The 2023 Toyota RAV4 XLE - (BETTER than the 2022)

hey guys Brian here again and welcome back to the channel or if you're new to the channel thanks for checking me out today we're going to talk about a very popular car for the new year 2023 the Toyota RAV4 XLE so if you were in the market in 2019 or 20 and you jumped out and you're back in the market and you're looking at the RAV4 and you notice something different as of last year there was an update to the RAV4 headlights so on the 2023 the headlight is different you have a projector Beam at The XLE level instead of that reflect our housing that you had in 2020 and 21 with an LED stripe on the bottom you now have a nice big projector here with an LED bar on the top down below the headlights if you were to get a 2020 or 21 you would have also had a fog light with the XLE but starting in 2022 which is maintained for 2023 there's no fog light so you just have this vent-like accent and in order to get the fog light you'd have to go with the XLE premium controversial topic as I've come to realize a lot of people love their fog lights let me hear down below what you think must you have fog lights or do you not really care about them we are now on the fifth year of the rav4's new generation so the looks are probably not new to you but if you've never seen a RAV4 before or you're just new to the car something that really makes it stand out is that stubby shark nose I call it has a very square like stubby flat nose instead of that pointy nose that it used to have on every XLE you'll be rolling in the five spoke alloy 17-inch Wheels the size is 225 65 R17 and it's going to be an all-season Tire pretty much anywhere you get the car this shade of wheel is actually a smidgen darker than the 2021s so they started the darker shade for 2022 and so far people like it I hear rumors online that you can actually get black plastic caps if you want to get that black wheel look without having to paint them so that's pretty interesting but it just gives the car that mainstream kind of blend in look with a little bit of a Polish here which I think complements the car it's classy without being over the top without screaming for attention like the black gloss that the xse has of course looking at the car from the side you can see it's definitely chiseled and it has a lot of cuts and edges this one particularly has the body side moldings which some people don't like I think it adds a little bit of Dimension to the car and the white collar definitely Pops in the sun which we're going to work our way to the back and you'll see sorry for the wind today foreign the most popular color on the RAV4 right before your eyes I still haven't found out yet whether ice cap is actually mixing the clear coat with the paint like super white did but I have to say if you told me this was super white seeing all the super whites I've seen this looks identical and one of the reasons that white is so popular for the RAV4 is that it plays very nicely with the black accents that Toyota gives you on most of the RAV4s the wheel well liners on the bottom here with the Rockers are going to be a non-painted black if you go with an upgraded model like the xse or even the prime it's going to be a piano gloss black and speaking of piano gloss black the tail lights definitely do bring a lot of attention to the eye because they do have a little bit of this shiny black on the outside which makes you wonder what's going on in the rear a super bright red LED strip is going to be your running light to let people know how sophisticated you are driving a Toyota of course without going over the top and at The XLE level Toyota's giving you dual exhaust on this gas model which kind of gives a nice symmetrical look to the car foreign and I'd say that's a nice 360 of the car without going too deep let's pop the hood of this gas model XLE talk about the way it drives and then we're going to work our way inside nothing new here under the hood Toyota has maintained the a25a FKS engine which to you is a 2.5 liter four-cylinder which is getting you 203 horsepower with 184 foot-pounds of torque delivering 33 miles per gallon on the highway about 27 in the city for a blend of 29. it is a very reliable engine and it's simply designed the interesting thing about Toyota design is that there's plenty of space for work so for people that like to Tinker with things at home when the car's got lots of miles and maybe you're out of warranty and you want to do stuff on your own everything is simple to get to so you can change your air intake filter right over here batteries easy to get in and out you can even access your headlights from behind it's also very easy to check things like your brake fluid you can see your Max and minimum level there so you can check it just by looking you know when you pop the hood at the gas station and you just want to make sure your coolant's good you can see your coolant level over there and of course the dipstick super easy to get to and yes Toyota still lets you check the oil so the transmission attached to this engine is a eight speed geared automatic transmission so it's not going to be a CVT not that there's anything wrong with Toyota's hybrid CVT because it's designed much differently than your mainstream cvts with the