On a trip for work, I reserved a mid size rental car. Upon arrival, the choices were a couple of other CUV minitrucks, a red Ram pickup truck, or this. I discerned that plying the streets downtown would not be favourable in the pickup, so I took the Toyota. It has been years since the last time I drove a Toyota, to the point that I could not recall what the last time had been. Possibly a Camry 20 or 25 years ago in the Southwestern US would be my guess.
I happily chose this fine steed for my trip into downtown Montreal.
There is a bit of a cross look on this Toyota.
Full disclosure, I had written this review up in point form, but never got back to writing it in essay style. So this one has been in the hopper for a while.
The gauges are clean and visible, easy to read. Side to side air conditioning is a nice feature and is always appreciated by those riders who want it cooler or hotter than the driver.
This is an LE model. It was nicely appointed as we’ll notice.
Avis is French for Notice, in this case, not the rental car company.
I like pictures of cars with the headlights on, especially in the dark or indoors. It gives them a bit more of an in-motion or ready-to-go appearance.
This is a bit of a narrow spot, other drivers have scuffed their tires on these abutments. Being an underground garage in the hotel, I guess the spots tend to be a little tighter than usual, but some reasonable space for out of towners in an underground of hotel sure would be considerate. We don’t all get small mini cars to rent. This spot sure cost (the company) enough on my expense report.
I eventually acquired some passengers on this trip. It’s roomy inside for four adults and their computer cases on the floor between the seats, no need to use the rear hatch. Bonus points for anyone who can read the year on my luggage tag.
I liked the spot lamps above the windshield. They were well positioned for quick access and gave good illumination. This is something my daily driver at home lacks. Quite a very useful feature.
The tablet-like display was easy to follow and it took little time to figure out the basics. However, if I was considering purchasing one of these, I would have a hard time getting used to something that looks like it has been stuck on as an afterthought. I prefer these screens to be built into the instrument panel. It took a little while to figure out where the radio buttons were on this tablet, and they were not the larger tactile buttons for the HVAC system.
I have an electronic control screen on my car at home, and I worry that if it ever fails, it would be an expensive repair, as would be for this tablet. Depending on the age of the car, it may or may not be an end-of-life scenario.
I think these pics were intended to show the windshield wiper controls on the stalk on the right hand side of the wheel. My daily driver cars both have them on the turn signal stalk on the left.
The steering wheel had a bunch of controls available. I didn’t use speed control (cruise control if you prefer, I know there is a difference), but I would have liked to have seen the voice command system at work. Being in La Belle Province, it would have been interesting to see if it knew French, English, or both.
The gearshift is large and accessible. The parking brake using the electric button was quite different to me. I left the driving mode controls alone. No Rock and Dirt presented itself on this journey for use in that setting. If it had, time did not likely permit such an excursion in any event.
The power cord accessory connects my GPS device to the electrical outlet. My preference continues to be to use the GPS unit rather than my phone. I can mount it on the dash using its base, and I don’t have to carry a windshield suction unit. Also, I don’t have to worry about cell data overage charges. The one downfall is when picking up the car at the rental centre, the GPS unit cannot connect to the satellite until one gets outdoors, which is often right in the middle of traffic. A cell phone can usually overcome that issue.
Here is a shot of the door handle; it was a bit small to grab.
A shot of the wheels. No alloy here, it looks like a plastic wheel cover. I used to own a car that had lived a hard life in Montreal, and the alloy wheels were eaten up by winter road salt. This may be a better choice for this locale. Still, this is an LE model.
I would be curious as to CC commentariat experience with the plastic trim in the wheel surround. Does it effectively prevent body corrosion, or is it just to keep that part of the body clean? I see it is pretty common nowadays.
The rear storage area looks very adequate.
Here we are at the rental drop off area. Time for some last shots. I certainly like the body profile on these, kind of sleek. I am not a huge fan of the lower body sculpting. Late model Toyota SUVs like the Highlander have a pressed–in appearance on the sides, I don’t find it a great look. There are folds and creases all over the sides.
Overall, this Toyota deployed itself very nicely. It felt capable on the road, did everything I asked it to do, and made some tight maneuvers when required, that parking spot among them. One of the passengers who sat in the back had to be around 6’4” and had voiced no complaints about legroom, headroom, or comfort. The suspension was firm and reassuring, and gave me a good feel of the road through the steering wheel in both city and highway driving. I noted it was AWD, so felt very sure of itself on the road. Acceleration from a stop or on the highway felt adequate even as the engine whined while spooling up. I didn’t check under the hood but I found after it’s a 2.5L 4-cylinder engine.
