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

  • last year
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

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#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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