Toyota RAV4 Hybrid 2020 long term review

I'm Tom Baker, this is Chasing Cars, and today is our final report on our long-term review of the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, an SUV that has absolutely taken the Australian family car market by storm. But first, we have to recognise two things. The first is that if you have a good memory, our long-term was graphite grey over a nutmeg interior, and this car is clearly blue over black. The reason for that is mistakes happen, we lost a bit of footage at the end of last year, and because of how busy we've been, it's taken a little while to get a RAV4 Cruiser Hybrid back to finish this thing off. But that's what we're doing today, so thank you very much for your patience. And still really relevant, because there's still massive wait times on the RAV4 Hybrid. It's been really popular in Australia, people are waiting three, even six months on this car, so today we're going to figure out whether or not this thing is actually worth the wait, or whether it's all a bunch of hot air. The spoiler alert, it isn't a bunch of hot air. We loved our time with this vehicle. We kept it for four months, just over 5,000 kilometres, so we are in a good position to let you know whether or not this thing is worth buying. So in today's video, we're going to run through the things we liked about the RAV4 Hybrid, and the things we didn't like so much, and should be improved in the future. The first thing we loved about the RAV4 Hybrid was the fuel economy. Unlike some SUVs in particular that promise a really good fuel number on paper, and then go ahead and blow that number out in the real world by 30 or 40 percent, what you see on the tin is basically what you get with the Toyota Hybrid system. Toyota have been working on hybrids for two decades, you can really tell because they actually work. So with the RAV4 Hybrid Cruiser all-wheel drive, the claim is high fours on paper. We easily got six litres per 100 kilometres over our long term with the vehicle, and that was a mix of about 60 percent in-town driving, 40 percent in the country. You don't have to try, you don't have to really adjust your driving style, and you can also use the cheapest E10 fuel to keep your running costs really low. The next thing we liked about the RAV4 Hybrid was the performance on offer, and that's because unlike rivals like the Subaru Forester Hybrid, the Hybrid here isn't just the efficient engine of the range, it's also the performance offering. So with the all-wheel drive, which has three electric motors, there's 163 kilowatts of power, the two-wheel drive has a dual motor setup and 160 kilowatts of power. Either way, that's pretty competitive in this segment, and the RAV4 Hybrid feels pretty quick. Eight seconds from zero to 100 isn't anything that special, but it's more the feeling of the instant torque available, especially at low speeds, that makes a real difference in how zippy the RAV4 Hybrid feels. The next thing we really liked about the RAV4 Hybrid was the premium interior, but with a caveat. If you can afford it, we'd suggest going for the Cruiser model, because in the other Hybrid versions, you get really hard plastics splayed across the door trims, which we think is a bit of a cheap move, but here in the Cruiser, basically all the secondary surfaces are covered with leatherette, and it really helps lift the ambience of the interior, and makes it feel like a more premium offering. Now, the nutmeg interior really sets that off. This car has the black. Problem with the nutmeg is it's one of the most in-demand options for the RAV4, and it does blow out your wait time a little bit. Now, I would wait if you had the luxury of waiting, but if you need one sooner, the black is going to be the quicker option in order of taking delivery of the RAV4. Now, as for the rest of the cabin, you have comfortable supportive seats, electric adjustment on the driver's side that will come back to that point in a second, the heating is hot and works quickly, nice little steering wheel, the technology is intuitively integrated and touch-driven with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and digital radio, plus integrated navigation, and the interior is also functional and practical, with wireless smartphone charging, big cup holders, and a clever shelf, meaning you have plenty of storage options. We also love how good the RAV4 Hybrid is to drive, both around town and out on good country roads too. It's quiet and refined, as we'll come to in a second, there's good punch from the engine, the handling is solid, the body control has been well done, and the suspension strikes a good balance between the softness that you want in a family SUV, with firmness to let you know what's going on underneath the car, and to have just a little bit of road feel, and the sensibly sized 18-inch wheels that are neither too big to be comfortable, nor too small to look good, really add to that as well. Speaking of that refinement, that deserves mention all of its own, because the RAV4 is so quiet, tyre noise, engine noise, and other environmental sounds are really well suppressed. In fact, 10 years ago, you would have said it was a Lexus, because of how quiet it is inside, and that really does make it feel like a premium offer within this segment. The last thing we really loved about the RAV4 is how spacious this SUV is for people and their stuff, so in the back, it's a really generous five-seater, more than enough knee room, head room, and leg room for tall adults, or really tall teenagers, and you can easily get three people across, because that floor is nice and low, and the inclusion of air vents and fast charge points means that little ones will stay feeling well and charged up on longer journeys, plus in the Cruiser, all those soft materials extend here to the back, so here in the second row, it's good, and that situation also applies to the boot, even though the electric tailgate, which is standard on the Cruiser, is almost interminably slow, and it does a lot of beeping. Once the door is open, there's lots of space, 542 litres in fact, which means you'll be able to get the luggage of five people in the car into this thing without too much of a problem. It's just a shame that there aren't really any special features of the boot, and that brings us onto the things we didn't love about the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid. Some of the things we didn't like relate to missing features in the RAV4, and even though this vehicle is actually pretty generously specified at an attractive price, there's one or two areas where Toyota needed to look a little bit more closely at what rivals are offering, and that starts here in the boot, where there's really nothing special here. There's one little netted area, but there's no release, remote release for the backrest, so if you're loading heavy long items at Ikea or something, you can't flip those seats down right here from the boot, there's no shopping bag hooks, nor is there any underfloor storage to speak of. Even though the driver's seat has all that electric adjustment and memory, the passenger doesn't get any of it. You don't even get height adjustment, which means that if you're regularly going to be carrying a really tall passenger, anybody above my sort of six foot, their head is going to be touching the roof. Plus, there's no ventilation in the front seats, unlike the Camry, which is an issue if you live somewhere really hot in Australia, nor does the passenger side mirror dip when you're parking. You can't put a map on the driver's digital screen, but even if you could, that screen is often obscured by glare, which can make it difficult to see your speed, which is a bit of a problem in a country with a lot of speed cameras. One thing that we don't particularly like about the driving experience is the noisy rear suspension. Because the rest of the RAV4 is so quiet and so refined, noises that haven't been suppressed adequately tend to sound like they've been amplified. Because you can't hear all that much going on in here, you can hear the rear suspension kind of clunking through complicated bumps here and there. Make sure you test drive it to see if you can live with it. I could, but it is something to note. While the RAV4 Hybrid's CVT gearbox is a good example of its type, and it stays out of your way most of the time, when you want to drive quickly or sportily, you do have to listen to a slightly flary noise. So, hopefully that gives you a clear summary of what our long-term ownership of the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid was like. Sure, it won't be as long-term as some of you out there who've gone and bought the car, and I'd love you to share your experiences below this video. But all in all, we find this Japanese-built hybrid SUV to be really frugal, good to drive, and good to live with. Plus, it's good value and well-specified as well. So, we wholeheartedly recommend the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid Cruiser. Now, make sure to let me know all your thoughts below this video. While you're down there, make sure to hit subscribe and the notification bell. And, as always, thanks for watching.