It's here... 2024 GRS PHEV vs 2021 Dynamic Prem PHEV

[Nick72]

Unsure if and how this may help anyone but have had a few requests for comparisons. Really long post so check out early if it is not of interest. 

Company car driver of the RAV4 PHEV Dynamic Premium 2021 for 3 years, now swapped to a new 2024 GR Sport PHEV bitone pan roof. Only a couple of days in but it's enough to write this.

Some folks will be just curious. Some folks may be weighing up whether they trade up. Some folks wondering if a second hand R4P is a better bet than the 2024. Some folks like I was may be wondering what's next after their lease is up on the R4P? Probably a few other scenarios.

Hope it's useful.


Scores... 2024 GRS bitone first then 2021 Dynamic Premium. Both PHEVs.

Appearance 9 (GRS) v 8.5 (2021 DP)
Always loved the aggressive look of the car. The small tweaks and new black alloys just give the appearance a very slight edge. Personal taste of course. Gone from Dacuma Grey bitone where the silver alloys looked great to a Pearl White bitone with black alloys which looks great in a storm trooper way.

Ride and Handling
Ride Comfort 7.5 v 8
There's a slightly harder ride and it is noticeable on the potholed B roads. I think the seats may have helped close some of that gap as it's only felt as slightly worse.
Handling 8.5 v 7
Handling was already better than many SUVs but... Pitch n dive mostly gone. Body roll, much reduced. Significant improvement and now more closely aligned to the 306hp power and acceleration of the car. It wasn't bad before btw as I say but now it's closer to my preference at a slight ride comfort sacrifice. It's too early to say with conviction but hard cornering has a very very slight skipping or jitter at the rear as my AMG Merc used to do but in spades. Tyres will be a major part of that at the end of the day.

Seats
Comfort 8.5 v 8
The seats were already comfortable for many a 5 hour drive. They are more comfortable now and feel slightly more substantial in terms of support and cushioning.
Body holding 8 v 7.5
Seats offer slightly more body grip through materials and shaping than the old seats. Only mildly worthwhile mind.
Features 7 v 8.5
Big loss to not have the cooling function. It was a godsend in high summer. You're sweating like a pig in a poke, and the seats are baking when you get into the car. In seconds you are sitting on a shelf in a fridge and turning into a Mr Freeze ice pop. Really miss this. Also, there's now only two temperature settings for the heated seat function. High and low. Lukewarm or scorchio. Overall I prefer the old seats but only just.

Infotainment Display 9 v 6.5
The resolution makes a huge difference as does the extra size. It feels huge. The YouTube videos don't really do it justice. The display also pops the colours out nicely and is clearly readable even in bright daylight. Makes a huge difference to Android Auto. Now I can use the AA panel view and still read the directions and map easily. Enabling satellite view in Gmaps looks gorgeous. I never use close to the 40GB or whatever my mobile data allowance is so I'll see how I get on using satellite view. But I'll probably end up switching it off because I'm overcomplicating navigation for aesthetics! Lovely touch responsive fast display system. It's 2024 Toyota people, not 2008. One downside and reason it didn't score higher is the icons in AA are sooo much smaller for my wobbly arms and finger podge.

Satnav 8 v 5
Old satnav was just about useful as a last resort plan b. It was like something from the late 1990s. Now I can see myself using the new one as well as Google Maps and Waze via AA for some trips. It's clear, nice colours, fast, smooth, and can do 3D, jams are showing up. Shows up on the driver display and the HUD apparently but I'm yet to try this properly. Mind you, it's still not as good as the Tom Tom 3D I had on the Peugeot 3008 Hybrid4 GT 300. That scored 10 (shown across 2 screens - big picture plan view, 3D local view). Lovely. Shame about the Pug drive train, leaking roof, constant failures etc. 😂


Drivers Display 8.5 v 7.5
It's the configurability of the display that scores the points. The old mechanical plus digital was weird at first but worked. There were always a couple of things I wanted to see all the time especially when off road and not having to scroll through and back again. Not game changing but it is now into the 2020s at least. I've configured the 3 quick flip profiles for general, motorway cruise, off-road. For example, off road I want to see AWD traction, tyre pressures so I can work out what's going on. Compass on the HUD... but so far I've not managed to get that working despite it being set in the HUD settings to show compass. Instead I'm getting the lane thingy.  Any ideas? One added surprise bonus is during AA navigation. Gmaps or Waze. You get slightly more elaborated information on next turn in the drivers display which is also larger than before.

