2022 Toyota RAV4 review (inc. 0-100): We test out the new Edge Hybrid version

CarExpert

You can wait up to 18 months for a new Toyota Rav4. But, is it worth wasting time waiting on? Paul Maric reviews the new 2022 Toyota Rav4 Edge Hybrid variants to see if it's worth waiting such a long time to get your hands on!  Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE  More Toyota content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/toyota More Toyota Rav4 content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/toyota/rav4  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior: 01:05 Interior: 03:24 Infotainment: 04:58 Features: 06:57  Practicality: 08:03 On the Road: 12:05 0-100km/h: 16:18 Verdict: 17:53  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #toyota #rav4 #review #hybrid

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. So the Toyota RAV4, it's literally like the most popular SUV in Australia,

00:06 and the last time we shot a video on this there was like a six-month wait list.

00:10 Now, you can wait like over 12 months for this depending on which spec you go for,

00:14 so it is absolutely crazy. But I thought we'd revisit it because there is a new spec available,

00:19 and if you are prepared to wait, is it still as good as the rest of the competition in the segment?

00:23 So this is the RAV4 Edge all-wheel drive hybrid. Previously, the Edge was only available in petrol,

00:29 now it's available in all-wheel drive and hybrid. Now, this is priced at just under $53,000. If

00:34 that's too expensive, the entire range kicks off at a little over $32,000. Now, this competes with

00:39 things like the Mazda CX-5, the Hyundai Tucson, the Kia Sportage. There are a stack of competitors

00:46 in this segment. Today, we're going to do a detailed review of this car, so if you do want

00:49 to skip ahead to other parts of the review, you can use the time codes on the screen,

00:52 or if you're on YouTube, scroll down and use the chapters below. And if you haven't done so

00:57 already, subscribe to our channel, press the bell icon. That's going to tell you every single time

01:01 we review cars near this. So let's talk exterior as the rain starts sprinkling down. You've got

01:09 six colours to pick from, and all but white and khaki are going to cost you an extra sort of $700

01:14 or so. So what has changed as part of this facelift? Well, not a whole lot. Aside from the

01:18 addition of this model, there are some new headlights that I'll run through in a second,

01:21 but for the most part, it is pretty much the same. There are some minor revisions inside. So

01:26 being the hybrid model, like every other Toyota product, you get the blue surrounds,

01:30 you've got a camera down here for the 360 camera. That top section of the grille is closed in,

01:34 but you do have cooling through that centre section and the bottom. Got a bit of gloss

01:38 silver finish down there, and then matte over here as well. I actually quite like the design

01:43 of the RAV4. I think it is probably one of the better looking SUVs in the segment. Yes,

01:47 styling is subjective. Some people hate the way that it looks, but I reckon it looks pretty cool.

01:51 The headlights have had a bit of a change. So you'll remember with the outgoing or pre-facelift

01:55 model, this cluster looked a little bit different. Now it has projector LEDs in there, along with an

01:59 LED daytime running light and indicator. Got a fog light down the bottom there, and then we'll

02:03 whip around to the side. So down here, you've got a set of 19-inch alloy wheels. Big fan of this

02:08 design. It's got that sort of matte finish to it. Then up the top here, you have plastic cladding

02:13 for those wheel arches. These are a little bit controversial because they look very similar to

02:17 Jeep's setup with those sort of rounded edges on the side. These kind of signify that it is

02:22 capable of doing off-road driving, even though you're only going to be doing very light off-roading

02:26 if you do go off-road. Hybrid badge up the top here. Then our mirror has an indicator built in.

02:32 We've got a camera nestled into the side there. A little bit of chrome around the edge of that

02:37 indicator with body colour at the top and then black down the bottom. You've got privacy glass,

02:42 more of that cladding down here. Now around the back here, you still have incandescent elements

02:46 within that taillight cluster, which I think is a bit disappointing. If you're going to use LED

02:50 around the car, the interior has been updated with LED lighting. Why would you not extend it

02:54 to the rear? This also looks strange to me as well. So the edge gets all this black lettering,

02:59 but then you have this chrome coloured hybrid badge. Wouldn't you just go down here with

03:03 black as well? But anyway, I'm not a designer, so there's probably a reason for that.

