2019 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid Road Test Review: Top of the Charts

It's true, there's a lot of Ford to the front end. But overall, I'd say the character is more Toyota. It's certainly more visually interesting to me than the last generation.

Yeah, the XLE is probably the sweet spot of the range, saving a solid $7k — or half that with the XSE package ticked. There's little that's missing there, and it's what I've recommended to my mom, who's seriously considering one of these as her next car in about 18 months.

That said, this whole class is getting pricey. While most of them start under $30k, getting a decent amount of kit bumps them past that. It's shocking to me that the CX-5 comes in at $47k with the diesel.

 

I have one of these arriving in November as my next company car, Dynamic trim (XSE is the closest in NA), Hybrid AWD.

 

So I've had mine for around a week and put just under a thousand miles on it, and for my needs its ideal.

The 'toys' list hits the right spot, auto HighBeam in particular given that 70% of my daily commute in on unlit B-roads, fuel economy is not far off my old diesel V40, at 46mpg vs 49 mpg imperial (roughly 38mpg US and 6 litres per 100km) and its still creeping up on a daily basis.

The CVT isn't my first choice of transmission, but actually suits the car well and does the job, and compared to the last Toyota I owned (a T230 Celica) the interior is a massive step up in terms of quality.

Very happy with it so far.