Reversing Camera Quality 8 v 5
Previous rear view camera was worse than my mum's 20 year old Nissan people carrier. It was like VHS on long play in the fog and the tracking was out. And poor night vision that I had to boost with an extra bright reversing light LED replacement. The reversing camera quality is now leagues ahead and current with many 40k plus cars and their cameras. Good detail, good night vision. Still, it's not quite as pin sharp as it was on my Merc over 7 years ago.

Stereo and Speakers 6.5 v 6.5
Previous JBL was just about average and I was utterly dreading something noticeably worse. But no. It sounds just as good as the JBL but it took me a while fiddling with the settings to get it that way. Initial settings were horrific. No bass, no highs, and all coming from the dash Speakers. It sounded like a 1990s car stereo on a vauxhall nova. Now, after fiddling, I couldn't tell the difference. Note, I'm not playing drum n bass. Anytime soon. Probably never. This result has been my biggest surprise. It's as good, or I should say, it's just as average as the JBL.

Driving & Safety Features incl. LTA 8 v 7.5
Feels like a small upgrade including some of the new anti collision features. Pedestrians and cyclists at the front? LTA is actually useful rather than an aid to staying awake. Or does that make it less useful if you're not concentrating 100% waiting for the LTA to go horribly wrong?

Start-up Speed and Faff Factor 5.5 v 6.5
It was slow to start and go already. But now you've got to disable the speed warning as an extra chore, although that's optional. That said, everything does start up a couple of seconds quicker including the Infotainment and drive drain. I've tried to get the hybrid drive train not available (or whatever it says) error by being too eager a few times but I've not had the message yet. Still I've not done more than 50 miles and 10 or 12 trips.

Equipment and Features 8.5 v 7
Pan View Monitor
Heated Steering Wheel
Paddle Shifters
Pan View monitor is exceptional. No more messing with mirrors or opening the doors to check curb and parking lines etc. Heated steering wheel is a little meh for me. I wear touchscreen compatible driving gloves in winter and often condition the car whilst it's still plugged into the wall box in mid winter on a schedule. Paddle Shifters may only be useful coming down a mountain to boost regen braking. A type of descent control or low gear.



Overall Scores for Comparative Criteria
GRS  110.5 out of 140 (78.9%)
2021 DP 99 out of 140 (70.7%)


It's about 8 percentage points better all things considered in my hookey cookie analysis and very wild opinions. But it feels like it is too. A minor but very welcome improvement. Many incremental changes rather than a revolution anywhere. Which is Toyota. Don't change too many variables by too much in the equation at the same time. Could have been better with the old cooled seats having a slight overall edge but there's no noticeable difference with the absence of the JBL stereo. Drum n bass not tested! Don't ask me to either. JBL will win.

Several additional unexpected bonuses not mentioned so far are: First thing is, and I punched the air like I'd won the world cup, is context volume control is implemented in AA. So when Waze or Gmaps is giving you directions you can change the voice volume independent of the radio or music. Just like it was on my Merc 7 years back. 😂 Second thing is the boot opens and closes much faster than before. 30 to 35% faster. See the American comparison video I posted. I've timed it too. You can also set boot opening height via the drivers display settings which I've done to avoid the near catastrophe on the multi story car park with low roof members. I know you could do this via the button on the boot BTW. Oh, and you now get to see the DCM signal strength and whether it's downloading and uploading (I think that's what the symbols mean on the top of the Infotainment display). Lastly, there's more in the MyT App. Push notifications if you left open; windows, moon roof, hood, trunk, etc. Apologies for the Americanisms. Force of habit talking to many US friends. And if it's unlocked. You can also remote lock, unlock, put hazards on or off. Useful.

So maybe I should say the GRS is really about 10% better overall than my previous 2021 Dynamic Premium. I definitely feel like I've had an upgrade but with enough comfortable familiarity through continuity of everything else, that simply just works well.

Question is, how much is that really worth? Would I trade up from the last model if I wasn't a company car driver? Probably not unless the trade cost me less than about 5k. I'd wait for the 5th version of the RAV to see if there's more significant improvements which would need to include, for me to be tempted, more tech and US market features, an even larger driver and infotainment display, more power at the rear wheels, >25% longer Battery range, and a decent less drab interior. Oh and a moon roof that opens more than 8 inches. 30 inches would be really very nice.

