Rav4 specs.

[Alex392]

Hi all

New member here. Whilst I currently don't have a RAV4 I'm in the process of choosing spec before ordering. 

Does anyone have the light blue colour? If so what's it like in real life? I've only seen one on the website.

Also does anyone have the biscuit colour interior? Again I've only seen that one on the website. My Toyota dealer said they've yet to sell a RAV4 with the biscuit interior!

[ernieb]

Like you I don’t yet own a RAV4 but I’ve owned a car with a similar internal seat colour a Skoda Yeti. It was great looking but the high points did pick up the dirt to some extent but a regular wipe over soon cleaned it up.  The RAV4 brochure colour looks lighter than I had. It does lighten the interior of the car but I’ve found that it can increase the screen reflections.  My two pennies worth.

[Avalon]

My parents have the grey, it wouldn’t be my first choice if you have pets/children, the biscuit seems slightly more practical in that respect, but I haven’t seen it in the flesh.

[PeteB]

I've got the "Biscuit" interior (Toyota calls it Beige), and personally I really like it.  I've not noticed any reflections and not seen any downsides.  After 2 years and 15k miles, the driver's seat is very slightly discoloured, but I've arranged for my dealer's valet team to give it a leather treatment next month at the 2 year service.  Pic attached is screen shot from the Configurator but is pretty accurate.

I needed the RAV4 urgently (*) and ordered it just before they officially started taking orders in 2019, so my dealer got it ready as fast as possible once it arrived 4 months later.  The service manager and salesman both said they'd have loved to put it in the showroom for a while as they felt certain more people would choose that colour if they saw it.

My last Prius had the grey interior (the only choice apart from black) and that was still fine after 3 years 39k miles (exactly - the clock ticked over to 39,000 as I pulled into the dealer's lot to swap it for my RAV4 - well, truthfully, it would have been 38,999, but I did a circuit round the block!).

(*) The 4th Gen Prius was the best car I've ever owned save one major flaw (for me) - the low floor and seats caused massive problems with my hips, that spread to my knees and lower back.  After three months in the RAV4 all the pains had gone completely, and so had the 10 daily painkillers!

 

[Catlover]

That interior looks really nice in the biscuit beige. Makes a refreshing change.

[BigR1ch]

8 hours ago, Alex392 said:

Hi all

New member here. Whilst I currently don't have a RAV4 I'm in the process of choosing spec before ordering. 

Does anyone have the light blue colour? If so what's it like in real life? I've only seen one on the website.

Also does anyone have the biscuit colour interior? Again I've only seen that one on the website. My Toyota dealer said they've yet to sell a RAV4 with the biscuit interior!

Whilst i have a White Rav4, the Demo i had was in the light blue and to be honest I really loved the colour. But the cost of the Blue over the White pushed me over the limit on our car Scheme.
You will certainly be noticed in the blue as I've not seen another one other than the demo on the road.

[Langbank]

25 minutes ago, BigR1ch said:

Whilst i have a White Rav4, the Demo i had was in the light blue and to be honest I really loved the colour. But the cost of the Blue over the White pushed me over the limit on our car Scheme.
You will certainly be noticed in the blue as I've not seen another one other than the demo on the road.

It’s the light blue option (Cyan Splash) that I have ordered.  You are right I haven’t seen any on road either and when ordering the dealer appeared really surprised at choice. Done know why as it looks nice on pics and review videos. 

[PeteB]

15 hours ago, Alex392 said:

... I currently don't have a RAV4 I'm in the process of choosing spec before ordering...

In case you missed seeing it in other threads, the RAV4 (and other Toyotas for that matter) have a handy feature that enables you to close or open all windows from outside the car using the fob - hold the lock button to close windows, hold the unlock button to open them.

The former is handy if you notice a window open after getting out, the latter if you approach the car parked in the sun on a hot day, it lets the worst of the heat out before you get in.

