe features of the R 4 Prime is one particular mode so just to run through the modes real quick you have
Three driving modes you have EV which is going to drive you in electric range until it’s depleted then it switches into hybrid mode that’s the second mode where it’s automatically going to drive it like a hybrid switch the engine on shut it off we’re not going to use the
EV range completely and then there’s Auto auto basically will take over the system and drive the most efficient soon as possible the temperature is good outside we’re going to drive an EV when the EV depletes it’s can automatically switch and it’s kind of going to switch
Back and forth if you all start floor it you need more power it’s going to cancel out the EV automatically and then go back to it once you start driving normally but there is a fourth mode which is a Hallmark charge mode when the R 4 Prime came out the number one
Question I got asked is this I live in an apartment I have a ra 4 prime or I want to buy a r 4 Prime but I will not be able to regularly charge it am I going to harm the battery by doing that you actually will not that’s the first
Answer to that question but then come charge mode charge mode is a mode where it forces the engine on to charge the battery exclusively the engine is now going to drive the car and charge the battery continuously up to 80% so here is the scenario where this
Will actually work even if you have a charger at home you commute to work every day your commute now is a little longer it’s 30 mil and by the time you get to your destination you get back on the way back we’re actually going to deplete our EV
Range and possibly you have other places you want to go after work well on your way back from work turn on charge mold yes the engine will Roar gas mileage will not be as good as you are in in hybrid mode but you can actually charge up that battery and the surprise is
Charges it up pretty quick I mean on a short 15 20 M drive you can get it up pretty good quarter of the way up that is pretty impressive and that is a mode that gives you another option you normally drive this in you know commuting to work 50 mil 50 miles back
You’re well below the range of this car so you never have to use the gasoline engine then you’re going on a trip you’re going to drive 6 hours to visit your in-laws visit your parents whatever the case may be on your way there you’re obviously going to deete all your EV range the
Last 40 mil of the trip put it in charge mode you charged it you got to your destination while you are in your destination you have electric range already you don’t have to be worried we’re in a hotel where do I charge or you’re in your parents house hey can I
Run this you can’t use an extension cord to charge these by the way so you’re not going to cause this hassle you can self-charge the car and not have to worry about it that is one of the biggest features of this car let’s talk about the ra 4 Prime
Outside and inside and there’s something important you should know so the ra 4 Prime came out in 2021 then 2022 and then 2023 it actually got a facelift or kind of kind of a major update not a lot have changed behind the scenes but there’s one important change
We’re going to talk about first thing is the headlights changed kind of the front facia got a little tweak looks a little sharper but so does the regular ra 4 and of course the RAF 4 Prime still has the light that everybody wants in their non Prime model only the xsc pretty cool
Looking I mean it’s it’s not the uh best looking car in the planet but it’s not the worst looking car in the Planet I think it actually looks pretty good and looks distinctive enough from the regular model as we wrap around though there is one interesting thing the plugin hybrid badge so Toyota
Started getting rid of the hybrid badges on the fenders because they just felt like it was too much not the plugin hybrid though we still have the badging and equally we still have the black piano piano black stuff on the side I wish it was body color it would actually
Look cooler but again this is a sport model with the black roof and the nose generators right here folks if you own a RI 4 prime or not if you have one of these things and you don’t use it every single day remove it cuz this these make
90% of the noise of this car it just takes that very loud noise takes it to the next level these make a lot of noise in these now something with r 4 Prime that is interesting so you have this has smart key of course this is an XS
Premium package you have you can lock and unlock the doors from the front and the back usually that’s reserved for like Lexus but the rafro prime does have that which is pretty cool at least for that high price giv you something Exquisite Wheels to the RAF 4
Prime I mean it’s a nice design if there was a hub cap there nobody would complain going in the back things relatively stayed very pretty similar in the back not much have changed I like that they don’t have extreme badging on this RAF 4 Prime and the other SI is either SE or