Overall, very happy. Much more than I expected to be.

Next stop is swapping over the tyres to CC2s.

P.s. This will sound odd. The car drives differently. It feels lighter, more nimble, and the steering is much lighter. Suspension changes alone can't account for this. I checked the tyre pressures which are correct and as they were on the last one, and have loaded up all my gear too. It's definitely lighter on the steering but it feels like a slightly lighter car. I can't quite get my head round that as the car is presumably the same weight. Answers on a post card.

[Cyker]

Cheers, good writreup  

[philip42h]

You probably ought to update your profile now then Nick ... 😉

[Nick72]

29 minutes ago, philip42h said:

You probably ought to update your profile now then Nick ... 😉

Now I need to figure that out 😂

[Nick72]

32 minutes ago, philip42h said:

You probably ought to update your profile now then Nick ... 😉

Sorted. That was easier than anticipated. Good shout Philip.

[ernieb]

Great write up Nick. I'd be interested in a look back after you've had the car for say 3 months and things have settled in and you've clocked up a few miles?

Are you still on the original tyres or have you switched to the CC2's? If they are still the original then it would be interesting to see what you feel about some of the handling marks above after the change

[Nick72]

41 minutes ago, ernieb said:

Great write up Nick. I'd be interested in a look back after you've had the car for say 3 months and things have settled in and you've clocked up a few miles?

Are you still on the original tyres or have you switched to the CC2's? If they are still the original then it would be interesting to see what you feel about some of the handling marks above after the change

Thanks Ernie. You're right and will do. So caveat is the report is from initial impressions and not many miles. I'll update in a month or two. Some long trips coming up soon. 

The over speed beeps are annoying but livable if I forget to turn off the RSA. Steering Assist is on by default too and I'm not sure what that does. Need to read the manual (it came with a printed manual). I'm assuming it's a curb or outer line detection so it vibrates or nudges the steering wheel if I'm veering off course. That's not going to be working off road or on muddy trails in the mountains! LTA is separately enabled as per the last car. Lane centering. Seems to work well so far but it's going to take a long trip before I know with any confidence.

Haven't tried any hard acceleration yet. I need to get about 1000 miles on the ICE first.

Stock tyres at present. I think they may be Goodyear rather than Yokohamas. Not noticed anything really different yet. I'll give it a few weeks before swapping over to the CC2s then report back.

Expecting to discover the odd issue with a long term test but hopefully nothing major. 🤞🙏

[Flatcoat]

Interesting comparison! I think some of the handling and ride impressions will change when you have different tyres. Personally I really do not like the GRS wheels at all. All black, no thanks. However it is all academic for me, the reduced towing limit compared with the DP rules it out as a future car for me and unfortunately Toyota no longer import a car into the UK that meets my needs. 

[philip42h]

1 hour ago, Nick72 said:

Stock tyres at present. I think they may be Goodyear rather than Yokohamas. Not noticed anything really different yet. I'll give it a few weeks before swapping over to the CC2s then report back.

I will be interested in that bit - and what you actually have on as stock.

Four years ago, I took a test drive in a demonstrator shod with stock summer tyres and had them swapped for all seasons before I took delivery of my order. I like the way my car rides on Michelin CCs and believe that the ride and handling is an improvement on stock - but that's after an hour in the demonstrator, five or six weeks delay, and then four years on CCs ... 😉

[Torrox]

Good write up Nick. So what happened to the spare tyre? Did you have one on previous car? I didn't think I like the wheels pattern but now I am pleased that they are black and quite open to get clean easily.

So the pan roof can only open as far as those pictures I took?

You can put the AWD on the dash and it shows when the back wheels engage which I think it's quite neat. I often see awd engaged when you start and when the car goes up hill. 

[Nick72]

1 hour ago, Torrox said:

Good write up Nick. So what happened to the spare tyre? Did you have one on previous car? I didn't think I like the wheels pattern but now I am pleased that they are black and quite open to get clean easily.

So the pan roof can only open as far as those pictures I took?

You can put the AWD on the dash and it shows when the back wheels engage which I think it's quite neat. I often see awd engaged when you start and when the car goes up hill. 

No spare on this nor the last one. Gunk n pump only. Not too worried but would have preferred a space saver spare. 

Yes, pan roof still only opens 8 inches. Like the last one. It's a little poor but better than a non opening roof. 