gas model you're getting the tried and true actually geared 8-speed automatic which is a pleasure to drive which we'll find out soon let's work our way to the back in the cargo area we'll sit in the back seats and then go to the best part the driver's seat so what's inside the trunk just right of center of the emblem if you pull on this little button there's a sock button the hatchback will come up for you now this is an example of the manual hatchback of course with the convenience package which is one of two packages available you would have the automatic hatchback with that package which is also height adjustable but in here we have 37 cubic feet of space in the back with the seats up this RAV4 was equipped with the Privacy shade some people call that a tonneau cover it's very easy to take this tonneau cover out you just pull in one of the spring-loaded heads here I'll gently take this down and folding down the seats is a lot easier so if you had a 2018 1716 Etc older than a 19. you actually had to fold down the headrest and pull a lever by the cushion now from the back if you're able to you can pull the lever up you can fold the seats right down and you're going to open up just shy of 70 cubic feet of space turning this RAV4 into a little mini pickup truck now of course you could fold the seats down from this angle with this little lever here but bringing the seats back up there's a little thermometer I call it that'll let you know if the seat's not clicked on all the way just push the seat right in this is the most upright position if you pull on your seat release lever you can even recline it a little further which is nice but back to the hatch with the seats up here's what it looks like with daily use there's also a little cubby over here an old school 12 volt plug LED which started last year used to get the little yellow light now it's a white LED and of course Toyota has the four swiveling d-rings so that you can ratchet strap or just clip a bungee net to hold and secure your belongings underneath here there's a little hook that I can pull up and I have a full-size pair of course this is a temporary tire so if you get a flat you just want to pop this on and get to a service center as quick as you can but there's these in there are these little inserts here where you can store some more emergency gear which is nice and instead of giving you cheap cardboard Toyota gave you a nice tough plastic so that when you put heavy belongings in here they're not going to start bending and God forbid you spilled something wet it's not going to absorb into cardboard and start stinking up now since this doesn't have the convenience package you will have to actually grab one of these handles pull the hatch down which is very easy to do and just give it a little push and it closes without using any muscles at all and speaking of packages with the 2022 RAV4 XLE there were three packages available the first one was the Audio Plus which would upgrade the size of the screen from a standard seven inch infotainment screen to a nine inch the second package is the weather package which is maintained for 2023 getting you the heated cloth seats heated mirrors heated wipers and heated steering wheel so that's still available for 23. and the third package being the convenience package that I just mentioned the convenience package would get you the moon roof and the power height adjustable hatchback this is an example of a RAV4 that lacks the weather package and the convenience package to which the audio plus package is no longer even an option so this locks both of the two packages available for 2023 making it a base RAV4 XLE so when you open up the rear door you'll notice it's a mainly black interior you have a little bit of that brushed steel look and a nice I want to say super dark gray this counts as black cloth interior and I'll give you a quick up close they've had this design on the car now for the last few years it's like a hexagonal design here if we get even closer they're just slight imprints you can't even feel these when you're sitting down on the car it's not a fuzzy cloth it's more of like a jersey material here and then almost like a little bit of a flannel but you don't get the fuzzies so I have the feeling when I sit there's a different texture here very smooth a little bit more rugged and then this is going to be a little bit more rugged too so it's nice to see the change in textures not a lot of people notice that until they're told very smooth texture here on the sides it's comfortable for all different kinds of clothes so you could wear dress clothes sweatpants pajamas summer clothes you can even put your bare skin on here it's not going to bother your skin it's not going to be super soft and catch all of the dirt and debris the way cars from the early 2000s did nothing new here if you're familiar to the RAV4 a little bit of that sparkly non-chrome silver here breaking up all that black just enough for a bottle on the storage could be a little bit bigger but you got to make room for the speaker and of course you know you have to have the space for the wheel the small dorsal protector will come with a little blue plastic to protect it but that's what it looks like I'll leave that for the next owner and of course stand it