situman

Toyota plastics are cheap and gross lately. Went to the NY car show, sat in many of the current toyota cars and suvs, yes even the Prius Prime and the plastic and interiors are gawd awful. Thin, cheap and flimsy. The new Land Cruisers are nice though. Their cars are selling so I doubt they see a need to improve much.

Sulu

As I have said before, Toyota needs to learn how to hide their cost-cutting. They are getting better, as seen in the materials of the upper dashboard in the RAV4, but other manufacturers -- like Honda -- do it better. Toyota needs to find out what little items and features (perhaps ones hidden from easy view) they can remove from lower-priced models and trim lines, ones that they can add, bit by bit, to each higher trim line until the top trim line XLE, Limited, etc. gets all the snazzy features.

One other thing about the RAV4 that I do not like is the narrow rear seat. It is too narrow to seat three across, especially if one of those is sitting in a child booster seat; it is a wide car with a narrow rear seat. My wife does not believe me. She looks at the RAV4 or Lexus NX and thinks that they are big vehicles and then asks why I need such a large vehicle.

mmarshall

Swiveling the mirror-housings can come in handy in tight places, or when you are washing the vehicle so that you don't keep bumping into them.

The XLE and Limited do have better-looking trim and more power equipment than the LE...there's no question about that (and they should, given the extra cost). But, from what I can tell, much of that better-looking, more glittery trim is done the same way that GM used to do it......a simple coat of good-looking finish on top of the same old cheap plastic underneath.

96SC4

iTrader: (2)

hey! you snuck some pics of a 2015 in there

anyways, maybe i missed it, but what did you think of the ride quality specifiaclly?

I was in the back seat of a friends 2014 XLE and found the ride to be very harsh...
Also, my sister has had 2 RAV-4's, and recently went with a CRV and likes the ride much better.

sorptd

Nice review. In 2016 thus far, Rav4 is outselling everyone in its class. The refresh and addition of the hybrid option seems to have been well received in the market.

spwolf

2016 update is nip and tuck, not too much inside but it has some nice features now although it is still looking a bit cheap. I like exterior design a lot better now, especially Sport model.

But as you say, it is very, very usable vehicle and thats why it is having record sales. It is focused on usability vs almost everything else on the market and now their "problem" is that they cant produce enough hence big plant expansion in Canada... about half of Rav4's in the USA are currently imported from Japan.

mmarshall

In general, the CR-V does have a smoother ride, but the LE RAV-4's, IMO, wasn't bad at all. The tall 65-series tires on the LE model help some by providing more of a cushion of rubber to help absorb the bumps. As is also the case with many vehicles, upmarket versions of the RAV-4 come with lower-profile tires that, all else equal, benefit handling and steering response at the cost of ride comfort and impact-protection for the wheels.

mmarshall

Thanks.


The RAV-4 has always been extremely popular. In fact, when it was first introduced, it was so popular that dealers were able to charge more than list.

mmarshall

As I was doing the review, I was thinking about some of those earlier comments you had made (yes, I remember them). Of course, I come to my own conclusions, but I have generally noticed the same things in other recent Toyotas. Considering its cost, I found the new Avalon especially disappointing in that regard.

At the other end of the spectrum (among mass-produced vehicles) seems to be Audi. In general, (almost) everything inside and outside of their vehicles looks and feels like it was hand-crafted by Santa's Elves.

Aron9000

I'd say it(and the Honda CR-V) are the roomiest SUV you can buy unless you step up and start spending some big bucks on something like a Grand Cherokee, Highlander, 4Runner, etc. It is a lot of car for the $$$$, especially if you buy the base model and forgo all the "frosting" on the XLE or Limited.

Also no surprise they can't meet demand. They sold 315,000 of them last year in the US according to Wikipedia. Just for comparsion Toyota sells about 400,000 Camrys annually.

chromedome

Agreed, I found it strange that the RAV4 and Rogue have similar exterior widths but the Toyota has a narrower rear seat. I tried fitting a child seat in the middle and it left barely any room for the side seats in the RAV4; the Rogue had a lot more usable seat space. The soft touch plastics on the Rogue felt softer and more substantial and the hard plastic bits were also thicker.

Fizzboy7

Excellent review! The facelift really brought the vehicle up a notch or two in my opinion. The hybrid, for the money, is a good deal.
Just an FYI, your pics of the gauge cluster and rear-end are of the 2015 model, not the much improved 2016 model. I only bring this up because they really added a nicer, new gauge package for the new year.

mmarshall

Thanks. I figured I should do a little more on this one than I did on the Rogue.


Are you referring to the new front end? I thought it looked like a scowling bulldog. Toyota seems to have a thing now with thin slit-upward slots and the big spindie (or spindle-effect) lower grilles. Well, I guess that's just the new company image, that's all.

It's not as much more, in actual dollars, than the gas version, compared to some other vehicles. But it will still take a lot of gas-savings, even at the current low price of gas, to recover that extra $2000-$4000 back.

Te best deal for a hybrid that I current know of is the Lincoln MKZ.....both versions start at the same list price. Even its sister Ford Fusion charges ore for the hybrid.

http://bp3.lincoln.com/2016-Lincoln-...ding=2#/Style/


Yeah, I found it someway confusing myself. For 2016 , there are actually several different gauge-clusters, depending on the trim model and configuration. For instance, my test LE model had a video bar-graph for the coolant-temperature gauge. Others had analog secondary gauges under the twin primary gauges. Still others had three primaries, with a big speedometer in the middle. It was, IMO, actually difficult to tell some of the 2015 patterns from the 2016.

RX_330

Seriously, the difference is only $700 for identically equipped hybrid vs non-hybrid RAV4.



Only the 2016 LE has the carryover gauge cluster from the 2015 year. The XLE, SE, and Limited all have the same twin gauge cluster, the only difference is the color of the gauges is different on the three. The Hybrids have twin gauge cluster as well but instead of a tachometer it's a power meter.

RX_330

2013-2015 ride was awful and well documented complaint. They completely revised the suspension tuning on the 2016 and it's a completely different ride. Also added insulation and seals around to improve quietness.