Got the AWD on the driver screen. Along with next turn navigation etc. It's pretty cool. Pleased with the nav elements on the driver display. I'm still experimenting with layouts. Liking what they've done. 

🙂

 

[DavidinDerbyshire]

3 hours ago, Nick72 said:

Haven't tried any hard acceleration yet. I need to get about 1000 miles on the ICE first.

In our case that's proving a long wait since we're up to 2k+ in three months and only used the ICE for approx 300 miles  But it is well worth remembering that the ICE needs to be run in rather more gently than its capability urges you do. 

[Bill65]

Great comparison, thanks Nick.

Interesting it now shows some elements of AA (and presumably CarPlay Apple Maps) on the drivers info display. That's a bonus.

Great to know the stock audio doesn't suck.

[P_J]

Yep, echo the above. Thanks. 
Good, clear write up Nick, and its how I feel with the GR PHEV, but without the hindsight of having owned a RAV before. 
Must admit I haven't spotted the AWD status info on any of the displays so I'll have to look again for that when I remember. 

Now if only we could get the option to adjust the tolerance of the overspeed warning...

[Jamzieth]

I know it's all subjective, but out of curiosity, can you share your EQ settings and anything else you did to get the stereo sound as good as possible?

I'm awaiting my first Rav4 (GRS), and the stock Speakers are the only thing letting it down for me.  The overall package was what I wanted though, so the purchase was made.

[J2024IE]

14 minutes ago, Jamzieth said:

I know it's all subjective, but out of curiosity, can you share your EQ settings and anything else you did to get the stereo sound as good as possible?

I'm awaiting my first Rav4 (GRS), and the stock speakers are the only thing letting it down for me.  The overall package was what I wanted though, so the purchase was made.

on my 2024 Rav4 the only audio settings i changed was to increase the bass, left the other settings as they were, sound quality is very good, and compared to the 2023 Corolla TS, the reversing camera on the 24 Rav4 is much higher resolution, and works better  in the dark than the corolla did.  

[J2024IE]

6 hours ago, ernieb said:

Great write up Nick. I'd be interested in a look back after you've had the car for say 3 months and things have settled in and you've clocked up a few miles?

Are you still on the original tyres or have you switched to the CC2's? If they are still the original then it would be interesting to see what you feel about some of the handling marks above after the change

on my 2024 Rav4 i am still using the stock tires, and find them fine.   they are Dunlop Grandtrek PT30

[RAV4GRS]

17 hours ago, Nick72 said:

Unsure if and how this may help anyone but have had a few requests for comparisons. Really long post so check out early if it is not of interest. 

Company car driver of the RAV4 PHEV Dynamic Premium 2021 for 3 years, now swapped to a new 2024 GR Sport PHEV bitone pan roof. Only a couple of days in but it's enough to write this.

Some folks will be just curious. Some folks may be weighing up whether they trade up. Some folks wondering if a second hand R4P is a better bet than the 2024. Some folks like I was may be wondering what's next after their lease is up on the R4P? Probably a few other scenarios.

Hope it's useful.


Scores... 2024 GRS bitone first then 2021 Dynamic Premium. Both PHEVs.

Appearance 9 (GRS) v 8.5 (2021 DP)
Always loved the aggressive look of the car. The small tweaks and new black alloys just give the appearance a very slight edge. Personal taste of course. Gone from Dacuma Grey bitone where the silver alloys looked great to a Pearl White bitone with black alloys which looks great in a storm trooper way.

Ride and Handling
Ride Comfort 7.5 v 8
There's a slightly harder ride and it is noticeable on the potholed B roads. I think the seats may have helped close some of that gap as it's only felt as slightly worse.
Handling 8.5 v 7
Handling was already better than many SUVs but... Pitch n dive mostly gone. Body roll, much reduced. Significant improvement and now more closely aligned to the 306hp power and acceleration of the car. It wasn't bad before btw as I say but now it's closer to my preference at a slight ride comfort sacrifice. It's too early to say with conviction but hard cornering has a very very slight skipping or jitter at the rear as my AMG Merc used to do but in spades. Tyres will be a major part of that at the end of the day.

Seats
Comfort 8.5 v 8
The seats were already comfortable for many a 5 hour drive. They are more comfortable now and feel slightly more substantial in terms of support and cushioning.
Body holding 8 v 7.5
Seats offer slightly more body grip through materials and shaping than the old seats. Only mildly worthwhile mind.
Features 7 v 8.5
Big loss to not have the cooling function. It was a godsend in high summer. You're sweating like a pig in a poke, and the seats are baking when you get into the car. In seconds you are sitting on a shelf in a fridge and turning into a Mr Freeze ice pop. Really miss this. Also, there's now only two temperature settings for the heated seat function. High and low. Lukewarm or scorchio. Overall I prefer the old seats but only just.