I would have liked the pedals to have been independently adjustable. The height differential from this to my own cars was noticeable. I would have adjusted the brake pedal to be a bit higher in comparison to the gas pedal.
I could easily see one of these as a popular family vehicle, daily driver, or commuter. Personally, I would opt for something a wee bit less expensive than one of these. Today, one of these lists for $37-44K Canadian for a 2023 model. A 2024 is going for $46 – 52K, before all the dealer add ons. By comparison, a 2024 Ford Escape is in the $44 – $50K range, so just a bit less.
An on line search revealed North American sales to be in the 450,000 unit range for this model year (Goodcarbadcar.net). By comparison with the Toyota Corolla at 250,000, does this make the Rav4 one of the most popular vehicles on the market? It may be more of a mid market price point, above the economy target, but the popularity of this makes it very (Plymouth) Valiant, in my thought process.
Nice for a trip to Montreal, a fun city. More importantly where did you eat?
We rented a Corolla 2 years ago, the big standup screen really looked awkward at first, like it was a computer monitor that had been put atop the dash and was going to fall off at any second. After a couple of days we un-saw it.
I like those plastic wheel surrounds on SUVs. Our Ignis rental car in Ireland had them, and saved Mrs DougD from scraping the fender paint on a stone wall.
To be quite honest, I ate at the Bell Centre one night, at the Leafs and Habs game. Let’s just say the right team won.
The next night we went out to the Grinder. Fabulous place, great food.
But a trip to Montreal is never complete without a luncheon at Rueben’s. That was accomplished next trip there, sans automobile.
Here for more Montreal food recommendations…as I intend to schlep the 5 hours up there soon. Just for fun.
If it’s still there, a great Italian restaurant I enjoyed there a few years ago was called Andrea.
La Banquise pour la meilleur poutine et chez Schwartz pour le meilleur smoked meat. Mais si c’est de la gastronomie que vous recherchez : Maison Boulud et chez Toqué! ( celui du 900 Pl. Jean-Paul-Riopelle ) .
Fully understand why these are so popular. Great room inside, slightly elevated seating position, relatively small footprint. Add in typical Toyota quality (I know folks who have had all 5 generations effortlessly) and it makes sense why they fly off the shelves, even with premium pricing.
There is a reason we see so many of these on the road… they are solid, good-performing, dependable vehicles. We bought an almost-new RAV4 hybrid over the summer, and I can’t find many faults in it. The AWD performed great during the recent midwestern snow and ice storms. Plus, it’s almost twice as fuel efficient as our 13-yr old CR-V. Yes, the screen looks like an IPad taped to the dashboard, but it’s not huge. And its placement makes it very easy to use. I got accustomed to it quickly.
Had a ride in a Uber a few days ago in a brand new RAV4 hybrid, driver said I was the second paying passenger. The RAV4 had a strange ride, normally felt like a car from the 70’s floaty and bloated on a perfect bit of road, then we rode over a slight bump and that was felt like a hard riding sports car. Currant RAV4 despite being on Toyota’s newish TNGA-K doesn’t seem much improved over the previous generation a few family members own. Admittedly my Uber ride was about 20 minutes in western suburbs of Melbourne, Australia which has relatively poor quality roads. Made me wonder why my Uber driver chose this (expensive) Toyota over the multiple cheaper options like a Nissan X-trail (Rogue in North America)?
My sister has a 2019 Honda HRV and rides hard but never floaty which feels and drives like a quality product, even with other 100k miles.
We have a 2021 RAV4 hybrid, primarily as my wife’s car. It is her favorite vehicle she has ever owned. Not exciting, but she is only interested in vehicle functionality and comfort. It handles Wisconsin winter very effectively.
I’m getting old. I’m pretty sure I have never even sat in a RAV4, despite it being a top selling car all over the world. But then I’ve never been in a Model T or a Model Y either. As for the big screens and their eventual demise and replacement concerns, it seems like the aftermarket has this covered, at least for the infotainment features. Keeping the HVAC and other functional interfaces separate may make this easier. Friends have replaced the dead screen in their Prius with an Alpine?Sony? and I know there are a lot of options for the 3rd gen Tacoma like I have.
Sounds promising.
I had this exact same model as an Avis rental in St. Louis in the Fall of 2022. I was pleasantly surprised to get it; I don’t often find Toyotas in rental fleets.
Part of my trip to St. Louis included a round-trip drive to Kansas City, at which the RAV4 was remarkably competent in a most uninteresting way. It is quite clear why these are the de facto family cars of today.