Xse that’s it we don’t need another plug-in hyrid badge here and the whole Jazz we don’t have that now storage in the back is very very similar to a regular R 4 there’s not really much about it this particular one being an xsc premium it does have a JBL sound
System which is okay JBL lately hasn’t been the greatest with Toyota but it works it works decent however when you get the JBL you do have a little bit more protrusion there you have less space now this is something I wish they would have changed especially in the ra
4 Prime they didn’t even change it in the ra 4 you don’t have an option to close this un loock it we just did an update that would have been nice to have but they didn’t and that’s okay now we wrap around and talk about the charge
Port we talked about a little bit but let’s just reiterate why does this have to be this big and why does it have to be this flimsy it’s not the best door in the planet doesn’t reflect the rest of the quality of this car which is really good
Now we do have a proper cover for this plug we don’t have like just wide open or seals around the edge this is actually how the plug should be something happened in 2023 which is a major update people really I hope are appreciating it because it was one of
The see store it doesn’t one of the biggest updates on the R 4 Prime that people initially complain about if you in the years before 23 if you got the se you had a 3.3 KW charger on board charger remember we limited by that on
Board charger in the xsc you had a 6 or 6.6 kilowatt charger well now they both do have the same charger so the higher capacity chargers they both charge faster which is really nice let’s take a look on the inside because we also have some changes on the inside in 23 and
Up the biggest change is to the infotainment system so now the ra 4 Prime has Toyota’s latest infotainment system it’s a it’s a huge upgrade does remain a little bit glitchy but no complaints we still like it it works and works pretty good Wireless Apple carplay and Android auto which is
Really nice kind of brought it to the 21st century the screen in the higher trims of the F 4 is a 12.3 in screen it’s a massive screen I like that they did a few customizations they were on the right road to make this screen actually usable and not just for show
But then they stopped cuz you can’t really display the navigation properly on it it just you can’t display the whole map like why can’t we just put the entire map on this then it will be actually useful to have a screen I am usually against screens so I’m not the
Person to ask but what I like about this update is even though they put this massive screen here and this got bigger things are new and improved they did not stray away from the important stuff physical controls they’re extremely basic for the HVAC system proper shifter all your hybrid control are right here
Heat and cold seats right there very very basic and this is something that I love about the R 4 Prime that is they have to be said here see usually the toyer loves to do this you get in their top trim and you’ll see black switches it’s like but this is the top
Trim why is there black switches I have a 2022 Camry Hybrid xse with every single option I have blank switches it’s like what other option can I get to fill this blank switch this is something about the RAF 4 Prime that is not the case you
Notice usually on most R Force this is a blank switch there is no blank switches here and equally there is no blank switches here so that is really nice at least if you’re going to buy the R 4 Prime there’s no blank switches which is nice now the seats always have been the
Case on the R 4 Prime they’re kind of a an interesting stitching on them with this line in the middle which I think is pretty cool not the most comfortable seats in the planet I have to admit that and the reason for that is this is a
Sport model because of course this is a sports car it’s not folks I wish they would get away from this they are getting away from it from the newer model this seat is better but I think it would have the normal limited or XLE seats it would have been even better
Making this even more comfortable some things about RAF 4 interior this applies to all of them I really like how it’s basic focused No Nonsense no drama very easy to use and that is their Hallmark and I think they this shows you do have a little storage area right there you do
Have decent storage everywhere wireless chargers right there but there’s not a lot going on one thing is that is different here than the regular rap 4 you do have Trail mode which supposed to be for off-roading it works is the charge mode though if you see here
Charge hold so you have to press and hold this button for the charge mode to come on I just want to make sure you see that works pretty good this actually does have windshield wiper warmers they’re right here I’ll show you how that works which actually something very
Small but big and important if you live in cold climate so if you look right underneath the wiper you see this grid and it continues actually both wipers these are wiper warmers so if you have ice build up snow whatnot they’ll actually warm them up and they’ll thaw out that is actually