Infotainment Display 9 v 6.5
The resolution makes a huge difference as does the extra size. It feels huge. The YouTube videos don't really do it justice. The display also pops the colours out nicely and is clearly readable even in bright daylight. Makes a huge difference to Android Auto. Now I can use the AA panel view and still read the directions and map easily. Enabling satellite view in Gmaps looks gorgeous. I never use close to the 40GB or whatever my mobile data allowance is so I'll see how I get on using satellite view. But I'll probably end up switching it off because I'm overcomplicating navigation for aesthetics! Lovely touch responsive fast display system. It's 2024 Toyota people, not 2008. One downside and reason it didn't score higher is the icons in AA are sooo much smaller for my wobbly arms and finger podge.

Satnav 8 v 5
Old satnav was just about useful as a last resort plan b. It was like something from the late 1990s. Now I can see myself using the new one as well as Google Maps and Waze via AA for some trips. It's clear, nice colours, fast, smooth, and can do 3D, jams are showing up. Shows up on the driver display and the HUD apparently but I'm yet to try this properly. Mind you, it's still not as good as the Tom Tom 3D I had on the Peugeot 3008 Hybrid4 GT 300. That scored 10 (shown across 2 screens - big picture plan view, 3D local view). Lovely. Shame about the Pug drive train, leaking roof, constant failures etc. 😂


Drivers Display 8.5 v 7.5
It's the configurability of the display that scores the points. The old mechanical plus digital was weird at first but worked. There were always a couple of things I wanted to see all the time especially when off road and not having to scroll through and back again. Not game changing but it is now into the 2020s at least. I've configured the 3 quick flip profiles for general, motorway cruise, off-road. For example, off road I want to see AWD traction, tyre pressures so I can work out what's going on. Compass on the HUD... but so far I've not managed to get that working despite it being set in the HUD settings to show compass. Instead I'm getting the lane thingy.  Any ideas? One added surprise bonus is during AA navigation. Gmaps or Waze. You get slightly more elaborated information on next turn in the drivers display which is also larger than before.

Reversing Camera Quality 8 v 5
Previous rear view camera was worse than my mum's 20 year old Nissan people carrier. It was like VHS on long play in the fog and the tracking was out. And poor night vision that I had to boost with an extra bright reversing light LED replacement. The reversing camera quality is now leagues ahead and current with many 40k plus cars and their cameras. Good detail, good night vision. Still, it's not quite as pin sharp as it was on my Merc over 7 years ago.

Stereo and Speakers 6.5 v 6.5
Previous JBL was just about average and I was utterly dreading something noticeably worse. But no. It sounds just as good as the JBL but it took me a while fiddling with the settings to get it that way. Initial settings were horrific. No bass, no highs, and all coming from the dash speakers. It sounded like a 1990s car stereo on a vauxhall nova. Now, after fiddling, I couldn't tell the difference. Note, I'm not playing drum n bass. Anytime soon. Probably never. This result has been my biggest surprise. It's as good, or I should say, it's just as average as the JBL.

Driving & Safety Features incl. LTA 8 v 7.5
Feels like a small upgrade including some of the new anti collision features. Pedestrians and cyclists at the front? LTA is actually useful rather than an aid to staying awake. Or does that make it less useful if you're not concentrating 100% waiting for the LTA to go horribly wrong?

Start-up Speed and Faff Factor 5.5 v 6.5
It was slow to start and go already. But now you've got to disable the speed warning as an extra chore, although that's optional. That said, everything does start up a couple of seconds quicker including the Infotainment and drive drain. I've tried to get the hybrid drive train not available (or whatever it says) error by being too eager a few times but I've not had the message yet. Still I've not done more than 50 miles and 10 or 12 trips.

Equipment and Features 8.5 v 7
Pan View Monitor
Heated Steering Wheel
Paddle Shifters
Pan View monitor is exceptional. No more messing with mirrors or opening the doors to check curb and parking lines etc. Heated steering wheel is a little meh for me. I wear touchscreen compatible driving gloves in winter and often condition the car whilst it's still plugged into the wall box in mid winter on a schedule. Paddle Shifters may only be useful coming down a mountain to boost regen braking. A type of descent control or low gear.