Strangely, the feature is disabled by default, and can only be changed by the dealer (or someone with access to a diagnostic computer).  So if that's something you'd like, it's worth asking the dealer to sort it before delivery

[Trackpad]

 

7 hours ago, PeteB said:

In case you missed seeing it in other threads, the RAV4 (and other Toyotas for that matter) have a handy feature that enables you to close or open all windows from outside the car using the fob - hold the lock button to close windows, hold the unlock button to open them.

The former is handy if you notice a window open after getting out, the latter if you approach the car parked in the sun on a hot day, it lets the worst of the heat out before you get in.

Strangely, the feature is disabled by default, and can only be changed by the dealer (or someone with access to a diagnostic computer).  So if that's something you'd like, it's worth asking the dealer to sort it before delivery

PeteB, how do you find the heated /cooled seats in your car? I have read a few comments (in other forums) that the heating element does not produce much heat compared to the "normal" ones. 

[PeteB]

3 hours ago, Trackpad said:

PeteB, how do you find the heated /cooled seats in your car? I have read a few comments (in other forums) that the heating element does not produce much heat compared to the "normal" ones. 

Not sure where you live, but the heated front seats on UK RAV4s have 2 settings. low just takes a little chill off, high is reasonably hot (to me at least).  The UK RAV4s don't have ventilated seats, except (I think) on the Plug-in model, which I also believe gets the 3-stage heated front seats.  Annoyingly, both the latter are available in North American markets (along with  many other useful features that we can't have at any price).

[ernieb]

The ventilated seats are available only on the Dynamic Premium grade of the PHEV in the UK which also has the “leather” seats. 

[Trackpad]

PeteB and Ernieb, thanks for the replies. Here in Germany the Excel equivalent is called Lounge, which has the ventilated seats. 

[PeteB]

5 minutes ago, Trackpad said:

PeteB and Ernieb, thanks for the replies. Here in Germany the Excel equivalent is called Lounge, which has the ventilated seats. 

I noticed on a German YouTube RAV4 review a while ago their review car also had the digital rear-view mirror which gives a wider view without the obstruction of the C-Pillars and obviously bypasses any rear passengers' heads or high-piled luggage.

[Trackpad]

yes there seems to be a big difference between the specs, but the list price of a 4wd Lounge is 51000 euros here😭

[ernieb]

This is the UK versions and details for the PHEV.

 

1610985654210114MRAV4PHEVFullRelease.pdf

[Steve22]

3 hours ago, PeteB said:

Not sure where you live, but the heated front seats on UK RAV4s have 2 settings. low just takes a little chill off, high is reasonably hot (to me at least).  The UK RAV4s don't have ventilated seats, except (I think) on the Plug-in model, which I also believe gets the 3-stage heated front seats.  Annoyingly, both the latter are available in North American markets (along with  many other useful features that we can't have at any price).

I have the Dynamic with heated front seats. Being a company car driver doing lots of miles, heated seats are an essential commodity. The higher setting works OK but on the lower setting, I can barely feel anything even with just a T-shirt on. If you were wearing a jacket or thicker top, which you probably would be when you need the heat, it would next to useless. Having come from my last 2 cars which were decent spec Passat's, the VW heated seats gave out so much more heat and also had 4 settings. 

As a company car driver, there are loads of things I really like still after 10 months of use and I do love the styling, interior and exterior (the black interior roof lining is very cool). My biggest gripes are the lack of seat comfort on long journeys, poorer sound quality and the age old moan about head unit technology. Anything more than a couple of hours and my back is aching and I've tried every combination of seat position going (possibly more to do with the shape of the back of the seat around the shoulders). The JBL sound system is decent but doesn't come anywhere near the concert hall quality of my old Dynaudio and I've moved permanently to using Apple CarPlay with TomTom maps as the in car tech is so frustratingly dated (which is strange given the effort put into all hybrid / driving technology).

As a company car, the lower tax is great but I would think again if doing high mileage. As a private owner doing lower miles, its a no-brainer and I would highly recommend.

  

[Trackpad]

I noticed in the attachment Ernie sent that the PHEV has acoustic window glass and additional sound proofing in the wings. 

When I test drove the rav I never noticed any abnormal amounts of noise in the hour drive, does it need it? 

