What is that?
Toyota has a knack for keeping alive types of cars that other manufacturers have abandoned. Not in a late way – they just manage to make things work that others can’t. Affordable sports cars, hatchbacks and city cars for rally refugees are no longer viable due to emissions and rising costs. The Toyota GR86, Toyota GR Yaris and Toyota Aygo X are all different.
The Allroad-Cross-Country-Alltrack-like look has gone from great to forgotten over the past two decades, but here we have the RAV4 Adventure, with black plastic trim, beefier skid plates, bumpers redesigned and standard all-wheel drive.
Granted, Toyota keeping the manually-powered sports car alive is more exciting, but it’s still worth taking a look at this new version of Toyota’s core lineup, in part to see if it still has makes sense next to the newer Toyota RAV4 plug-in hybrid.
Along with Adventure quality, the 2022 RAV4 gets redesigned LED projector headlamps, power passenger seat adjustment on some trims and…drum roll…four USB-C ports inside. All good stuff, but just a little half-hearted.
The current RAV4 has been around since 2018, so we’d have liked to see a more comprehensive facelift bringing proper matrix LED headlights and an update for the slow and badly dated infotainment system. The latter now has (hard-wired) Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, but Toyota has a more modern interface in the latest Corolla and some US-market models, so now would have been a great time to introduce it to the RAV4 as well.
What does it look like?
The Adventure is the most expensive version of the RAV4, at £42,750. Compare that to Dynamic, which costs £39,010 with front-wheel drive, or £41,390 with all-wheel drive. Unless you really like the exterior styling and the panoramic sunroof, other grades offer much better value.
To drive, it’s much the same as any other RAV4, except perhaps the RAV4 plug-in hybrid, whose higher curb weight may have resulted in suspension changes that improve ride comfort. . The regular RAV4 Hybrid’s chassis is fairly soft but under-damped, meaning it’s neither particularly snappy in corners nor perfectly comfortable. At least the cabin is quiet on the highway.
Toyota knows how to make hybrids now, though. Sure, it’s got the typical CVT drone under heavy acceleration, but this four-wheel-drive version’s dual electric motors – 118hp running with the motor up front and the 54hp electric motor on the rear axle – give plenty of torque to make the powertrain perfectly relaxed and quiet in most scenarios, while returning an easy 43 mpg.
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Source: www.autocar.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-04-18 23:01:24