Overall Scores for Comparative Criteria
GRS  110.5 out of 140 (78.9%)
2021 DP 99 out of 140 (70.7%)


It's about 8 percentage points better all things considered in my hookey cookie analysis and very wild opinions. But it feels like it is too. A minor but very welcome improvement. Many incremental changes rather than a revolution anywhere. Which is Toyota. Don't change too many variables by too much in the equation at the same time. Could have been better with the old cooled seats having a slight overall edge but there's no noticeable difference with the absence of the JBL stereo. Drum n bass not tested! Don't ask me to either. JBL will win.

Several additional unexpected bonuses not mentioned so far are: First thing is, and I punched the air like I'd won the world cup, is context volume control is implemented in AA. So when Waze or Gmaps is giving you directions you can change the voice volume independent of the radio or music. Just like it was on my Merc 7 years back. 😂 Second thing is the boot opens and closes much faster than before. 30 to 35% faster. See the American comparison video I posted. I've timed it too. You can also set boot opening height via the drivers display settings which I've done to avoid the near catastrophe on the multi story car park with low roof members. I know you could do this via the button on the boot BTW. Oh, and you now get to see the DCM signal strength and whether it's downloading and uploading (I think that's what the symbols mean on the top of the Infotainment display). Lastly, there's more in the MyT App. Push notifications if you left open; windows, moon roof, hood, trunk, etc. Apologies for the Americanisms. Force of habit talking to many US friends. And if it's unlocked. You can also remote lock, unlock, put hazards on or off. Useful.

So maybe I should say the GRS is really about 10% better overall than my previous 2021 Dynamic Premium. I definitely feel like I've had an upgrade but with enough comfortable familiarity through continuity of everything else, that simply just works well.

Question is, how much is that really worth? Would I trade up from the last model if I wasn't a company car driver? Probably not unless the trade cost me less than about 5k. I'd wait for the 5th version of the RAV to see if there's more significant improvements which would need to include, for me to be tempted, more tech and US market features, an even larger driver and infotainment display, more power at the rear wheels, >25% longer battery range, and a decent less drab interior. Oh and a moon roof that opens more than 8 inches. 30 inches would be really very nice.

Overall, very happy. Much more than I expected to be.

Next stop is swapping over the tyres to CC2s.

P.s. This will sound odd. The car drives differently. It feels lighter, more nimble, and the steering is much lighter. Suspension changes alone can't account for this. I checked the tyre pressures which are correct and as they were on the last one, and have loaded up all my gear too. It's definitely lighter on the steering but it feels like a slightly lighter car. I can't quite get my head round that as the car is presumably the same weight. Answers on a post card.

Exactly the same as my experience (14 months on a RAV4 GRS PHEV in Belgium)!

As for steering effort, yes, it is also due to the GR Sport tuning (from what someone in Toyota Europe told me, even though they only speak about suspension changes in the press materials, the steering was also tuned) and it is very noticeable vs a standard PHEV that I test drove for 1 day too, but obviously you had much longer experience and it is amazing that you felt it so much. And I agree "more nimble" is the right description. As for your slight negative on ride comfort, I have to say that I have been twice in the UK with the car and indeed the ride comfort "worse" than in the continent... 

I hope you enjoy it as much as me! 

[Nick72]

5 hours ago, DavidinDerbyshire said:

In our case that's proving a long wait since we're up to 2k+ in three months and only used the ICE for approx 300 miles  But it is well worth remembering that the ICE needs to be run in rather more gently than its capability urges you do. 

Thanks David. When I first got the last one we were in the tail end of COVID so it took ages also. It'll have 1k on it by the end of this month with 2 off 500 mile round trips coming. Had an unplanned 1 hour drive today, and 1 hour back so the mileage is clocking up nicely.

[Nick72]

4 hours ago, Bill65 said:

Great comparison, thanks Nick.

Interesting it now shows some elements of AA (and presumably CarPlay Apple Maps) on the drivers info display. That's a bonus.

Great to know the stock audio doesn't suck.

You're welcome. You could get the next turn on my previous model too, but it was small in size and not many words. Seems slightly more elaborated now and much bigger so actually useful. Used it today. Google Maps running via AA on the Infotainment display in satellite plan view, and next turn on the drivers display. Worked well. 

