RAV4 PHEV review - Petrol Ped

[ColinB]

9 hours ago, Rav Rob said:

I do think Toyota are incredibly generous to long term lend a 47K car with someone with pretty limited followers and low viewing numbers for much of his content. I can think of better youtube channels for their money.

Toyota didn't lend him the car, Hendy did. He has a long term arrangement to borrow one of their demonstrators for a week or so to give him a chance to actually live with the car, rather than a one or two day drive. 

Previously he has driven high performance cars, including the Audi R8, Aston Martins etc, but since the Hendy tie up he has driven much more "normal" cars. He is normally fair on his reviews, however should be taken in his context of his love of performance cars. What this does prove is that car reviews must always be taken with a pinch of salt and there is no substitute for an actual test drive to see if the car suits you. As I said I tend to drive in a more laid back manner now, which suits Toyota Hybrid cars. If you're a more press on type of driver then they may not be suitable for you and just go for the GR Yaris. 

[Stopeter44]

55 minutes ago, ColinB said:

What this does prove is that car reviews must always be taken with a pinch of salt and there is no substitute for an actual test drive to see if the car suits you. As I said I tend to drive in a more laid back manner now...

TBH, most people don't care about absolute performance, I certainly don't, although the adolescent boy racer in me used to devour reviews of performance cars. You do hear people say strange things, all things considered, though.

A family member bought a new car. They said "I don't drive fast", and and at the same time said "I don't want a gutless POS", so bought the 140bhp model instead of the standard 90bhp. The irony of all this is the person drives at or below the speed limit most of the time and sticks to the slow lane on motorways.

[robo1]

I got a like from Petrol Ped for the comment I posted. He clearly wrongly assumed that the RAV was fitted with a conventional CVT. To be fair to him I would say the non linear response of engine revs and speed is one of the negative points of the Toyota eCVT. As he commented it does sound like a slipping clutch.

[ernieb]

Keith, that’s true of any car equipped with a CVT or eCVT.  Most people get in, drive and never give another thought as to what’s going on to drive the wheels.

[Mortdav1]

Of all the many RAV 4 PHEV / PRIME reviews on You Tube, this was the most negative I've seen. Had my PHEV for 3 months and love it. In ECO mode, I get 52 miles of EV from a charge &  in 1800 miles of mixed driving , my overall mpg is 130.  It's a unique combination of performance and economy. My previous car was an Audi Q5 PHEV (costing £10k more) but the RAV is vastly superior in terms of EV range, self-charging ability, performance & overall economy. It is equally comfortable, quiet & well built (compare the warranties!) Plus it has a decent boot & (I think) the option to carry a spacesaver under the boot, where the Audi was just filled with Battery. Audi cannot compete with Toyota's hybrid heritage. The slower tailgate opening (allegedly) and engine noise volume when flooring the throttle (is that what we buy a hybrid for?) are minor downsides which I haven't really noticed. I don't particularly drive the car just for economy and enjoy the open road performance when in Hybrid mode. No wonder there is a lengthy worldwide waiting list ( I was lucky - I got a cancellation).

[kucyk]

 

[Hybrid21]

Certainly the revs do not match the speed and it is a bit noisy, I don't think anybody can deny that.

In sport mode it is better and quite acceptable.

It does take a while to get used to the hybrid e-cvt system and you wouldn't do that in a short drive.

In my opinion there is also a lot of road noise compared to a Volvo or a Landrover. I've had both over a number of years and they are definitely a lot quieter than the RAV4. If you're driving for 4 hours without a break you do notice it.

Horses for courses and the RAV4 does have a lot of other attributes.

And yes the rear hatch is annoyingly slow 😃

Iain

PS it's a different style of driving and not for everybody.

 

 

 

 

[Lawnmowerman]

20 minutes ago, Hybrid21 said:

In my opinion there is also a lot of road noise compared to a Volvo or a Landrover. I've had both over a number of years and they are definitely a lot quieter than the RAV4. If you're driving for 4 hours without a break you do notice it.

