Is The Most Expensive New Toyota RAV4 Worth It? RAV4 Prime Review

hello and welcome to the car camera Channel and welcome to the most expensive Toyota RAV4 there is this RAV4 with destination fee and some options is over 50 000 that is deep into Lexus territory and the RAV4 Prime xse happily sits in their territory but is this a good car is this RAV4 model really worth it well in today's video we're going to do a full technical review we're going to take a look under the hood underneath the car all around it to find out is the most expensive RAV4 worth it or not right after this foreign let's start our technical review under the hood and there's something to be said about the RAV4 Prime under the hood is exactly the same as the RAV4 hybrid with some modification I feel like Toyota took a regular Toyota hybrid RAV4 hybrid that works great and kind of repurposed it as a plug-in hybrid let's start for example with the engine this is an a25a fxs exactly the same as you'll find in RAV4 hybrid fenza hybrid Sienna Hybrid Camry Hybrid and many many other Toyota Lexus Hybrid bottles this is a great engine it's it's the dynamic Force engine and we've talked so much about this engine on my channel we have a full technical review even a teardown of one I'll leave some of those links in the description if you're interested but let's talk about the highlights of this engine the dynamic Force part is the biggest thing the way the air charge comes into this engine it increases its thermal efficiency the other thing more the technical stuff this engine has a very very clever vvti system vvti e electronic vvti so the intake side has an electric motor that controls the angle of a vvti and the exhaust side has a regular oil control this is a super high-tech super fast I mean really something of an engineering Marvel here really trouble free they've been out for a while now there hasn't been a really issue basically a small electrical motor that speeds up to advance the timing slows down to the timing or spin the speed of the camshaft to basically go base timing the other thing about this engine is it has Toyota's d4s which is basically dual injection so when direct injection came out it's great for efficiency and everything but it's not great because it builds Carbon on the intake valves because you no longer are washing the backs of the intake valve but this system has both has port and direct injection at the same time and it can operate either or depending on the driving condition so that all is good and great something else about this engine even if it's non-hybrid configuration this engine had an electric water pump beautiful works really good we've had electric water pumps and hybrids for a long time they work beautiful something else about this engine it has EGR even if in its non-hybrid configuration some people have bad feelings about EGR systems but where things with the RAV4 Prime start to change is when we go into the transmission so the regular RAV4 hybrid has the p710 great ecvt transmission not to be confused with the regular CBT they have nothing to do with regular cvts the RAV4 Prime has a PA 10 which is more for robust kind of a more heavy duty transmission you'll find that transmission in something like a Toyota Sienna hybrid which is a much much larger car than this other than that and we'll talk about the HVAC system because things are anything but conventional there everything else is exactly the same brake system is the same the inverter is the Same by the way this is the fourth generation hybrid system everything is exactly the same so basically you took a regular hybrid gave it a better transmission and a much larger battery we'll see that when we go under the car but what really had to change here is the HVAC system and now we have a much larger battery that needs much better cooling not the air cooled that you'll find in regular hybrids so here's what they did they put the world's most complicated HVAC system you'll find in any Hybrid Toyota or Lexus model this is a heat pump system and to make a strong story short I basically took a regular AC system from a car and gave you the ability to flip where the hot side is inside and the cold side is outside I have a detailed video on how that works I'll leave that in the description as well but basically this enables the RAV4 Prime to have heat on electric mode only you can charge this car you get up to 40 miles of range although I could never get more than 38 miles of range but that's okay close enough and then you have full on heat you don't need to turn on the engine to heat it up to get heat heat pump system can take care of that to a very low temperature so perhaps if you live in a very cold area this might be an issue because the engine will just be forced on and there goes the plug-in hybrid part but other than that this is a beautiful system and it also uses that same heat pump system in a way to cool that battery just runs refrigerant all the way to that battery cools it down as needed and when the battery needs to be heated it actually has electric heaters so there's no coolant none of that going to the battery but what you do see in this area let me open the hood in one of these RAV4 primes people usually are afraid because you see a maze of ac lines that is the heat pump system remember the system can flip its operation completely and it can also cool the battery at the same time so there has to be a lot of lines and there is quite a bit of lines here and that's the only downside of the system the only other thing that this system added to the RAV4 Prime is we have to service