Haven't managed to get the built in sat Nav on the drivers display or the HUD yet. I must be missing something. What I did see was the compass display set up on the driver's display showed a marker at the bearing of the destination. I thought that was neat but I still haven't worked out how to get it all going on the displays. I should probably RTFM.

Audio is as good as the previous JBL. Surprised me. Had to adjust the fader, bass, treble to get it that way. 

[Nick72]

4 hours ago, P_J said:

Yep, echo the above. Thanks. 
Good, clear write up Nick, and its how I feel with the GR PHEV, but without the hindsight of having owned a RAV before. 
Must admit I haven't spotted the AWD status info on any of the displays so I'll have to look again for that when I remember. 

Now if only we could get the option to adjust the tolerance of the overspeed warning...

Welcome.

So you got to hold ok button to get the driver display settings up and move to the left or right panel then go one step further right or left. At that point you get a load of toggle options in terms of what options you want available to select from. AWD status is in there but is not checked by default. Took me a while to figure that out.

On the over speed issue I've found turning the stereo up to 30 means I can barely hear it. 😂 I haven't got into a habit of switching it off before I drive off. It's bearable for me but what's more annoying is the change of speed limit bleep. Every side road I pass I get a beep and the car now thinks it's 20mph instead of 30 or 40mph. Then it switches back a few seconds later with another beep to what it should be, once it realises. But just a 2mph over setting would be a start as I've noticed if I'm in a 50mph and I've set the adaptive cruise to 50mph it sometimes beeps at itself for doing 51mph! 🤷🤦

What I did discover is the Steering Assist which is on by default each drive can be disabled by simply holding down the LTA/SA button on the steering wheel. So that's an easy thing to do and you can do it at any time including when driving. 

[Nick72]

4 hours ago, Jamzieth said:

I know it's all subjective, but out of curiosity, can you share your EQ settings and anything else you did to get the stereo sound as good as possible?

I'm awaiting my first Rav4 (GRS), and the stock speakers are the only thing letting it down for me.  The overall package was what I wanted though, so the purchase was made.

I'll take a photo when I'm next in the car. Note that you need to set it for each audio source separately. So I've done the same settings for DAB and AA / bluetooth audio. It's an option under each selected source.

From memory... Fader moved back several stops to behind the front seats. May have nudged it left too. Bass up 3 points. Treble or high tones up 3 points. It will be personal taste and will depend on seating position. I'm 6ft3 so the seat is set back and reclined. 

[Nick72]

10 hours ago, ernieb said:

Great write up Nick. I'd be interested in a look back after you've had the car for say 3 months and things have settled in and you've clocked up a few miles?

Are you still on the original tyres or have you switched to the CC2's? If they are still the original then it would be interesting to see what you feel about some of the handling marks above after the change

They're Bridgestones apologies Ernie. And definitely a summer tyre.

 

[philip42h]

11 minutes ago, Nick72 said:

5 hours ago, DavidinDerbyshire said:

In our case that's proving a long wait since we're up to 2k+ in three months and only used the ICE for approx 300 miles  But it is well worth remembering that the ICE needs to be run in rather more gently than its capability urges you do. 

Thanks David. When I first got the last one we were in the tail end of COVID so it took ages also. It'll have 1k on it by the end of this month with 2 off 500 mile round trips coming. Had an unplanned 1 hour drive today, and 1 hour back so the mileage is clocking up nicely.

Seriously? The ICE in a hybrid doesn't need any running in at all. The OM states:

Quote

■ Breaking in your new Toyota 
To extend the life of the vehicle, observing the following precautions is recommended:
●For the first 300 km (200 miles): Avoid sudden stops.
●For the first 800 km (500 miles): Do not tow a trailer.
●For the first 1000 km (600 miles):
• Do not drive at extremely high speeds.
• Avoid sudden acceleration.
• Do not drive continuously in low gears.
• Do not drive at a constant speed for extended periods.

So, the tyres and brakes need "running in" in the usual way. And it's probably a good idea not to overstress the transmission by pulling anything too heavy. After that we are managed by the speed limits anyway (and 70 mph isn't an "extremely high speed") and all the rest is managed by the eCVT. You'd really have to "try hard" to break it! 😉

[Nick72]

4 hours ago, J2024IE said:

on my 2024 Rav4 i am still using the stock tires, and find them fine.   they are Dunlop Grandtrek PT30

Mine are Bridgestones. Photo above. I wonder why there are different tyres being supplied?