Last summer we bought a 2018 RAV4 SE Hybrid. Fuel mileage is nearly as good as our ’09 Camry Hybrid. Seating is very comfortable, and like the newer ones, the back seat is a comfortable place for tall people. We have very few complaints; we’d like less road noise, the display could be angled differently so that it’s not washed out in the sun, and the JBL premium audio could actually live up to its name. (That’s a common complaint.) We were able to address the audio by changing out the stock in-dash speakers for a less efficient pair. The system sounds quite pleasant now. The various safety systems do their job pretty unobtrusively. The adaptive speed control is a delight.
does this make the Rav4 one of the most popular vehicles on the market?
The RAV4 has been the best selling car in the US for some years now, directly behind the pickups from Ford, Chevy and Ram. BTW, it is spelled “RAV4”.
Quite right Paul. I see it’s been corrected above.
Thanks
“There’s a bit of a cross look on this Toyota.” But isn’t that true of pretty much every car today? The “angry toaster” look, to borrow a phrase from Bob Lutz.
I was thinking wringer washing machine face. But your description fits.
I was thinking storm trooper helmet.
Or a toddler screaming “I don’t wanna!”
Thanks for posting this review. We’ll be renting a RAV4 in a few days for our vacation. I’m looking forward to seeing how it compares with the CRV that we’ve had for the past 3 years.
I rented a similar sort of Toyota in Spain, it was very pleasant except that the visibility out the back was appalling.
That electric handbrake alarmed me somewhat so I didn’t use it – how do they work?
Now that you mention it, I see it was in use in the photo above. I am guessing it was just a press – on – press – off, to activate.
However I sense your question is more to the point of how it functions. I have no insight into that, but it’s a good question.
check out the CR-V Hybrid, CR and most reviewers prefer it
davis, if I recall correctly, you’re a Honda sales person so I’m wondering if you know why the new CR-V still doesnt come with a spare tire and why the new Hondas are slower than their immediate predecessors.
The RAV4 hybrid is going on 7 model years now and is still substantially quicker and more efficient than the brand new CRV, which just lost a Motortrend comparo to the old ‘yota because interior quality and road manners weren’t clearly better either. I expected Honda to make a big leapfrog with this generation but it didn’t happen.
It appears the sound thing has the two primary (volume & tune) knobs in the round format, this is a good thing as it prevents long looks away from the road when searching for some thing worth listening too .
I imagine this isn’t really important these days because of blue tooth .
Overall it looks nice and utility oriented, always what I look for .
-Nate
Nice review! It may have been a while in the hopper, but I can tell you went through the same process that I do around “OK, so, do I document this properly starting with encountering the vehicle at the airport….?” You made the right choice IMO.
First, let me say that I usually turn down the RAV4, but your review makes me think I might not oughta. It seems like a fairly functional vehicle although admittedly with more space inside than I need (hence I usually go for a conventional sedan if possible, even if it’s in the same class as the RAV4).
Your comment about the screen looking like an after thought…yes. I feel that way too about so many of the cars I encounter nowadays. And yet, I think that the current fashion is to make them (effectively, again, IMO) non-integrated like that. I’m not sure why. I guess people who are aesthetically non-critical and/or too young to remember cars without LCDs don’t mind. And I’d guess that it’s much cheaper to produce a car with a non-integrated screen like that.
Externally, the car seems pretty attractive. Especially compared to some of the weird Japanese cartoon character cars that Toyota has come out with lately. As is the trend, it seems absolutely gigantic on the outside without really being that much larger than the outwardly smaller-looking versions in the past.
Lastly, your quoted prices just highlight to me how out of touch I am with the prices of cars…or at least what people seemingly spend on cars. $34,000 (US) for a RAV4??!!! Good grief.
Thanks Jeff. I did take photos from start to finish, that formed the basis of my essay. I wrote this in point form on the plane home while the recollections were still fresh.
Every time I misjudge the pedal height between my gas pedal and my brake pedal in my car, I think to myself, “Damn, that RAV4 got me used to the lesser height differential.”
By comparison, I took photos of a rental car in a similar manner a few years earlier, and cannot recall even driving the thing.
I’d much rather not drop $50K + Canadian on a vehicle. Going second hand would be my choice, and still spend just under 50. Good grief.
The screen sits on top so as to enable the driver to not be looking down towards the center stack but rather the top of the dashboard and be able to see beyond it using peripheral vision or glance back and forth. It’s the same reason your gauges are at the top of the dashboard. BMW is (I believe) the only one that for a while built a second dashtop binnacle to house a screen which seemed to limit screen size and effectively blocked more visibility and now that binnacle itself is in the way. It’s rare that a screen is so high that it actually blocks visibility of the lower part of the windshield, if that’s the case then usually the driver is sitting too low.
Thanks for the review. This may be the segment from which my next new car is chosen. I have always found little subjective reasons to avoid Toyotas, but you make me think I ought to look at one.