My son has just had a test drive in the Gen 3 Prius. He was informed by the dealer that next year Toyota are bringing out a RAV4 Hybrid. Has anybody else heard of this please? I think my son would have ordered a new Prius Gen 3 but since he has heard about the new RAV Hybrid he is holding back his purchase.
Regards Chris.

[quote name='Chris Dance' post='945543' date='Nov 19 2009, 07:55 PM']My son has just had a test drive in the Gen 3 Prius. He was informed by the dealer that next year Toyota are bringing out a RAV4 Hybrid. Has anybody else heard of this please? I think my son would have ordered a new Prius Gen 3 but since he has heard about the new RAV Hybrid he is holding back his purchase.
Regards Chris.[/quote]


At first I laughed and thought it wouldn't be happening but then a quick search on google found this uk site;

[url="http://www.carsuk.net/toyota-sells-two-million-hybrid-cars/"]http://www.carsuk.net/toyota-sells-two-million-hybrid-cars/[/url]

Which seems to give the impression the Rav4 Hybrid is a go-er, but then again, it doesn't say which markets it will be released in? My money is that the US will get it and we won't.

Toyota already make a 4x4 hybrid it is called the Lexus RX and you can get a two to three year old 400h for about the same money as a brand new Prius.

It's Toyota's stated aim to have a hybrid version of every (or nearly every ) model in their range. Therefore I think it is only a matter of time before we see a hybrid RAV4 on UK roads.

The question your son has to ask Chris is, given the wieght and the aerodynamics of the RAV, how much of an advantage will the hybrid system be?

Undoubtably it will be more fuel economic than a pure petrol RAV but will it match the mpg of a diesel RAV?
On the otherhand it will free of the maintenance issues that seem to dog modern common rail diesels.

It really depends if your son needs the extra cargo space a RAV provides over the Prius. If not, tell him to buy a Prius, I'm sure he will be happy.

My son has a Gen 2 Prius. He also has a RAV 4 in France. The Prius is not too bad in the French Alps providing it is fitted with snow tyres otherwise it is useless. My Son uses the Prius to go to france but whilst he is there the RAV 4 is best for the snow etc. If A hybrid RAV4 comes out he will only require the one vehicle. That would be a big saving. We will see what happens next year.
Chris.

[quote name='Chris Dance' post='945680' date='Nov 20 2009, 03:35 PM']My son has a Gen 2 Prius. He also has a RAV 4 in France. The Prius is not too bad in the French Alps providing it is fitted with snow tyres otherwise it is useless. My Son uses the Prius to go to france but whilst he is there the RAV 4 is best for the snow etc. If A hybrid RAV4 comes out he will only require the one vehicle. That would be a big saving. We will see what happens next year.
Chris.[/quote]

Chris, now I see why your son might be interested in a RAV hybrid, he needs the 4x4 system

but.....

my gut feeling tells me there is a good chance that the RAV hybrid will be FWD only.

I am probably wrong....but!


Anyway, the Lexus RX h is very nice!

Toyota are bringing out a full range of hybrid cars starting with the auris next year then there doing the avensis and yaris after that. There aim is to get every car they produce as a hybrid over the next 5 - 10 years. now here's the down side do a bit of fishing on the net and you'll actually find there chopping down thousand's of square mile's of rain forest in brazil and canada and digging massive hole's to get material's for making the batteries .
Which in the end will cause more damage to the environment than your normal petrol car's. they have actually told us this on a eco tour of the toyota plant where i work.

x

wonder why Mr Toyota stopped making the 3 door Rav4, that was such an ace car, we only got rid of ours when they stopped making them. we are well pleased with our gen3 Prius. but if I got the phone call tomorrow that I could get a new 3 door Rav4, I would be straight down the dealers.

[quote name='joe roberts' post='949947' date='Dec 6 2009, 01:11 PM']Toyota are bringing out a full range of hybrid cars starting with the auris next year then there doing the avensis and yaris after that. There aim is to get every car they produce as a hybrid over the next 5 - 10 years. now here's the down side do a bit of fishing on the net and you'll actually find there chopping down thousand's of square mile's of rain forest in brazil and canada and digging massive hole's to get material's for making the batteries .
Which in the end will cause more damage to the environment than your normal petrol car's. they have actually told us this on a eco tour of the toyota plant where i work.[/quote]

I did one search and came up with the following links.

[url="http://www.thecarconnection.com/article/1010861_prius-versus-hummer-exploding-the-myth"]http://www.thecarconnection.com/article/10...loding-the-myth[/url]

[url="http://www.betterworldclub.com/articles/hummer-not-more-efficient.cfm"]http://www.betterworldclub.com/articles/hu...e-efficient.cfm[/url]

Given the very long time scales that evolution apparently works over, how did polar bears survive when the ice caps melted last time, and why are they supposedly going to die out this time around?