on almost all the RAV4s in this region the nice Toyota rubber all-season mats which have these great channels to trap all of the dirt slush and mud so let's jump in real quick talk about what it's like back here plenty of visibility which I've mentioned in the other RAV4 videos I love all the glass you never feel claustrophobic in a RAV you can see all around you which is great and standard is the Privacy glass from the b-pillar back so you get some shade another nice thing I personally like about the RAV4 are the seat belts are very easy to buckle so for parents uncles and aunts grandparents one-handed the Buckle no matter how hard you push or how many times you miss does not get lost underneath that cushion and instead of a 12 volt round plug like in the trunk we now have dual USB the good kind the fast ones the easy and Universal the USB that you don't have to worry about being upside down right side up and jamming the cord into the socket awesome with the dust cover too so if you're not using them this keeps all the dust and moisture out nice to see they didn't go cheap and just leave them exposed like I've seen in other cars that's going to keep your water and your dirt out and a separate ventilation which is not standard on the base model Le so you're getting the ventilation in the back which to some people is not a big deal to other people this makes or breaks the deal so for those where it makes or breaks the deal go XLE you get in the ventilation you don't have to get a special package for that so yeah I would say for most people of most sizes you'll be pretty comfortable if you're over six foot to six foot two you better have some short people in the front for a family of four people over six foot it's definitely going to be doable but you'd probably prefer a Highlander but for your average height people or family you know parents and small kids grandparents with some grandkids uncles aunts with nieces or just people with a dog you'll be very happy with the RAV4 let's go into the co-pilot seat and see what it's like up front so here's what it's like being the co-pilot in a 2023 RAV4 XLE I'll tell you what it looks like a Toyota to me and it looks just like a RAV4 I'm at a point with this car or you could even show me a very tiny frame of any of the interior and I can identify it as a RAV4 they've done a good job really you know having a signature interior just satisfies me so much to peel these off but I can't do it I want to leave it for them so yeah the dorsal protectors were put in this car that's not a standard option a little bit more storage on the front doors here so you have the bottle holder and a little bit more I'm not sure why it didn't go all the way to the end of it I'm sure there's some type of a material in here or device where they uh they needed the space soft touch material not super plush it's definitely like a fake leather but you know it's enough for you to put your bear arm on there or with a sweater on you'll be fine but it's not super you know plush and puffy and then of course we have the harder plastic up top let's jump in real quick also notice Toyota did choose to stay with the black letters instead of the gray that they used to do I figure that's because the gray ones over time they get a little bit dingy from all the dirt and the debris so good move on Toyota's part keeps things looking fresh now if you're a Toyota freak or a Toyota fan or you just know Toyotas the one thing that's jumping out too that's different is the screen where do the buttons go no more buttons on the sides guys because we have for 2023 the new infotainment system which offers Wireless Apple carplay and wireless Android auto so you don't have the menu home seek and track phone button map button there's one button and everything else screen so yes the first big change mentioned was the Audio Plus Package which upgraded you from seven to nine inches is gone now it's a standard eight inch screen no matter what you get there's no way to upgrade it I guess Toyota figured with the XLE eight inches is fine and with the new infotainment system people will be very happy with that size and they'll have the wireless connection for Apple carplay and Android auto and that package is gone so instead of the three packages available you just got the two of The XLE your weather package and convenience which this one lacks but we'll discuss those a little bit more on what they entail but yeah sitting in the front great visibility nothing new here if you've seen the RAV4 before but if you're new to the RAV4 or you are in the last generation Mira was put down on the door you got this window by the a pillar for better visibility so that you can have a nice 180 View I can see all around me and even though you have this screen that doesn't go anywhere and it doesn't slide down doesn't flip down when you're sitting it kind of just Blends in right with the dash line which is great so I want to jump in the driver's seat and we'll go over kind of what we're thinking over here a little bit more then we'll take this thing out for a spin let's do it and here's what it's like getting into the driver's seat of a 2023 Toyota RAV4 gas model XLE thank you same total buttons that we know and are used to which you're starting to see standard on