Who knew there could be a fun to drive
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MotorTranscript
00:00 Hi there, welcome to another comparison test by Motor Trend.
00:06 Today we're talking about compact crossover plug-in hybrid.
00:11 (upbeat music)
00:13 Admittedly, it's not the most exciting segment
00:22 in the automotive kingdom,
00:23 but at least these two are trying.
00:26 Let's meet the contenders.
00:27 To my right, we have a Toyota RAV4 Prime XSE,
00:32 and the XSE is important because that's Toyota speak
00:35 for sorta sporty.
00:36 On my left, the all new Dodge Hornet RT,
00:41 and what Alfa Romeo doesn't want you to know is
00:43 it's basically an Alfa Romeo Tonali with a Dodge badge.
00:48 These cars are much more powerful than you might think.
00:51 This one makes over 300 horsepower,
00:53 and this little guy almost makes 400 pound feet of torque.
00:58 Since they're plug-in hybrids,
01:00 you can drive quite a while on battery power alone.
01:03 When that's gone, boom, the engine kicks on,
01:05 and you're good to go.
01:07 Here's the downside though, they ain't cheap.
01:10 Each of these cost over $52,000.
01:15 So if you're in the market for one, which should you buy?
01:19 Let's find out.
01:21 The RAV4 is a tricky design to talk about.
01:23 Yeah, it's got the angry eyes and the big mouth
01:25 that all Toyotas seem to have for some reason,
01:27 but it's almost like they're ashamed
01:30 of what's going on on the side.
01:31 Here's what I mean.
01:32 There is so much black masking parts of this car.
01:36 Like, yeah, okay, SUVs gotta have fenders,
01:38 but look at the size of that sill.
01:40 Lots of cars do that.
01:42 Black makes things look smaller than they are,
01:44 hence my T-shirt, but look what they do to the roof.
01:47 The paint stops here.
01:48 It's like you're paying for a white car
01:51 and they're only selling you 2/3 of one.
01:53 And then the design is super busy on top of that.
01:55 There's a line there, a line there.
01:57 This line does this.
01:58 The taillights stick out furthest.
02:00 I don't know.
02:01 It's weird that such a busy, kind of extroverted design
02:04 somehow manages to remain so anonymous.
02:08 The Hornet is a much more successful design,
02:13 primarily because you can see the family resemblance
02:16 to other desirable products, like the Dodge Charger.
02:20 Who doesn't want one of them?
02:21 Plus, look at that badge.
02:23 No one does badges as cool as Dodge.
02:25 From the Hellcat to the Demon to the Rumblebee
02:28 and now the Hornet, that's just cool.
02:31 As for the rest of the side goes,
02:33 hey, that's a beautiful Alfa Romeo.
02:34 No, really, it's a shrunken Stelvio,
02:36 but for the price of a Dodge.
02:38 They went ahead and incorporated the tailpipes.
02:41 They've got a beautiful wraparound taillight
02:43 and Acapulco gold covering almost every inch of the vehicle.
02:48 Based on nothing but looks alone,
02:51 I much prefer the Hornet here to the RAV4.
02:54 (upbeat music)
02:57 My big question about the interior
03:07 of the Toyota RAV4 Prime is,
03:09 am I sitting inside of a $53,000 automobile
03:14 from a quality standpoint?
03:17 To me, the answer is no.
03:18 I'm looking around, touching things.
03:20 This is $38,000, tops.
03:23 Toyota's always gonna have this problem.
03:25 They can't just start using nicer material in here
03:28 because then you're stepping on the toes of Lexus.
03:31 As far as Prime-specific technology goes,
03:35 I've got a few buttons down here
03:36 that'll cycle me through my various driving modes,
03:39 hybrid, EV only, preserve the state of battery charge,
03:42 and there's a sport mode.
03:44 So are there any good things
03:46 about the inside of the Toyota RAV4?
03:49 Yeah, I mean, the screen is pretty big,
03:51 little tacked on, but pretty big,
03:53 and the seats are fairly comfortable.
03:55 I have the same question about the $52,405 Dodge Hornet
04:05 that I do about the RAV4.
04:07 Is this interior worth the money?
04:10 Well, hey, it's way better.
04:12 If you look at the quality of the materials,
04:14 and I'm talking about stuff like the vents,
04:16 the switch gear, the stitching, the leather,
04:19 it's much nicer than what you find in the RAV4.
04:22 In fact, you might say,
04:23 hey, that looks like Alfa Romeo quality.
