2020 Rav4 questions

[Chrisnufc]

I currently have a GR Yaris but with a baby on the way and 2 dogs I might have to admit defeat to my girlfriend who wants me to get a proper family car haha.
 

I’ve enquired about a 2020 Rav4 excel 2wd 2.5 hybrid and got a quote where I’d be no worse off monthly swapping them. Does anyone have any experience they could share from these new RAV4’s?

hows the boot space 

are they reliable? I know it has a long warranty but would prefer not to have a unreliable car in the garage all the time? 

what’s the real life mpg is there much difference between 4wd?

what type of 4wd do these offer is it permenant or like a haldex where it’s 2wd most of the time? 
 

would anyone with kids or kids and dogs recommend one?

thanks I’m advance if anyone can help

[ColinB]

I have a 2021 Excel 2WD and so far am very happy with it. I'm averaging just over 43mpg at the moment, however this is based on mainly short journeys around town. On a longer journey 50mpg seems really possible and hasn't seen some nearer 60mpg on some gentle journeys. I believe that the 4WD is slightly less economical, the rear drive is by electric motor only as and when needed. The boot is very generous, certainly better than my C-HR, so should be ok. Toyota are generally very reliable, backed up with a 20 year / 100k miles warranty as long as you have the annual service at a Toyota garage.

The only thing that you will miss is the chuckability of your Yaris, a big heavy car will never match that.

One thing to watch out when you spec your has car, don't go anywhere near a £40k list price as the road tax will cost you over £300 a year more from year 1-5

[Eddiefh]

With kids and cars bigger is easier, I had a beautiful e class 4 seater 

[philip42h]

4 hours ago, Chrisnufc said:

I currently have a GR Yaris but with a baby on the way and 2 dogs I might have to admit defeat to my girlfriend who wants me to get a proper family car haha.

I’ve enquired about a 2020 Rav4 excel 2wd 2.5 hybrid and got a quote where I’d be no worse off monthly swapping them. Does anyone have any experience they could share from these new RAV4’s?

I've neither dogs nor kids (at home any more) but:

The Toyota hybrid system is very reliable and the car is well built. I'm on my third RAV4 since 2009 and never had anything go wrong with any of them.

The current WLTP figures give a very good idea of the achievable economy - so around 49 mpg for the FWD and 48 mpg for the AWDi. The AWD is achieved using an additional electric motor on the rear axle that provides additional torque / power when the car decides that it should. The system just works ...

Whether you meet or exceed the WLTP figures will depend largely on your journey profile and driving style. The average driver won't quite get there but should be close. My AWDi is managing around 45 mpg overall.

The boot is a good size. It's bordering on cavernous if you can fold the rear seats but you probably won't have that option when carrying all your passengers. Whether there is enough room in the boot for both baby paraphernalia and two dogs will rather depend on the size of the dogs. But there is a good amount of space in the boot with the seats in place. The point here is that you would easily find a much bigger family car so, like everyone else, you'll have to organise your packing into the space you have - as you would if you stuck with the Yaris or went up to a Corolla instead!

The key benefit of the RAV4 is accessibility. The doors and tailgate open reasonably wide and you don't have to climb down into the car or climb up out of it - which will prove a real boon when it comes to loading an increasingly heavy baby into a child seat!

[Mike2222]

I have the phev, which has marginally less boot space than the hev, an 18month old & a 3yr old, and just done a 250-300mile + ferry holiday. The Rav is more than capable for your day to day needs by sounds of things (caveat - depends on size of dogs!) but you should not underestimate the general bulkiness of child-related paraphernalia! 

For example, if you were trying to load up for a similar holiday, and both dogs were coming and needed half the boot space each, I think any vehicle smaller than a van/van-based mpv might struggle without needing to resort to a top box! 

I came from a mazda6 estate - lovely place to be for long drives, decent boot, but the percentage of smaller journeys it ended up doing for the day-to-day would have knackered it's diesel engine, so hence move to hybrid (or in this case phev). In a similar family holiday with that car, we opted to bring a roof box, but this was mostly to house the buggy and a few other bulky items, as this allowed a more compact packing of the boot. 

There are plenty of cavernous booted vehicles, both estate & SUV (tho worth noting that the UK quoted boot size for 'seats up' is only UK to the window line, so an suv shape will almost always be more total volume to the roof), but if the hybrid is the best option for the 95% of your driving then go with it. There are always ways to adapt for special cases, eg holidays, even if it amounts to borrowing a friend/relatives bigger car, or even renting (assuming the rental market calms down again in coming years). The Rav is a great car for a small family, enjoy! 

[Flatcoat]

You could also consider a Corolla Estate or Suzuki Across (same as RAV)? The RAV hybrid is second only to a Lexus for owner satisfaction and reliability for hybrids and it is a Toyota.