the AC system as a maintenance every 80 000 miles so this is something you want to remember if you own one of these or if you're planning to buy one every 80 000 miles you need to check the level of the refrigerant basically check the level that's the marketing wording you need to discharge the refrigerant and recharge it that's the only way you can check the level let's take a look underneath the RAV4 Prime starting with all the covers I mean this thing is completely covered all around and this is how you want newer cars is keeps it clean underneath it'll keep corrosion away and everything keeps components clean and well protected service on the RAV4 Prime is super simple just like any RAV4 little cover right here you just remove it comes right out four screws oil filter oil drain plug very very simple let's look at the suspension and the first thing is this control arm right here so this control arm is the Toyota's long design where the control arm is separate from the ball joint two knots one bolt you're gonna separate so you can replace either component in the independent of each other the other thing is the raffle Prime actually have two piston calipers right here pretty cool setup usually the RAV4 will have a single piston caliper this has dual piston caliper kind of reminds me of a Highlander caliper right there so this is basically what that is then we we wrap around and we look in this area look at the suspension and you notice the red struts this has to do with the xse trim very simple setup it's a McPherson setup exactly the same as the RAV4 just the strut is red because it is a sport edition another thing is the knuckle knuckle are aluminum on this and actually not just the RAV4 Prime all the models of the RAV4 the knuckle will always be aluminum pretty cool setup over here moving back from from these front suspension you notice the exhaust kind of takes that curve very sharp curve to the side and the reason for that is the battery so in normal hybrids the battery sits underneath the back seat in the RAV4 Prime actually the battery lives right here on the outside has a very strong metal shield underneath this plastic this is not only that covers it very well protected and actually something about this that kind of makes the rifle Prime handle a little better because you have so much weight very low to the ground in the car that it keeps it stable the little something about cars the mass the biggest weight of the car the lower it is the more stable the car will be because you don't have that kind of pendulum effect of the big weight trying to throw the itself left and right then we move over here fuel tank very simple it's actually a very small fuel tank very simple setup this is similar location to that of the regular hybrid model pretty cool then the exhaust as its way makes its way back it kind of wraps around and comes back into a big Muffler over here we have the suspension suspension is pretty much similar to that of the regular RAV4 you know double Wishbone setup aluminum knuckle you see that red shock again coil springs everything is really super standard nothing abnormal about it this is an all-wheel drive model so if you look over here you got the big motor right here and something about this motor very hard to show you on camera near impossible to show but if we look right here this is the cable that everybody talks about on the internet with the corrosion now when I reach underneath this cable this cable is wide open this is the updated part if you see this cutout on the other side and you think there's something broken no that's actually the updated cable if you have you don't try to put your hand in here but if you feel an opening here that means this is the updated cable this is the same for if you if it applies the same for RAV4 hybrid the regular one so this one has the updated cable we're not worried about it and we'll talk a little bit about that more down the down the road in the video and last thing underneath the car is the electronic parking brake of course just like the regular RAV4 this has electronic parking brake I like these they work very well super simple just a little electrical motor that engages the parking brake disengages it works super well many people have voiced issues about these or the electronics this and that they actually work better than the old school you know the router hat parking shoes and all that let's talk about the exterior of the RAV4 Prime there are a few things that are kind of unique to the RAV4 Prime first one is the overall look in the front everything from here up is exactly the same as any other RAV4 but there's two things that they added to the RAV4 Prime that is specific to the prime one of them is these daytime running lights they are very cool and they're very distinct to the RAV4 Prime many RAV4 owners actually want that in the regular RAV4 they can't get it this is exclusive to the RAV4 Prime the second thing is the lower balance over here this is also somewhat exclusive to the RAV4 Prime not 100 ese xse model does have something similar but this is slightly modified for the RAV4 Prime now the standard stuff about the RAV4 Prime they're similar to other models radar sensor is behind the emblem 360 camera right here for the models that are equipped we do have the shutters that close The Grille off so you can warm up faster when you're driving this is all standard stuff moving over a little bit to the side of the RAV4 Prime is when we have a little bit more differences now this is an xse model it does have all basically every single Bell and whistle you notice the arches