all the tnga cars Google tnga Toyota if you want to find out how awesome that is Toyota's still offering this cool driver's portfolio on some of the Toyota's to put your booklets and your business cards in Old School really nice like I've said in some videos I suspect they're going to get rid of the user manuals and make it all a QR code for a PDF so these will probably become collectible so if you have one of these guys or you get one hang on to this pretty cool it'll be much more collectible for like a 40th anniversary Forerunner but you know RAV4s are still awesome standard electronic seat with the lumbar support here it is a two-way Lumber support not a four-way but two-way is great for most people locking floor mat I mean we're seeing that for years now but if you're new to that standard and in the driver's seat let's hop in there's going to be another big change that some people might notice right away to close the door start it up all you got to do is push the brake push starter [Music] what's going on with that speedometer that's right instead of the two large gauges one on the left for the speedo one on the right for the RPMs the attack or reverse I forget now that I'm sitting in this you have your digital screen in the middle so your mid has evolved on the RAV4 XLE the mid used to be about the size of a little Tic-Tac candy container now this thing is looking like a CD if you even know what CDs are I love my CDs and I miss them CD players have been gone for a long time this is very easy on the eyes this is the same basic mid that you would be seeing on a very upgraded Camry or Corolla I mean this is what you get on the Corolla xse so when you change your drive modes the color of the speedometer changes which is beautiful and if you wonder where those are those are down by the shifter which we will get into shortly there's that night eight inch the nice eight inch screen that's standard with the carplay showing so yeah some some big changes in my opinion you know nothing to the exterior nothing to the seats and the wheels but screen wise and I'm not even a screen obsessive this really does clean things up nicely and I'm fine with there only being two packages I personally don't care about upgrading that to a nine inch screen give me the wireless and I'm happy this is just a plus I'll use some of the arrows here to show you the menus that's where you start seeing that old mid style but what's nice is that speedometer just wraps over the top like a beautiful rainbow and to me it's just a clean look especially if you put in sport mode everything matches how cool is that so let's look at the interior for a minute before we drive this car you won't get a leather wrapped steering wheel on The XLE so I will admit I'm a sucker for the leather steering wheel I love the way it feels but this isn't bad you know I'm not a big uh proponent of uh the steering wheel covers I'm always afraid that they'll slip and that you know that moment could be very scary but all the other buttons are in the same spot still got the little storage guy over here climate control is the same but if you're new to the Toyota you'll notice the climate control right away you have these two huge knobs with a nice rubberized finish here people wind up falling in love every little click has a temperature right here which is nice people really like that the dual zone is standard on The XLE none of the climate control features are going to be operated through the screen which myself and I will admit many other people are going to agree to I'm not a fan of when you take this stuff and you only operate it from the screen because even though I trust Toyota I don't trust the screens over the long term and if the screen acts up or it goes a little too slow because it's negative 14 degrees outside I don't want to wait or if that screen goes black when I have 300 000 miles on it what am I going to do not be able to use my climate I love a nice tangible feel something I can use no matter what that'll never let me down like I said not of not that I think this will but this is immediate I like them separated let me know what you think the automatic engine turn off feature that a lot of the new cars have they give you the button here to turn that off if you have a hybrid RAV4 you won't see that button because the hybrid RAV4 never actually shuts off the hybrid RAV4 only turns off the engine at the red lights but the car stays on this car will actually turn itself off at the red lights so if you're not a fan of that feature you can dedicate the car to stay on yes you have to push that button every time you start the car now you do have a non-covered USB over here there used to be a flip door and I think I understand why Toyota took away the door for this Toyota knows that there aren't really feet over here there's not a lot of dirt and dust getting kicked up over here because the feet are down here and Toyota knows that since the cup holders are all the way over here not next to this area there's a very small chance of water or dust and dirt even getting here so I think Toyota figured they don't need the door and number two they probably figured people are going to have a hard time seeing and feeling in here why distract them or stop them with a door now since this