The PHEV has additional sound deadening at the bulkhead and the front side windows are laminated - definitely quiter than the HEV.

[kucyk]

1 hour ago, Hybrid21 said:

Certainly the revs do not match the speed and it is a bit noisy, I don't think anybody can deny that.

In sport mode it is better and quite acceptable.

It does take a while to get used to the hybrid e-cvt system and you wouldn't do that in a short drive.

In my opinion there is also a lot of road noise compared to a Volvo or a Landrover. I've had both over a number of years and they are definitely a lot quieter than the RAV4. If you're driving for 4 hours without a break you do notice it.

Horses for courses and the RAV4 does have a lot of other attributes.

And yes the rear hatch is annoyingly slow 😃

Iain

PS it's a different style of driving and not for everybody.

 

 

 

 

I don't see any issue with PHEV to be honest, the car has so much power that the engine is practically noiseless during normal or even dynamic driving. Any acceleration in the range of 40-80mph is instant, you won't even have time to think about engine noise. If you floor it from 0 then ok it's on the noisy side, but which car isn't? I'm personally super impressed, it's crazy how fast this car is.

I drove conventional RAV4 hybrid and it's more noisy indeed as the car relies on the combustion engine only and has less HP to get it to the desired speed, but still manageable I would say.

[Flatcoat]

13 minutes ago, kucyk said:

I don't see any issue with PHEV to be honest, the car has so much power that the engine is practically noiseless during normal or even dynamic driving. Any acceleration in the range of 40-80mph is instant, you won't even have time to think about engine noise. If you floor it from 0 then ok it's on the noisy side, but which car isn't? I'm personally super impressed, it's crazy how fast this car is.

I drove conventional RAV4 hybrid and it's more noisy indeed as the car relies on the combustion engine only and has less HP to get it to the desired speed, but still manageable I would say.

Agree, I personally find the PHEV very quiet (much more so than the HEV) and after a playing around with driving position and realising the tyre pressures were all a bit high and dropping them it has transformed the handling. I am really getting to like driving it as opposed to simply going from A to B. It simply is a brilliant car and I enjoyed watching PetrolPeds second video, learned a lot and hats off to him for acknowledging his earlier error. 

[ernieb]

I think under normal driving conditions the PHEV is fine, under heavy acceleration/load it does growl but for me those conditions are the exception rather than the rule. The acceleration and pick up I have found to be really good especially, as has already been stated, the passing acceleration 40 to 70mph, this is what I want in a car rather than standing start to 60mph, even though the PHEV does that pretty well.

In all of this it's down to personal expectations, previous experience and driving style but I think there would be very few current PHEV owners who overall would not be happy with their purchase?

[Roger_N]

11 hours ago, Flatcoat said:

Agree, I personally find the PHEV very quiet (much more so than the HEV) and after a playing around with driving position and realising the tyre pressures were all a bit high and dropping them it has transformed the handling. I am really getting to like driving it as opposed to simply going from A to B. It simply is a brilliant car and I enjoyed watching PetrolPeds second video, learned a lot and hats off to him for acknowledging his earlier error. 

I think they may have improved the MY2022 model as regards to noise, I’ve not done many miles yet but it’s seems reasonably quite to me , although I had only driven the Icon as a test before buying I’ve no complaints as yet.

Tyre noise is the most intrusive noise on the car, it’s on Bridgestone tyres.

[Flatcoat]

It was tyre/road noise I found very intrusive when we drove a HEV. The PHEV is in a different league for noise, much much quieter. 

[Hayzee]

I've only had the PHEV for 4 weeks now and all but three days has been using just EV mode. Those three days involved 250 miles in HEV mode on all types of roads and speeds. I have to say that I've found the PHEV to be very quiet and often hardly notice a difference between ICE and EV. Seems quieter than my previous Volvo XC90 T5, which was pretty quiet too.