over here the wheel arches are body color but if you really look close and you come extremely close to them they're actually black they're not body color so when you get one that is darker color you can't really tell but this one is actually black so is the bottom so is the back one they're not body colors so they are gloss black this is also something with the RAV4 Prime but the other thing is the plug-in hybrid badge so Toyota lately has been since 2022 model year they're trying they're dropping the hybrid badges on the fenders it makes sense because we don't need to announce to the world that this is a hybrid but not the RAV4 Prime this actually happens to be a 22 model year plug-in hybrid badge is proudly displayed here so the SE and the xse they have their kind of exclusive wheel design not found in any other models this is the one for the xse and the se1 looks like this pretty cool Wheels choices I think it matches the overall body now something else about this particular RAV4 Prime the roof the a-pillar and the entire pillar that goes back is all black in color just gives it kind of a sporty look I like this I think this looks good other thing that I don't like is the roof racks now this is an accessory option this is not something that you have to get with the RAV4 Prime but these make a whistling noise something like this [Music] this Whistling noise is because this is just like an air brake and it's going to whistle on the edges makes a horrible noise that's super annoying I though unless you have reason to use these take them off because they make a lot of noise as you heard a little bit ago other thing on the RAV4 prime xsc it does have a full panoramic sunroof I really like this this is really cool I wish this was available in more models and more trims as an option but in the xlc trim you do have that option moving over to the back business as usual in the back here we have a very nice Prime logo in red I really like this logo looks super cool everything else however is exactly the same there is really nothing different here we're going to take a look at the back of course power operator door which has a dual motor shock so these shocks actually contain the motors that lift this door up and down now should these one or both of these motors go out you can no longer easily open and close the door and you have to replace both of them it can get expensive this design basically the entire Automotive business is going to so this is what we have now let's take a quick look at the back area here one of my favorite sites in any new car this over here is a dying Relic a spare tire now this is not a full-size spare tire but it's almost it's a pretty large small spare tire I love to see this and this car has so many stuff you've seen underneath it so much stuff going on but we still have a spare tire I wish every single car still had that but they're slowly disappearing and dying toilet of course being very conservative and old school we still have the spare tire which is great now another thing here we have plenty of space here this is a pretty spacious there's no third row there's not even an option available pretty spacious if you fold down the seats which do not have any kind of release here nothing but another thing that is cool here is we have a power outlet here 100 1500 watts very nice power outlet for in case you're going camping or something you can use that that is pretty cool the last thing that is kind of a rough four Prime special the charging door so the RAV4 Prime of course have a charging door where you can plug it in charge it but something to be said about this door is enormous I don't know why they made it this big could have been the same size as the field door but it is not but then you just open it the first thing you notice this door is extremely flimsy very thin very flimsy that's what they went with the reason for that is the hinge that holds this massive door is actually the same size as the fuel door one potentially designed for that so this is a bit much the other thing is you just open this plug in your car and life is good you do have a little itty bitty light over here to light up in case you're trying to plug it in at night very simple operation I like it I think other than the flimsy door and the oversized door this is very simple easy to understand on how to do it let's take a look at the inside of the RAV4 Prime and there's something to be said here this is exactly the same as the interior of the regular standard RAV4 even the non-hybrid I mean everything is exactly the same however there are a few things that are exclusive to the RAV4 Prime first one is in the center stack here right next to the shifter which by the way the shifter is a standard actually cable operator shifter which is pretty cool I love these old school shifters they work really well they're kind of bulletproof but right next to it you have three buttons that really differentiate this from the hybrid the rifle hybrid and the standard RAV4 first one is Auto EV hybrid so this basically puts the car in a mode that it's automatic it's going to pick the best driving mode for you for an EV if you're driving normally slow it's going to switch to EV mode if we're off sudden accelerating harder it's going to switch to dual mode where it's HV and EV at the same time that's where you get the full power of this car this car makes just over 300 horsepower for a RAV4 that's a lot this goes to 0-60 action in a record time for a family crossover like a RAV4 but when you put it in Auto that's when you achieve full power but right next to it you have