04:25 In fact, if you happen to own an Alfa Romeo,
04:28 you might say, those are my shift paddles,
04:30 this is my steering wheel,
04:31 this is where the start button would be on my Giulia,
04:34 this is the door handle, these are the lock switches.
04:36 You get the idea.
04:38 It's a lot of tonali in this thing.
04:40 Like these seats, they're here,
04:42 they're covered in fabric instead of leather
04:44 like you get in the Alfa,
04:44 but they do a much better job of holding you in place
04:47 during sporty driving than the seats in the RAV4 do.
04:50 That said, RAV4 has air conditioning seats,
04:53 this does not, and it should.
04:56 Listen, Dodge, you know the American market.
04:58 We sweat a lot, give us AC seats over in Italy, whatever,
05:02 but come on, despite that, despite not having cooled seats,
05:05 I much prefer the slightly more cramped interior
05:08 of the Hornet to that of the more spacious,
05:10 but give me a break, RAV4 Prime.
05:13 What surprised me the most about the Toyota RAV4 Prime
05:21 is that in a straight line, this is faster than the Hornet.
05:25 I would have thought that the Dodge,
05:26 since it weighed less and it makes more torque
05:28 and it has almost the same horsepower,
05:30 it would have been quicker, but no.
05:33 5.5 seconds to 60 miles an hour,
05:35 whereas the Hornet takes 5.6
05:37 and that gap, it lasts through the quarter mile.
05:40 Now, every other performance metric there is,
05:43 both observable and subjective, the Hornet smokes it.
05:47 It has better brakes than this does,
05:49 it likes to go through corners,
05:51 it has way better tires that don't squeal
05:53 for their lives constantly,
05:55 and the Dodge has a six-speed automatic,
05:58 whereas this has a CVT,
06:01 meaning if you just touch the throttle,
06:04 (screams)
06:05 it's screaming as if it's about to just keel over and die.
06:08 So, you know, pretty quick for a hybrid,
06:12 seems to be built pretty well,
06:15 but for $53,000,
06:19 there's many more sporty vehicles out there for you to buy.
06:22 Please believe me, as far as going around corners
06:28 on a windy road, the Hornet eats the RAV4 alive.
06:33 This thing is great to drive.
06:34 However, I wanna talk to you about its plug-in hybridness,
06:38 actually both vehicles.
06:39 Right now I'm in full EV mode,
06:41 this is fully charged, I can go 31 miles on the battery.
06:45 Toyota's got a bigger battery,
06:46 weighs a little more, goes 42 miles, not bad.
06:49 If this has a full tank of gas,
06:51 the range is like 200, 203,
06:53 depending on how you're driving.
06:54 Add it up, you're under 250 miles of range on a single tank.
06:58 So, you're gonna be able to drive
07:00 at a pretty good speed,
07:01 but you're not gonna be able to drive at a full charge.
07:04 Toyota though, tells you fully fueled, fully charged,
07:07 500 miles of range.
07:08 So if you need to, you know,
07:10 commute and never stop for gas,
07:12 that's a consideration on the Toyota.
07:13 However, let's say you're driving sporty.
07:16 I put this in sport mode,
07:17 and it's gonna activate the engine,
07:19 and when I'm done, I'll have a fully charged battery.
07:22 Whereas in the RAV4, in the same mode,
07:24 my battery will be at zero,
07:26 which is something to think about
07:28 before we get to the actual conclusion.
07:29 I wanna say that both cars are flawed in the same way,
07:32 and that's, they're kind of gutless,
07:34 pointless gasoline engines.
07:36 If these were full EVs,
07:38 they would be so much better.
07:39 They compete with like the Hyundai Ioniq 5,
07:41 or the Tesla Model Y.
07:44 Not everyone's ready for that.
07:45 I know, I digress.
07:47 Blame Toyota in this case.
07:48 They're the ones who stuck the XSE badge
07:51 onto their $53,000 plugin,
07:54 and said it's supposed to be sporty.
07:56 Yet, I just got out of the car 15 minutes ago,
07:59 and I can barely remember driving it.
08:01 Hats off to Dodge,
08:02 and a little bit of a hat tip to Alfa Romeo
08:04 for finding some white space in this segment
08:06 and carving out something totally new.
08:08 Who knew there could be a fun-to-drive
08:12 plug-in hybrid family small compact crossover thingy-bopper?
08:16 And that's why the winner of this comparison test
08:19 is the 2024 Dodge Hornet RT.
08:24 (dramatic music)
08:27 (wind whooshing)
08:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]