Nice balanced RAV4 review

[Cyker]

Eeee that model is so cute!  

[nlee]

9 minutes ago, Flatcoat said:

Is that regenerating the broken engine…..? 😉

Oops!!

[ColinB]

I found the standard head unit on my 21 Excel adequate, I use the integrated satnav for shorter journeys but Android Auto with Google maps on longer journeys for the better routing and traffic information. I tend to listen to the radio most of the time, otherwise my phone has all my music on it.

[NASY]

I watched the review and thought it was refreshing to get away from the usual moans about how people like their plastics. I guess some people like a shag pile rug at the front door whilst some of us use door mats. The other thing I really enjoyed was how he conveyed the real sense of relaxation and ease the RAV gives the operator, something I feel most reviews miss in pursuit of how a car "Drives", like there are cars out there today that really need to be driven.

[Yugguy1970]

Aye.  For me the RAV's strength is exactly how it feels solid, reliable and not bleeding edge.  I don't want bleeding edge.  I like those big chunky dials on the AC.

Makes me think that when my Design PCP is up and a new one is massively expensive, why don't I go for a 2/3 year old Excel/Dynamic AWD that I couldn't afford new, get a nice approved used on the Relax warranty.

[nlee]

On 12/5/2022 at 7:40 AM, ernieb said:

It's dated for sure but I do like the physical buttons and Android Auto works pretty perfectly for me unlike other car head units I've owned. Yesterday set a route, stopped taking the phone with me, back into the car and after plugging the phone back in the route resumed as if we had not stopped. I could never get this to work reliably on other cars.

Any problems I've had are fixed by a long press on the on/off button, quick reboot and it's working 100%. On other makes I've been back and forward to garages trying to get advertised functions to work and never managed to get them working correctly, as usual with audio, navigation  tech etc., the punter often knows more about what's going on than the trained garage tech!

I think the Toyota Head Unit is a step or two away for the latest and greatest but like the rest of the car will probably be working long after the warranty has expired.

Apologies to those who read other model forums on here as I've also made similar comments on the Yaris forum.

We picked up my wife's Yaris on Friday and it has the smart connect multimedia system. I have to say, I'm very impressed with it. I think it's a slightly bigger screen than the normal system on the current Yaris generation and about the same size as my PHEV. It still has physical buttons but only the 4 key ones (home, volume up/down, and an app switcher) down the left side of the screen (right side might have been better for RHD!) and they are flush profile. I'm fairly sure the display has a much higher resolution but it is definitely clearer and fresher looking. The GUI is much more modern looking and easily to move around and the menus are much simpler. DAB is much easier to find stations and the radio station logos are displayed on the audio screen.

The biggest improvement is the navigation. This is live cloud connected so behaves similar to all the mobile apps on Android Auto or Car Play. Map changes and speed limits update without waiting for the next release. Traffic, roadworks and hazards all update live and you can report incidents like on Waze, etc. It's also internet connected search so it finds much more, rather than relying on the database. I'd say the map graphics are better than some of the connected phone apps. It does this via an inbuilt cellular data module. You can see the signal strength (and whether it's 3g/4g etc. displayed on the top of the screen alongside the signal of your connected phone.

It was a breeze to connect to her account by simply scanning a QR code on the screen and setting up wireless Android Auto was automatic via a prompt when pairing her phone via bluetooth.

Lots have been critical of the "dated" multimedia systems in our Toyotas but all credit to them, as these come through in newer models, this may still not be industry leading, but it looks a massive improvement.

The downside? I haven't sussed it all out yet but it looks like it's a subscription based model. It says she has smart services active until Jan 2027 so it seems the first 4 years are included. It'll be interesting to see how much the subscription is after that.

Anyhow, something to look forward to for those waiting for a new model and maybe will swing a decision in the RAV4 favour when we come to replacing ours.

[ernieb]

Photo? (Perhaps with map screen)

[nlee]

1 minute ago, ernieb said:

Photo? (Perhaps with map screen)

Definitely will Ernie. I'll have to wait until we go somewhere so as not to show the whole internet exactly where we live! It will rely on her letting me in it though, she loves it so much, she's become very precious about it! I have to agree with her though, it is a really lovely motor and if it was a tad bigger, I might be tempted. Maybe a Yaris Cross!