a mode where you switch manually between hybrid mode where it'll bring on the engine as needed shut it off or full on EV mode in this either mode the manual modes you will not get the full power of the car but you can select like if you're fully charged up you could just select EV mode and off we go in EV mode and it will not turn on the engine unless there's a specific criteria that forces the engine on but otherwise it won't do it the other mode is if you press and hold that button that's when you go into charge mode which is possibly the party piece of the RAV4 Prime something that you will not find in a lot of kind of plug-in hybrids at least the ones I've reviewed in my other channel charge mode allows you to charge the high voltage battery to achieve EV range up to 80 percent this is possibly the coolest thing because let's say you went on a long trip and in your to your destination you're going to be driving around town and whatnot you don't really have access to a charger not like at home or whatnot you're going to engage charge mode on your way there it's actually going to charge your battery so when you do get to your destination you have EV range and for those that this is an email that I get all the time the comments asking what happens if I cannot I bought a rifle Prime I live in an apartment I don't really have easy access to to plug in the car to charge it what do I do use charge mode then you will achieve EV mode note about charge mode your gas mileage will dip severely because then the engine is not only working all the time to drive the car it's actually working to charge the batteries as well pretty neat feature something else that is kind of unique to the RAV4 Prime Trail mode now Trail mode makes me wonder what were they going with this car because this is technically meant for Trails off-roading light off-roading you're not going to go severe off-roading with this but what trail mode does it uses all this the braking system to mimic a limited slip differential it'll basically when he sees a wheel starts slipping it'll apply a break to it and it'll transfer the power to the other side because this doesn't have limited slip differential it's not in the front not in the rear but it'll mimic that however Trail mode you do not want to activate at higher speeds because you don't want break applying at higher space this is really meant for light off-roading when you get really stuck it will really help you get out of some situations which is pretty cool and something to be said about this interior I mean this is possibly one of those interiors that is the most functional I mean this interior is so focused on functional utility it is such a labor-less act to sit here and use this car I mean for example we look at the HVAC controls there's they're super easy to operate everything is physical button two particular highlights here that I'd like to talk about and this is not just RAV4 Prime by the way you have a mode that is Eco heat and cool if you don't you're not really extreme weather but you need some HVAC operation going you can put it in Eco and that kind of prioritizes economy and efficiency over high heat and kind of high cooling effect second mode is focused so this mode will prioritize the driver over everybody else in the car this is so cool because whenever the car is moving there will always be a driver but there will not always be a passenger so you can use this mode to kind of focus the Heat or the AC on the driver not everybody else which means you're gonna feel warmer or cooler quicker that is a pretty functional feature very innocent looking button you just press it and it does that behind the scenes the live is good but then there is the little stuff that actually matter a lot this car has dual climate control so you can control separate temperature in the driver or passenger but when there's only a driver the car actually knows that there's only a driver from the seat weight sensors and it will make it automatically single zone because there's no reason for two zones but as soon as a passenger sits here it immediately flips into dual zone that is pretty cool it's a small touch but it makes a huge difference and then we move to stuff like the heated and cold seats of course it's the xse trim this is the highest trim of the RAV4 Prime it has heated and cold seats they're physical buttons easiest thing to operate very very simple and then we have a very curious button and a blank switch we have the traction control button very large button in the middle of the control stack here and then a blank switch I mean this is where things kind of go the Toyota way we have a blank switch very large in the middle of the dash on a fifty thousand dollar top of the line model makes you wonder what was the plan with this blank switch that's what they went with something else about this look the materials here are not wowing that's the word I'm going to use here they're not Lexus crate they're actually very standard materials you'll find the mini Toyota models there's nothing exclusive here but this interior overall the entire package is such a usable interior I love it some people call it old school lacking on features and all that but that's exactly what majority of you people want they don't want the car to be they're acquiring a master's degree to operate this is super simple you don't have to think to operate anything in here and that is a huge Plus for the RAV4 let's talk about some common problems with the RAV4 Prime and something have to be said there has not been a lot of common problems with just specific model the RAV4 