03:08 You've got more black sections down here with that silver section, similar to the front of the car.

03:13 Toyota logo there with more of that blue highlight and then a shark fin aerial as well. Now tell me,

03:19 do I know what I'm talking about? Is this a good looking SUV or do you think Toyota needs to do a

03:23 bit of a redesign? So we are inside the RAV4. Yes, I can see all the orange stuff. I'll get to that

03:28 in a second. Let's start off with the key. So you have lock, unlock, boot and then on the back you

03:36 have Toyota RAV4. Note the blue there around the Toyota logo. Proximity sensing key. So you leave

03:41 that in your pocket, then you have a push button start just in here. So yes, the orange. There is

03:46 a lot of it inside this cabin and look, I understand they want to make a point of difference

03:50 and really sort of make it pop, but yeah, I don't know that I'd be wanting that much sort of orange

03:57 in the cabinet. Kind of reminds me of the FJ Cruiser that was sort of discontinued. So maybe

04:02 that's a theme they're going for with the Edge version of this car. Now in terms of the design

04:06 itself though, I do think it is nicely laid out. So you've got all this soft touch stuff up the top,

04:11 you've got the screen sitting proudly there and then you have all of these soft touch materials

04:15 with that contrast stitching there. I love that these dials have rubber finishes to them,

04:20 so it really does feel like a sort of rough and tumble vehicle. It even follows onto the

04:25 seat design where you have the orange stitching and the perforations. It's quite a cool looking

04:28 setup. I just don't know if this is going to be a bit too much for people. What about your touch

04:32 points? So that is soft there and it's not too bad on the door. How soft are they? Well, we've got

04:37 our durometer, we've tested the main surfaces in this cabin. If you want to see how this car

04:41 compares to others that we've tested before, have a look at the link in the description. Now,

04:45 build quality. That is a little bit wonky there. The rest of this feels okay. And our door test.

04:52 That sounds good and more rubber there on the door handle as well. Righto, infotainment. So

05:00 this is probably the most disappointing thing about this car and I'll explain why. So,

05:05 eight-inch infotainment screen, but look at the size of the infotainment panel. You could fit a

05:11 much bigger infotainment system in this and I really don't understand why we're so limited here

05:16 in terms of the size. You do have your shortcut buttons on the side there and then you also have

05:20 rubberised knobs there as well if you do need them. On the radio front, you have AM, FM and DAB

05:27 plus digital radio. But in terms of the sound system, you have a nine-speaker JBL branded

05:32 sound system. So that part of things is pretty good. The disappointing part is more just the

05:36 functionality. While this was okay when the car first launched, they really haven't done a great

05:40 deal to update it and just give it some of the pace that some of the other competitors in the

05:44 segment have. So, Ford's SYNC infotainment system, Mazda's new infotainment system. I really do think

05:50 this is quite lacking. Even the Tucson and the Sportage with their big screens. Toyota really

05:54 needs to get their infotainment game happening. I've also noticed there is a missing element here,

05:59 which is the remote connectivity. So, while a lot of Toyota's other products now feature

06:03 remote connectivity, there is no ability to contact the car outside of it and also no ability

06:08 to call for help using SOS buttons, which have featured in other Toyota products like the Hilux.

06:13 On the smartphone mirroring front though, you have both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. They

06:17 are wired systems. So you can see it there. It's kind of fast enough, but just a tiny bit laggy

06:22 as you flick through that. You also have voice recognition available for your smartphone when

06:27 it is mirrored to the car. I'll show you what Android Auto looks like. Crack that open. There

06:33 it is there. So again, full screen integration. And then in terms of speed, it's not too bad. Just

06:38 a tiny bit laggy. You can see my finger is going up, but the screen isn't quite going up at the

06:42 same pace. Ahead of the driver here, you have another LCD display. This one's pretty straightforward,

06:47 but it gives you all of your safety settings and allows you to flick through different menus in

06:51 terms of the car's economy and exactly what the car's doing on the safety front, plus also the

06:55 ability to change your radio stations. Moving on to safety, you have front and rear AEB with

07:01 pedestrian and cyclist detection. Have a look at this. So this comes with a digital mirror,

07:06 so you can flick between these and then it uses a camera inside the boot to give you that vision.