is gaping huge you probably want to have a door for that so you don't get a piece of candy in there or an Advil or you know a little wrapper in there but for something this small you're not gonna have to worry about anything happening so no problem at all people really do also like Toyota shifter I get a lot of positive feedback with the overhand grip they love how you can just shift down to drive shift up to Park there's no guesswork if you want to control one of the eight gears you just slide it over to the S and you can toggle forward or toggle back on the gears which it'll show you on the bottom of your mid see there on the bottom left so you can really control the RPMs love the shifter I'm not a fan of the turndile shifters you see a lot of the new cars get I love a dedicated shifter but let me know what you think down below you guys are the possible consumers do you like a regular gear dial shifter here that you turn or would you rather or switch or would you rather have a little turn dial like you see on the Acuras and the Rams Totally Wireless so you can bounce back and forth between the two interfaces just tap the little Toyota symbol here and you'll go to the Toyota interface and you can change some of the settings or you can hit the little symbol on the top and go right back to the Apple or Android interface right there and use the navigation that you like to use including Waze if you like Waze and my different Drive modes are right next to the shifter so the Eco normal and Sport are the three that were changing the colors the Eco will turn it green normal will turn it white sorry about that and the sport will make it red awesome you can change that while moving by the way then of course I have a couple different terrain modes here they call that the multi-terrain select inside the center storage which is a slightly more padded material it definitely is more cushy than I've uh seen in the past I feel like this is a slight upgrade and it's definitely more crushy than what you get over here on the door there's a little button here that comes up spring loaded two more of those USBS right over here and they have a little ring around them they'll light up at night time and a soft carpet so you don't have to listen to things sliding around and making scratching noises which adds to your pleasure because let me tell you I'm one of those people that hate the sound of things sliding around shelf here with the same design as on the seats there isn't a soft rubbery non-slide mat but it's still all right and a huge college course of RAV4 books that comes with the car if we take this college course out it's a healthy sized glove box I would say you might even be able to fit a small lunch box in there a small purse you can definitely fit plenty of things in the glove box which has its own dedicated lock so with the smart key that's standard on the RAV4 XLE you can slide the little slider key out by pulling down this lever and you can lock your glove box and another fun fact if the battery dies on the smart key you can slide that key out you can get inside the driver door by the handle and take your dead key fob and start it by pushing against the push starter so you're never stranded with the smart key which is nice see that's a quick breakdown of the Interior here on the driver's seat up top I have the frameless mirror here which doesn't have Auto dimming it has a flip lever but has the Homelink so that's interesting I'm used to seeing the auto dimming come with the Homelink but there isn't as much upset about the flip lever most people are fine with that but this is a nice very nice big size rear view mirror this all stayed the same sunglass case is a okay size or driving glasses safety connect for one year unlimited miles with a blocker door so you don't accidentally push it and the upgraded white LED lights on the interior which is awesome and a white LED light for the personal mirror as well let's take this for a quick spin talk about the way it drives and we'll wrap up the video guys I'll see you in a minute so one quick thing to note about the RAV4 the last big change that the car comes with is the Toyota safety sense 2.0 has been upgraded to Toyota safety sense 2.5 and then it was upgraded again to 2.5 Plus so as you probably know the newer Toyota's as of 2017 have a camera with a light sensor up here in the windshield and right behind the front emblem there is a radar device that can sense how close objects and people are so they're working together all the time to give you the main features that we were used to like your automatic high beams your lane departure alert with steering assist by the way to steer you back in your lane which then was upgraded in 2.0 to the Lane departure alert with Lane Trace assist which is active during your cruise control the automatic high beams pre-collision system with pedestrian detection and the dynamic radar cruise control which can be activated right from the steering wheel that's fully adaptive with the pace following distance setter so the changes are very interesting and make the car a lot safer if you're interested in using them on the safety sense 2.5 Plus for 2023 you now have curve speed management so when you're in the cruise control if you're going around a curve it's