Prime most of the other issues that we've had had to do the RAV4 itself so in this video we're going to focus on RAV4 common problems this first problem has to do with the early years of the RAV4 Prime in case you're going to buy it in early 21. all of a sudden you start the car and there's this big buzzing noise that you feel on the floor you feel in the pedals especially when you're in EV mode that is the heat pump system booting up and kind of ramping up it was so abnormal let me shakes the entire car that is abnormal so it actually issued a software update to fix that just to kind of lessen the the startup of the heat pump system so it wouldn't Buzz the whole car because really there was no issue per se it was just kind of the programming thing they changed that if you ever have that issue in an early one there is a software update to take care of that the other issue that has nothing really to do with component or software or that there is a ground for the DC DC converter that's all the way in the back behind the back seat that ground had a bad contact causes all kinds of warning lights and whatnot this was also a problem with the early weld one so if you're buying a 22 23 you likely will not ever have to deal with this issue because it was already kind of fixed updated done and then we're going to talk about one problem that is the biggest elephant in the room the rear high voltage cable corrosion there is no real data indicating the RAV4 Prime is actually affected by this but one thing I will say okay Toyota did extend the warranty on the on the cars that are affected mainly there are four hybrids for eight years 100 000 miles basically if you have this issue and it is causing a big problem they extended the warranty to take care of folks that had this issue but there's no indication that the RAV4 Prime does have this issue even though it is a similar unit in the back and a similar cable but so far there's no real information that this is actually affecting the RAV4 Prime and as we looked on this model this one is not effective because it has the cutout so there is that let's talk about some things that I do not like about the RAV4 Prime and the first thing is kinda has nothing to do with the RAV4 Prime but in a way it does the regular RAV4 is how should I say this it's super loud when you drive it I mean there has been absolutely no effort to insulate this car in any way shape or form and this problem becomes a bigger more more prevalent problem when you go into the RAV4 Prime and not because of the car itself but because of the price you're paying a much higher price for this car you're expecting it to be a little bit quieter it is not it is Extremely Loud on-road Highway everywhere and that is kind of a RAV4 thing even the previous generations there are generally louder than their counterparts you go look at a Highlander super quiet you go to look at a camera is quieter RAV4 super loud and the other thing is the heat pump system while I love the heat pump system and it works super well I just want to give you a heads up that there is a limit to the Heat pump system if you live in an area an extreme cold constantly it there is a point where it just disengages engine comes on and there goes your EV range so you might want to think about this one if you live in a warmer climate or if you live in an area like Chicago weather occasionally we get that cold weather when the engine will will force to be on but not always so it it will work but if you live in colder climate than Chicago this is a problem so what is the final verdict on the RAV4 Prime this is a super competent plug-in hybrid a proper one I've had the privilege of driving other models from other manufacturers of plug-in hybrids and in my opinion this remains one of the better ones first it has a full blast heat pump system you can actually drive this in relatively cold weather not the coldest weather but relatively cold weather on EV mode only it has decent range on EV and overall they did not completely revamp the RAV4 to make it a plug-in hybrid they actually slightly modified the things that they needed to and they kept everything else exactly the same the only thing that it possibly stands between this being a perfect plug-in hybrid is the price understandably so plug-in hybrids will be expensive but one thing I don't understand why Toyota does is only two trims you have the se you have the xse there's no base model people don't want all these options and have to pay for them they just want a plug-in hybrid that has no amenities hubcaps for that matter an LE model that's what's missing from the RAV4 Prime lineup and that's what would bring its price a little bit more down where it makes it more reachable to a lot of folks I hope this video is helpful informative I hope you learned something new if you like it consider giving it a thumbs up if you're not a subscriber consider subscribing to the channel check out some other videos and until the next video folks may the Lord bless you and keep you and you have yourself a wonderful day

Channel: The Car Care Nut

Views: 351,452

Keywords: Toyota rav4, rav4 prime, best rav4, best toyota, toyota hybrid, toyota plugin hybrid, toyota rav4 2023, rav4 2023, toyota rav4, rav4, 2023 rav4, 2023 toyota rav4, prime, 2023 toyota rav4 prime, rav4 hybrid, 2022 rav4, 2021 rav4, rav4 common problems, rav4 prime reliability, the car care nut, car care nut, tccn automotive, car nut, scotty kilmer, doug demuro, south main auto, rainman ray

Id: 322JTrNvlHg

Length: 29min 57sec (1797 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 04 2023