6 Reasons to Buy a 2023 Toyota RAV4 (What's New?)

the RAV4 is extremely popular for a multitude of reasons and it was improved for 2023 so today I'm going to go over the things that make it great along with the stuff that could turn you away and all of the changes for the new model year to begin our list of alterations we have Toyota safety sense 2.5 compared to last year this is going to improve low light performance and add intersection assist to the autonomous braking the first change you're going to notice will be the new infotainment system it's going to be either an 8 inch or 10 and a half inch setup and you have a standard seven inch driver display that used to be exclusive for higher trim models but now those upper specs of a full digital cluster display additionally Apple carplay and Android auto are now Wireless and there is a new Woodland trim for the hybrid so that's going to give it a rugged looking aesthetic mild all-terrain tires and an off-road tuned suspension which should make it handle softer over light imperfections before we continue if you enjoy fun detailed car content without fluff consider subscribing and hitting the bell for notifications while these are in no particular order one thing that I think will be important to a lot of people is going to be the powertrains we have a 2.5 liter naturally aspirated direct injected and port fuel injected in line four it's going to make 203 horsepower 184 pound-feet of torque these and performance off the line pulls off 0-60 times around 8 seconds and gets 30 miles to the gallon combined with all-wheel drive a lot of that can be thanks to an 8-speed automatic in the past it seemed to Lug the engine but now it downshifts at mostly appropriate times though the engine itself is very coarse and definitely reminds you of its budget oriented Roots the standard 2.5 liter also has an advantage with the TRD off-road and Adventure trims as those get an engine oil cooler and an upgraded alternator that allow the max tow rating to jump from 1500 to 3 500 pounds you also can get a hybrid that has a net output of 219 horsepower briefly I'd like to thank Royal South Toyota in Bloomington Indiana for letting me test drive a host of RAV4s over the last year to make this video possible the staff there are friendly attentive in the store is rooted deeply in the community if you're in the market check them out the hybrid RAV4 uses an ecvt this actually uses a motor to change the ratio and that allows for a very quick response and performance that ends up feeling more direct than what you would expect from something that carries a CBT label 0 to 60 and 6.9 seconds makes it objectively quick for the segment too it's also crazy efficient getting like 40 miles to the gallon with all-wheel drive you can also take it another step further with the prime RAV4 that's a plug-in hybrid with a 42 mile EV only range it uses the same 2.5 liter but bumps the voltage and front motor power output to make for a peak of 302 ponies the next thing that stands out to me is it's Comfort on all roads while still providing modest handling it's been forgiving on even the worst roads that I could take it through that's kind of a springy nature to it it's not as smooth as a Toyota Camry but it does a good job of taking everything on the chin and Still Remains pretty composed for a vehicle that's going to come with eight and a half inches of ground clearance and and if you get this with the sport suspension it gains just a little bit better control on top of that it's good at changing direction in a timely manner with light direct feeling steering that is also quite numb as you would probably expect though when it comes to noise levels this thing is pretty middle The Road Not family sedan quiet whether you're cruising or hooning you should also appreciate the above average visibility the RAV4 really doesn't fall short in any regard on road and excels in badly paved areas another place where this stands out from the competition is the interior so one you have plenty of Passenger space I am six foot three I fit in the front back with extreme ease and the Comfort levels for both rows are still pretty good I do wish maybe the seat cushions were a little bit longer I have better support and also you are missing lumbar support on the base trim that comes on The XLE with that it's an extremely agreeable seat that will fit a variety of people without it I still find my myself to be okay another advantage to the interior is the vastly improved infotainment system which will utilize an 8-inch unit on most of the lower trims it's minimalist aesthetic may take a little bit of getting used to as it doesn't even have a home screen you can opt for a 10 and a half inch screen that'll come standard on the top trims either way you go though you will have a good resolution a good response time and a very clean user interface and I also like that the tech isn't the main focus here because you still have a ton of analog controls I mean everything in here is a big chunky button or dial except for the tune knob which doesn't exist but still it's a very easy to interact with interior and I like the grippy surfaces and that kind of reflects on some of the other material choices too the dashboard isn't super cheap I will add that I wish that there was like some sort of padding for my knees and really as a whole no matter which trim you get the materials aren't exactly top-notch but the build quality feel feels impressive and all of that helps this feel like it's ready to stand up to the outdoors or Elementary Gremlins and they will actually be riding in Comfort too because you have rear vents as standard and I'd also advise getting at least