[nlee]

On 1/9/2023 at 12:10 PM, ernieb said:

Photo? (Perhaps with map screen)

Here you are Ernie. This is the display. Just the 4 physical buttons down the left hand side. The current display is the Toyota navigation system, not an Android Auto map (although the wireless Android Auto connection works really well too).

[Hayzee]

40 minutes ago, nlee said:

Here you are Ernie. This is the display. Just the 4 physical buttons down the left hand side. The current display is the Toyota navigation system, not an Android Auto map (although the wireless Android Auto connection works really well too).

Nigel…..my friend has a Yaris Cross and said that he can’t set a gps destination if the internal sim doesn’t have a mobile connection, which happens when his car is in his garage. Is this your experience too?

[nlee]

1 minute ago, Hayzee said:

Nigel…..my friend has a Yaris Cross and said that he can’t set a gps destination if the internal sim doesn’t have a mobile connection, which happens when his car is in his garage. Is this your experience too?

Never come across that yet but we have signal where it's normally parked. It certainly keeps GPS signal when in no network areas. I'll keep and eye on it and let you know if we find anything.

[Hayzee]

Thanks.....yes he has a GPS signal but no mobile signal. He seems to think that's needed to establish a route...is all such info kept in the cloud?

[ernieb]

14 hours ago, nlee said:

Here you are Ernie. This is the display. Just the 4 physical buttons down the left hand side. The current display is the Toyota navigation system, not an Android Auto map (although the wireless Android Auto connection works really well too).

ThanksNigel, that looks very nice and I particularly;lry like the idea of wireless AA. Is there a convienient USB charger port in the centre arm rest, or somewhere, that could be used to charge the phone as I understand that currently the use of wireless AA drain the batter pretty fast? The ideal would be to have a secure charging pad and save completely on wires?

[nlee]

12 hours ago, Hayzee said:

Thanks.....yes he has a GPS signal but no mobile signal. He seems to think that's needed to establish a route...is all such info kept in the cloud?

Ah, see what you mean. That could well be the case and it will work the same way as Google Maps, Waze, etc. and need to access the network to do it's calcs., and some of the PoI destinations.

[nlee]

16 minutes ago, ernieb said:

ThanksNigel, that looks very nice and I particularly;lry like the idea of wireless AA. Is there a convienient USB charger port in the centre arm rest, or somewhere, that could be used to charge the phone as I understand that currently the use of wireless AA drain the batter pretty fast? The ideal would be to have a secure charging pad and save completely on wires?

She only has one USB on the lower dash which is a power/data port, and a 12v "cigar lighter" socket, which she can put a USB adapter in. I suspect the RAV will have more, similar to current models. There's no wireless charging but if it was anything like mine, it would be fairly pointless.

Wireless AA definitely uses more phone Battery. I'd estimate last week, a 4 hour return trip used about 35% of her Battery. That wasn't using the phone for navigation, I'd suspect navigation using an AA app would use more.

[ernieb]

Thanks Nigel, that’s a sizeable drop in Battery especially if you started the trip with anything less than 100%. 

[nlee]

2 hours ago, ernieb said:

Thanks Nigel, that’s a sizeable drop in battery especially if you started the trip with anything less than 100%. 

I've got the Carsify wireless adapter in the RAV and I'd say mine uses even more phone Battery but it's always in navigation with the Tomtom Amigo app. I find wireless AA is really convenient because it's in use for all the short journeys I'd never bother to get my phone out and plug in for. However, I always plug in to keep charge for anything expected to be over an hour or so.

[marlinleg]

Excellent review of the rav4  as the reviewer said transmission can be a title noisy the video link will explain once and for all why 

 

 

[Flatcoat]

9 minutes ago, marlinleg said:

Excellent review of the rav4  as the reviewer said transmission can be a title noisy the video link will explain once and for all why 

 

 

This has been posted on here elsewhere. I found the HEV noisier than the PHEV albeit mostly from rear road noise. 

[nlee]

3 hours ago, Flatcoat said:

This has been posted on here elsewhere. I found the HEV noisier than the PHEV albeit mostly from rear road noise. 

Not sure if it has been added to the more recent HEVs since, but they added additional sound insulation and "double glazing" to the PHEV when it came out, which was one of the differences back then.