[Rav Rob]

I have the light Blue (Cyan) paint with the Beige interior, gets lots of admiring comments from people, the colour really is bright!  I think people treat me a little kinder on the road as it makes the car look non aggressive if you know what I mean. The interior looks good as new after 36,000 miles use, the leather seems very resistant to discolouring or stretching and wrinkling, its still nice and tight. I think it looks more expensive, a lot of luxury cars traditionally used to have this sort of colour interior.

For my next RAV4 I might go for the 'free' colour, I think its called Urban Khaki as I think it looks bad-@ss, but again will have the Beige interior as the Khaki is slightly Greenish so wouldn't go with the Grey or Black in my opinion.

(Also the ambient lighting is Blue so goes with the Blue paint)

[PeteB]

17 hours ago, Trackpad said:

I noticed in the attachment Ernie sent that the PHEV has acoustic window glass and additional sound proofing in the wings. 

When I test drove the rav I never noticed any abnormal amounts of noise in the hour drive, does it need it? 

My second test drive lasted 2 days, and I've now had my RAV4 for 2 years / 15,000 miles.  Noise is subjective and different people have varying perceptions, plus the type of noise is a factor too.  I once had a Fiat 126 which had a 600cc 2 cylinder air-cooled engine in the boot.  It was quit6e noisy, and geared for quite high revs to offset the mere 24 horse power, but at it's 60 mph top speed (not in a head wind!) it was more relaxing than some quieter cars I've driven.  I'm guessing with two cylinders and half as many moving bits it sounded like it was a slow revver and maybe that made the difference.

Getting back to the RAV, the noise levels aren't bad (borne out by my decibel meter), but not the best either and one thing I've noticed compared to my previous 2016 Prius which had sound absorbing front (laminated) windows, I really notice loud motor bikes and diesels, plus people with loud music when along side them in traffic queues, which the Prius masked nicely.

Given how much more expensive my Excel RAV is that the Excel Prius I had, it's disappointing how much kit the Prius had which is missing from the RAV.

[Trackpad]

Pete, thanks for the reply. it's interesting that you found your prius more refined. I wonder if that was because toyota over engineered the car because of popular (mis) conceptions about it. 

[Trackpad]

Rav Rob, when I first discovered this version of the Rav, I too liked the urban khaki and beige leather interior, sadly that colour is not available here in Germany! 

[Rav Rob]

10 hours ago, Trackpad said:

Rav Rob, when I first discovered this version of the Rav, I too liked the urban khaki and beige leather interior, sadly that colour is not available here in Germany! 

 

10 hours ago, Trackpad said:

Rav Rob, when I first discovered this version of the Rav, I too liked the urban khaki and beige leather interior, sadly that colour is not available here in Germany! 

That is a shame, its weird how different markets get different things. Like the USA get wireless charge pads but Toyota think us British to backward to have smart phones!

[FROSTYBALLS]

32 minutes ago, Rav Rob said:

That is a shame, its weird how different markets get different things. Like the USA get wireless charge pads but Toyota think us British to backward to have smart phones!

It is the individual importers (ie. Toyota GB, Toyota Germany, etc) who decide on what specs they sell and what features are in each spec.

[Avalon]

9 hours ago, Rav Rob said:

 

That is a shame, its weird how different markets get different things. Like the USA get wireless charge pads but Toyota think us British to backward to have smart phones!

It’s not like the 5 minutes and £35 it takes to swap over a 3rd party tray kit is a massive issue in that particular example, but yes, trivial omissions like that which are rapidly becoming standard features on lower end cars for other brands often get overlooked by Toyota GB for no obvious reason. It’s not like QI charging is new thing, Apple launched handsets supporting it in 2017 and Samsung etc. a good year or two before that. Toyota being the forward thinking brand they are want £600+ for the part *if* they let you order it (most parts desks offer very little flexibility on parts not specific to your model, unlike John).

[PeteB]

1 hour ago, Avalon said:

...Toyota ... want £600+ for the part *if* they let you order it...

My dealer said the illuminated window switch panel from a CH-R was almost £500!  Even my service manager was shocked when he checked for me.  At least he would only have charged about £20 for fitting it!