The XLE premium that has these soft hex seats which should be more durable and less prone to stains and really I should also give practicality its own reasons so not only do you have a hilariously large back seat the cargo area is also comical it's a giant box and you can fold down the seats it's not perfectly flat which is a little unfortunate but at least the area itself is very tall with the cargo area as big as it is I wish they hadn't put rear seat releases back there and the next thing that I think drives up the demand of a RAV4 is that they are highly configurable so not only will you have three different powertrains you also have trims that number in the double digits you can still get a RAV4 equipped without automatic climate control roof rails or even alloy wheels on almost all trims you have a few different packages giving you a theoretically painful amount of options to choose from if you can find them I also like that on the hybrids you can get the SE or xse which gets more substantial changes to the suspension and the TRD off-road and now the Woodland trim also get a off-road tuned suspension the TRD off-road actually takes things even further but that's going to also affect the ride quality you can tailor the RAV4 to have a personality that aligns more with your cell even though it's truly never a super sporty SUV or super capable off-road you have three different setups for all-wheel drive as well so on the non-hybrids it will actually come with front wheel drive as standard and for the bottom three trims the all-wheel drive setup uses open differentials in the front and rear and is primarily front wheel drive but will send power to the back based on your driving behavior or wheel slip when engaged it can send up to 50 percent to the rear no RAV4 has full-time all-wheel drive optional unlimited standard on adventure and TRD off-road is an all-wheel drive system with true rear torque vectoring all of these will come with a system that can help divert power side to side through the brakes but this is going to give it a little bit more capability off-road though from basically all the videos I've watched on these things when you actually take them off-road it still struggles to send enough power to the rear but having the ability to divert power side to side through the rear differential should definitely help this on you know icy snowy conditions on road which is something that a lot more owners of these will actually encounter if we're talking about the standard hybrid model I've found this to also improve off the line performance that's because the rear motor directly drives the rear wheels with no Driveline to the front and provides immediate torque for acceleration it's a 54 horsepower motor but it still doesn't have juice sufficient for big obstacles it's better suited at keeping you from getting stuck while leaving Grandma's driveway now the last reason but it's important to many is going to be the reliability the 8-speed Auto initially suffered from many reports of lurching and hesitation at lower speeds but after an update the complaints have dwindled some sighted buggy active driving AIDS and infotainment there was also a fuel pump issue that got a recall rapidly draining accessory batteries and shaky mirrors were reported too along with Hybrid gas tanks that refused to fill up remotely close to full most of these issues were not too widespread and affected first and second model year cars most are not serious either though one stands out some have reported with the RAV4 hybrid a severe wiring harness corrosion issue that can cost quite a bit of money to fix it seems like it's affecting mostly people in Northern climates especially Canada they have released a technical service bulletin on it hopefully that issue is gone on the new models outside of that this generation of RAV4 seems to be a quality built SUV but now that I've gone through all of my phrases let's get into the downside first and foremost that price is a incredibly small fraction of buyers will actually be able to get one of these with a sticker price under thirty thousand dollars and while I think you still do get quite a bit of car for your money I think the Mazda CX-5 and Subaru Forester definitely undercut this the next thing I'd like to add is again that it's not as off-road capable as some of the looks may suggest the same goes for the racy looking SE and xse which handle well but are still too vague and money to be fun but I don't believe most RAV4 buyers really care if the thing can fully back up its looks the RAV4 has multiple personalities but none illicit actual off-road results or big back road Smiles but the different configurations and flavors of the RAV4 help an SUV with immense versatility and sales figures akin to bread feel special through the lens of a crossover buyer throw in Toyota durability and you haven't SUV that more than deserves the success it's garnered thanks for watching if you enjoyed the video then please leave a like to help me take on the YouTube algorithm if you want to see more subscribe and hit the bell for notifications and thank you to my loyal patrons I'll catch you in the next one

Channel: Realistick

Views: 135,215

Keywords: toyota, rav4, rav4 hybrid, hybrid, ev, awd, hybrid reliability, rav4 hybrid reliability, 0-60, zero to sixty, 2022 rav4, 2021 rav4, 2023 rav4, 2020, 2019, small suvs, new cars, new suvs, hybrids, rav4 review, 2022, 2023, 2021, subaru, mazda, forester, cx-5, cx-50, reliabiltity, suvs, crossover, crossovers, car reviews, hybrid suvs, new, 2.5, update, crv, honda, cr-v, se, le

Id: GdTuCCg-Hxw

Length: 10min 49sec (649 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 17 2022