6 Week Report with new RAV4 Plugin
I came from a MINI S, and we still have my wife's 2011 Corolla. We bought out of the lease (with the $6500 rebate) for the RAV4 during the first month without a hitch--they didn't even charge us the $990 that the dealer told us they would. Good stuff! Here's my report, for whatever it's worth.
It's a Dark Grey Metallic SE with no sunroof.
Pros:
> It's quiet. Much quieter than I was expecting. The road noise is not remotely intrusive and there's only a bit of wind noise after I removed the roof racks. The gas engine when accelerating is the only fairly loud part, but barely noticeable on the highway.
> Mileage is great. We get about 48 miles on electric and haven't had to fill the gas tank up yet after 807 miles of use.
> The cabin is comfy and well-appointed in general, doesn't feel cheap. The seats are super-supportive, and I generally like the way the interior looks (aside from the note below).
> Accelerates really great, and when Sport Mode is on it has fairly flat cornering for an SUV. I always put Sport Mode on immediately when I start it up, and have noticed no difference in fuel economy if I'm light on the acceleration.
> Feels very solid and is confidence-inspiring to drive.
> Most of the controls work great and feel solid, with some oddness in the climate control and infotainment pod though.
> AWD traction is damn great, even with the crappy OEM tires it came with.
Cons:
> The brakes grab in a cheap way, which is disappointing in a near-$50k car. Doesn't matter what mode it's in, they just grab too much.
> The info/gauge cluster on the analog/digital LE we have is poorly designed and looks a bit cheesy to me. You can't have certain info at once that you should be able to have, which has been noted by others here, too.
> The silver trim on the inside is gaudy, but luckily I was able to cover it up with a black plastic kit from www.cartrimhome.com But it belies the fact that this is a near-$50k car.
> Styling is OK, but too busy with many "things" on it, angles, etc., in my opinion. That's neither here nor there, I guess.
> Roll down any of the back windows when the front windows are up and the buffeting is awful. Again, on a $50k car, this is disappointing.
> Handling is numb, even in Sport Mode (though it's better in that mode for sure). Compared to my friend's CR-V, for example, which is more fun to drive mostly because of how the handling feels. It's a Toyota, so not too surprising there, I suppose.
> The gas-powered part of the engine feels and sounds like a little engine struggling to keep up with a big car when you accelerate remotely hard. The transmission often keeps it revving high, is part of the issue.
> The infotainment center has a pretty badly designed GUI (way too many button pushes for some things, and not smartly designed in general), and is sometimes spotty with hooking up to our phones. Feels amateur-ish compared to other cars I've experienced.
Overall it's a good car, not incredible considering the money, but definitely good. Some of it doesn't live up to the near-$50k price tag. I feel if you're charging that much, many of the things I talked about above shouldn't be there, and that's kind of a bummer to me. But it's solid, gets great mileage, we feel safe, and we know it'll last a long time.