Toyota RAV4 review

The hybrid and PHEV models have a slightly different spec structure – the hybrid runs through Design, Excel and GR Sport specs, with AWD offered as a £2.4k option on the FWD Design and Excel models, but comes as standard on the GR Sport. You can expect to pay £39,885 for the Design, £42,870 for the Excel and £46,815 for the GR Sport. 

The PHEV offers you a choice of just two specs – Design and GR Sport. The former is £44,175 and the latter £48,990, which is an uplift of around £2k over their AWD hybrid counterparts. If you’re going for an AWD model, it seems a bit of a no-brainer to find the extra cash down the back of the sofa and go for the plug-in model. Otherwise the entry hybrid offers good value. 

What about running costs?

By virtue of their 126g/km and 129g/km CO2 emissions, the FWD cars fall in a lower VED band, so they’ll cost you £180 in the first year and then £155 after that. The AWD hybrids all emit either 131 or 132g/km CO2, which means £220 in the first year and then £155 after that. 

The PHEV models don’t get charged any VED in the first year, but then you’d have to pay £510 a year for the five years after that (along with the Excel and GR Sport cars with AWD) because they cost over £40k. It’s all completely baffling, so good luck. 

Brilliantly low company car tax offers another reason to opt for the plug-in RAV4 – those 46 miles of official electric range earn it a BIK rating of just eight per cent, although even that isn't quite as tempting as the two per cent rate currently offered on fully electric vehicles.

And what’s the fuel economy like?

The standard hybrid offers impressive official WLTP fuel economy of around 48 to 50mpg, which it should be fairly easy to beat around town where the hybrid tech is at its best. 

The hybrid’s fuel economy is real, whereas that of the plug-in hybrid is entirely at the mercy of how frequently you plug it in to charge the battery. Officially the car will do 283mpg, which is as good as pointless as such a figure gets. Do lots of 20-miles-or-less return journeys and plug in at home, you’ll never need to trouble the combustion part of the powertrain. Run the batteries down and you’ll get worse economy than the standard hybrid by simple virtue of lugging around all those kilos of empty battery.

What equipment do you get? 

The RAV4 is liberally equipped, all cars getting an impressive suite of safety features (although blind spot and rear cross traffic alerts are only on Excel models and above), dual-zone aircon, parking sensors, rearview camera, as well as auto wipers and lights. The entry level car gets 17in alloy wheels, rising up to 19in on the top spec cars. 

What other cars should I look at? 

The Suzuki Across might be considered a direct rival simply because it’s a rebadged RAV4. There’s only the one highly specced PHEV model that sits towards the top of the RAV4’s range at a punchy £49,529. The hybrid Honda CR-V is slightly smaller than the RAV4 but goes from £46k to £54k with a similar range of hybrid and PHEV models available, while the impressive Kia Sportage offers a full range of options from standard petrol to hybrid and PHEV between £30k and £46k.

If you wanted to go slightly bigger and get a car with seven seats, the Kia Sorento offers a hybrid seven-seat option starting around £43k, or a plug-in that starts around £47k.