Pretty cool useful feature overall the ra 4 Prime does look it looks distinct than the regular R 4 hybrid but the main thing that makes it do that at least to me I I look at Toyotas all day long all week long it’s not really the looks see most people
Look at this car and they they feel like this this just looks nicer than the regular R 4 why is that what’s actually not the looks it’s the paint quality and the fit and finish of everything that makes it look just has a different feel even on the inside see these are
Exclusively made in Japan we’ve talked about this in a previous video I’ll leave that right here reliability wise they’re both going to be the same cuz the engine and transmission and design and everything is made the same but the final fit and finish on the outside it’s
Always been the case the Japanese models that’ll have better paint better it’s kind of small fit and finish the plastic will be better on the inside better feeling not that it’s going to break on the other models but you feel this stuff and in this car you feel it a lot more
Because there hasn’t been really much r fors that are made in Japan this is one of the exclusive ones that are made there and you see it you feel it and it’s immediate and I guess that does help a a little bit with the high price
But still a base model will be nice Toyota and that is the rap 4 Prime folks this is a really good car for for those that buy it for the right reasons for those that don’t mind this very high price and with this loud interior and
The lack of a base model if you buy this for the right reasons which should be this works with your lifestyle that you have that short commute if you have 80 M commute it kind of doesn’t doesn’t fit in if you want something that works electrically in town and then on that
Long trip just the engine comes on and off we go and the most important thing why you should consider R 4 Prime is reliability build quality these things are only made in Japan today I don’t know how that’s going to go in the future you definitely notice a huge
Difference when you get in one of these and a regular R 4 made elsewhere not going to affect the reliability if you get one not made in Japan but just the final fit finish the paint quality the interior plastic you can tell a difference and it’s immediate and the R
4 Prime tends to drive a little better this is not an exciting car in any way shape or form but it does feel more weighted because of the location of the battery simple science there but the most important thing is if you are that person that looks at
Electric cars and yes this sounds great but I am not willing to make the lifestyle change yet I feel like this is too much out of my comfort zone I am too busy I’m not really into cars I don’t want to make the pledge but at the same
Time I don’t want to keep driving my old gas cast aler this may actually fall as a perfect compromise between the two you have some of the benefits of the electric cars and then you have some of the benefits of the non-electric cars that regular gasoline cars this kind of
Sits in between but you got to make sure that you’re buying it for the right reasons and that number one reason should be reliability and built quality this is not a thrilling car even though some of the advertising materials will say that it is it is not a thrilling car
It is a very good Appliance but you know what don’t take that as a Bad Thing everyone needs an appliance not everyone needs a very thrilling high-end appliance that only works one day of the year this is a car for the masses folks and the only criticism that I have against
It is for this price point it could be a little quieter on the inside and speaking of the price point we need a base model very badly we need a r for Prime with hubc caps so everyone in the masses can be able to actually afford one now that they are actually available
Cuz when these first came out they were extremely difficult to pain you had to wait for months and it’s not like they’re available everywhere still but they’re better they’re getting better at it buy this for the right reasons and you will not be disappointed in Toyota please make a base model for everyone
Else that wants to buy one but can’t afford it because it’s way too expensive and there’s nothing sport about this this is a sensible car that’s wellmade folks I hope this video was helpful and informative I hope you learn something new if you like it consider giving it a
Thumbs up if you’re not a subscriber consider subscribing to the channel check out some of my videos until the next video folks may the Lord bless you and keep you and you have yourself wonderful day
Plug in Hybrid vehicles are the greatest bridge between regular gasoline cars and electric cars. They give you a balanced use of both.
After testing many plug in hybrids from different manufacturers, We always arrive at the same model which stands out above the rest, The Toyota RAV4 Prime.
In this video we talk about what’s good and what’s not good about the latest update to the RAV4 Prime.
TCCN Automotive Inc.
Toyota and Lexus Specialist Repair
Visit www.tccnautomotive.com to schedule your appointment today.
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