07:12 So really nice setup and it's good because if you like it, you can use it. If you don't,

07:16 you just use it as a normal mirror. It works both ways. You have radar cruise control. You have

07:20 rear cross traffic alert, a lane departure warning. You also have blind spot monitoring

07:24 built into the wing mirror over there. In terms of parking, you have both front and rear parking

07:29 sensors and a 360 camera. So let's have a look at that. There it is there. The quality is really,

07:35 really poor. So I mean, that could be way, way, way better than it is, but that is your reverse

07:41 view. That is your top down view. And then you can switch between different angles here, depending

07:47 on what you want to see. And then when you do put it into park, there is a view button down the side

07:51 here that allows you to see that. But the quality is so bad that it really is just hard to see

07:57 exactly what you're looking at there. So yeah, pretty disappointing on the camera front when

08:01 it comes to parking. Let's talk about practicality and we'll start off with your connectivity. So

08:06 you've got one USB port down here and a 12 volt outlet next to it. Keep in mind that USB port is

08:12 for your smartphone mirroring. So once that's connected, it's out of action. You've also got

08:16 a wireless phone charger down the bottom. In the centre console here, you have an additional two

08:20 USB outlets. These are 2.1 amps, so they are perfect for charging and that kind of thing.

08:24 Now, where are you going to store your phone? So it can live down there on the wireless phone

08:28 charger, or you've got stacks of room down here to just slot your phone in as required.

08:32 What about a coffee cup? So it fits nicely into there. You can even have a big person style coffee

08:38 cup, a really tall one if you want it. It'll fit nicely in there. What about the rest of our

08:43 bottles? So little bottle fits fine. You've got teeth there as well. Little bottle fits inside the

08:48 door without any dramas. Now, what about our big bottle? This is a big old space down here.

08:52 No, it doesn't fit into there. It doesn't fit into the door either. It's so random. The hole is huge.

08:58 Oh, it does if you kind of cram it in there, but I don't know, probably wouldn't do that.

09:03 Other storage, you have a slot here just under the air vent. You also have a console that's

09:07 really reasonably sized. You have a glove box that is kind of okay, even with the manual included.

09:15 You've got this little slot up here. I guess that's for storing your phone or other bits and

09:18 pieces. It's got a little bit of grippiness to it. And then finally up the top here, you have a

09:22 sunglasses holder. And now what about your comfort features? So you have dual zone automatic climate

09:27 control. You have heated and cooled seats for the front row. I like this feature as well by pushing

09:33 this button. It will just do air conditioning for the front here and it won't do it for the back.

09:36 On the seat adjustment front, the driver's seat is electric, passenger seat is manual,

09:39 but in terms of the electric movement, forwards, backwards, backrest goes forwards, backwards,

09:44 and then you have a little bit of lumbar support as well. The seats are very comfortable and the

09:48 steering wheel really does sit nicely in your hand. In terms of steering wheel adjustment,

09:52 you have both tilt and reach adjustment. And on our reach test, all of this stuff is easy to reach

09:58 while you're driving. Second row. Now this is one of the things I love about the RAV4. Look how much

10:02 room I've got. So this seat's pretty far back and I have heaps of knee room, good toe room and

10:08 excellent headroom. Being the hybrid, the battery pack is actually under the seat here. So it doesn't

10:13 really rob you of any space in the boot. So it's a really good sort of packaging setup. You've got

10:17 one map pocket on this side, air vents in the centre here, two 2.1 amp USB-A charging ports.

10:24 You have a centre armrest here with two cup holders. So it fits our bottle in nicely. This

10:30 also fits inside the door as required. You've got ISOFIX points on the two outboard seats and three

10:35 top tether points as well. This is huge. So if you are looking for a medium SUV that you want to grow

10:41 with your family, there is a lot of room back here. This also tilts forward a touch as well. So it

10:45 means that you can kick back and relax if you do want to while you're seated in the second row.

10:49 And finally, our window test. See what happens. All the way down. Fantastic. Good job, Toyota.