actually going to manage your speed if you're taking the curve a little too quick and then resume the speed that you had it set to once you go on the straight now with the 2.0 that the 2022 is an older had the low light pedestrian daytime bicycle detection maintains however you also have the intersection support So if you're in an intersection making a left and it senses you're about to go into somebody's path straight on you it's going to sense that and apply the brakes for you to stop you from hitting them and another very interesting feature that was added on for the 2.5 plus version of the safety sense is the emergency steer assist so when you're driving if there's an object in the road it's going to actually try and steer you around that object now some of this stuff is very new to you and it might sound spooky so definitely get to toyota.com look up Toyota safety sense and there are some awesome video demonstrations of how the system works I won't be able to demonstrate these features on the test drive because the test drive is small just to give you a basic on how the car feels and drives without putting tons of mileage and with that pre-collision system with pedestrian detection I can't even demonstrate that anyway because you'd have to be about to have an accident for that to become active but with that all said let's take this down the road real quick we'll do a quick Spin and I'll talk about the way this feels as somebody who's driven a lot of different Toyotas and competition that was traded in for the last almost seven years so I am just gonna say this from the start this car is going to drive exactly like the 2022 and the 2021 and the 2020 what I'm going to compare it to is the hybrid I'm about half throttle and I'll also compare for people that have never driven the RAV4 before so for people who've never driven the RAV4 before the first thing you'll notice is the visibility is amazing it's a quaint drive it's quiet enough it's not quite as quiet as the RAV4 people find you do have that traditional RAV4 grunt that the four cylinder makes it's supposed to sound that way it's supposed to have a little bit of a grunty sound they get up and go is decent if you put it in sport mode it's going to have a little bit more but it's not made to be a fast performance SUV we have the RAV4 Prime if you need that or you can go hybrid xsc if you want a little more torque the braking is very sufficient I haven't had anybody complain about the brakes the center of gravity is pretty low especially with the tnga frame that this sits on the steering is very smooth with the electronic steering assist now compared to the hybrid version if you're considering that and that's without mentioning gas mileage and a couple other metrics the hybrid is going to be a bit quieter especially up to speed it's going to feel a lot smoother it's a different Drive this has that Bare Bones tried and true eight-speed geared car feel the hybrid is going to definitely feel more modern and techy cvt-ish you're not going to feel where the gears are it's just a linear increase this you can feel it shifting but yeah the big thing is the visibility people are very happy with the visibility when they drive the RAV4 and the mirrors on the RAV4 are probably the same size as the mirrors that you get on the Tacoma which are huge you can see all around you it takes the turns nicely you know this is not some big upgraded sport suspension with stabilizer bars it does everything very well and that's a reason why you see a lot of RAV4s on the road you know depending on where you live but at least in the upper eastern part of the USA I see RAV4s everywhere let's get back to the dealership and conclude the video guys I hope you enjoyed the short drive with me all right so we made it back safe I don't like to do too much time on the test drive because you really have to drive the vehicle yourself there's everybody interprets driving so much differently you know I've driven different types of cars that some of you may not have even ever touched and some of you have driven cars that I probably won't even ever see so and plus you all like different things than I like and vice versa but overall I would say the drive is good it's very good actually and it's a much lower center of gravity than the last generation so if you've been due for a car for a while you'll be very pleased with the upgrades and if your RAV4 is only three or four years old you'll be happy with the tech upgrades that this offers and there you have it the 2023 Toyota RAV4 XLE The XLE like I said is one of the most popular RAV4s and thank you for checking it out with me today let me know what you liked about the video or if there's something that I missed thank you so much if you gave the video a like and if you watched it all the way to the end for those of you subscribed thanks for supporting me for those of you that are not subscribed please consider it your support goes a long way and I promise you to keep bringing quality Toyota content I'll see you in the next video peace

Channel: Brian Ruperti

Views: 79,488

Keywords: Toyota rav4, 2023 rav4, RAV4 XLE, AWD Toyota, RAV4 gas, AWD suv, Toyota 4x4

Id: IKqYtvFygdc

Length: 35min 6sec (2106 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 11 2023