10:58 One of the big benefits of the RAV4 is the size of the boot. It is a very slow boot,

11:04 unfortunately. Come on, up you go. There we go. Oh, actually, before I show you the size of the

11:09 boot, this is where the camera is nestled for the digital mirror. So they kind of pop it up the top

11:14 there. So you have just under 600 litres of cargo space available here in this configuration. Then

11:19 when you lift this up, you have access to a temporary space saver spare tyre. This, though,

11:26 can drop down a level thanks to that being a space saver. Gives you just a little bit of extra

11:30 storage or potentially the chance to actually put things underneath this lid. You've got hooks down

11:36 the front there. Big JBL subbie. I'll show you what it looks like with our bags in there. So

11:42 one bag there and then this bag as well. So it's a really good space because the lip is quite low,

11:48 so it means getting things in and out is really straightforward. So, yep, big fan of that. Now,

11:52 you can extend the space if you want, and you do that by dropping the second row out of there. It's

11:58 a 60/40 folding configuration and that expands the space to just under 1700 litres.

12:04 So we've just hit the road in the RAV4. Now, one of the big benefits of the hybrid and

12:13 particularly the all-wheel drive version is, I guess, the drivetrain and how versatile it is. So

12:18 it uses a naturally aspirated 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine. That engine makes

12:24 131 kilowatts of power and 221 newton metres of torque. So it's not a tremendous amount,

12:30 but it is supplemented by hybrid components and it's quite a fascinating system.

12:34 Inside the actual transmission, there are two motor generators, so two electric motors.

12:39 They both act in their own ways to supplement the engine's torque to give you either full

12:44 electric power or have you running on a mix of both the internal combustion engine and the

12:48 electric motor. But then the all-wheel drive version has a separate electric motor on the

12:52 rear axle. So this, in effect, has three electric motors powering it. So it's a pretty advanced

12:57 system. Now, they combine to produce 163 kilowatts of power and that's where you can see this starts

13:03 making a whole lot more sense because you're getting that push in the back from the electric

13:06 components plus the internal combustion engine as well. Now, how does all that feel behind the

13:10 wheel? Let's give it a little stab here. Yeah, look, it actually feels really nice and sprightly,

13:17 like it just gets up and moves. And it's funny because you hear the noise and it just sounds

13:21 like it uses a CVT, so it just revs out when you hit the throttle. But you get a whole lot more

13:27 punch in the back than you actually are hearing. So it sounds and feels like it's actually doing

13:32 stuff, which is what I really like about the RAV4, especially in the all-wheel drive hybrid trim.

13:36 The other really big advantage of this setup is that you don't have a driveline that runs

13:42 down the centre of the car, which means you're saving weight. In effect, you also don't have to

13:47 have a giant hump there to accommodate the driveline, but you still have the benefit of

13:51 all-wheel drive. And it's instantaneous all-wheel drive, so when it needs torque on the rear axle,

13:55 it just simply pulses that electric motor instead of having to send torque down a driveline,

14:00 which is entirely inefficient.

14:01 Let's check fuel economy. Toyota prides itself on economical hybrids. Let's see how we're sitting

14:10 at the moment. We are currently sitting on an average of 8.9, so it is double that. I will

14:18 caveat that by saying that this car has been doing idling. Today we've been using it as part of our

14:22 big SUV comparison, so it has been doing a lot of idling, and I have seen these down around that 5

14:27 litre per 100km mark in real-life situations. So I think it can be better. Today is just the

14:33 exception to that rule. Now quickly, I want to just on the back of the fuel economy section talk

14:37 about the fuel tank. So it's a 55 litre fuel tank, but when we published our last review,

14:42 we had a stack of people contact us and say they can't actually fit 55 litres of fuel in the fuel

14:47 tank. I know that there's normally like a reserve in there, but that's normally above the stated

14:52 amount that you can actually get in there. So do you own a RAV4 hybrid? Does it actually fit 55

14:57 litres? Let us know in the comment section below. One of the other big advantages of a hybrid drive

15:02 train is that if you do roll out of the throttle, it can go into its full EV mode, and in that mode

15:07 it has the internal combustion engine switched off, so that's saving you petrol because the

15:12 internal combustion engine isn't running. But it also means that you are able to charge the

15:16 battery when the vehicle is slowing down. So as I roll out of the throttle, it goes into that

15:20 charging zone, and then the more braking I put on, the more it is charging that small battery. So

15:25 you can put it into the EV mode permanently, so you push that button and it is just running on EV,

15:29 but yeah, if you do accelerate too hard, it will basically kill your EV mode progression,

15:35 because it is only a small battery and the electric motors can't pull enough current to

15:38 get it moving at any great pace. Now what about your drive modes? Let's pop this into Sport,

15:44 fling it through our corner. I already feel the throttle has become instantly sharper.

15:49 Put it through here. That's actually not too bad. The ride is pretty soft, so you do get a little

15:55 bit of body roll through the corners, but for the most part it gets along really nicely. And when it

16:00 is in that Sport mode, the throttle picks up fast and sharp. It gives you that sort of punch in the

16:05 back that you need, and it's all fairly seamless, so a pretty impressive setup there. In terms of

16:09 your other drive modes though, if you hit that down, it just goes into Normal, you've got Eco

16:14 as well, plus a Trail mode, which is for light off-road driving. Toyota doesn't have an official

16:19 0-100 figure for the RAV4, but this is how it went up against our stopwatch.

16:36 Let's talk about the ride. Now this is one thing that Toyota has absolutely nailed.

16:39 The ride is fantastic, especially out here on these course-chipped country roads.

16:43 You drop a wheel off the edge, you've got corrugated sections of road,

16:47 really just picks them up smoothly, and nothing is a fuss to it. It's just being tuned with

16:52 Australian roads in mind. So it isn't as firm as some of the sportier SUVs in this segment,

16:57 but it does the job in terms of carrying your family and just keeping you nice and comfortable

17:02 when you are on long-distance drives. Same story with how quiet it is inside the cabin. In fact,

17:06 it's so quiet, you can hear my shoe squeaking on the sideboard there, so it is a really impressive

17:12 place to be seated if you are doing a long-distance trip with the family. Now what if you do want to

17:15 do some towing? Well, the all-wheel-drive version of the RAV4 Hybrid comes with a towing capacity

17:19 of 1,500 kilos, so really it's not going to set the world on fire, and you might want to look at

17:24 petrol options instead if towing is going to be important to you. Mind you, I probably wouldn't

17:29 want to be towing anything greater than 1,500 kilos in a vehicle like this anyway. Now visibility,

17:33 so down the front there I can clearly see everything. The bonnet ridges follow all the

17:37 way down, massive wing mirrors and blind spot monitor built into those. Visibility out the rear

17:42 is great as well, it's a big envelope, and of course with parking, you've got that 360 camera,

17:46 it's not very good, but you do have the front and rear parking sensors that make it easy to

17:50 place in and around the city. So the Toyota RAV4, look, I don't think they've made any

17:57 mistakes by simply putting the Hybrid drivetrain into the Edge model, the top spec. It still drives

18:02 fantastic, it uses barely any fuel at all, and look, it is just big inside too. It really just

18:07 ticks all the boxes that you need in the medium SUV segment. It is still a little bit disappointing

18:12 that there is no head-up display, like we mentioned this the first time around, I would have thought

18:15 they would have integrated it by now. Also, none of that remote connectivity stuff, that could be a

18:19 semiconductor issue, but it would be nice to see that it matches the rest of the Toyota range in

18:23 terms of that remote connectivity. But look, outside that, this is a fantastic SUV, and I can

18:28 understand why some people want to wait 12 months for them, so if that is you, it is worth the wait,

18:33 trust me, when it finally arrives, you will enjoy it. Now, let me know in the comments section below,

18:37 have you bought a RAV4 Hybrid? What do you think of it? How has it been? What's the ownership

18:41 experience like? I'm always keen to hear from you guys, and if you did enjoy this video, please make

18:45 sure you share it with your mates, and like it as well, and if you haven't done so, subscribe to our

18:49 channel and press the bell icon, but until next time, take it easy.

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