I’ve often felt entirely useless. Powerless. Pointless. I usually get this feeling about two-thirds of the way through a big DIY project.
I don’t usually feel so useless in a professional capacity. My task here is to take a new car and assess it. Find out if it’s any good or not. Discover its fitness for purpose, or lack thereof. And then tell you all about it so you can decide whether or not you want to buy one.
Except, in the case of the new Toyota RAV4, you’ve somewhat jumped the gun. You’ve not merely skipped to the star rating at the end, you’ve blown right past that and already put down a deposit.
Of the 1,000 or so new Toyota RAV4 “HEV” (hybrid electric vehicle, or just hybrid to you and me) coming to Ireland this year, every single one has a deposit against it. Toyota Ireland is out of stock before stock has arrived.
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So if you want a 261 plate RAV4 and you’ve not already ordered one, you’re out of luck. You’ll have to wait till the plug-in hybrid models arrive in the summer, on a 262 plate most likely.
Which leaves me with ... not much to do.
Okay, maybe it’s worth me at least telling you about the new RAV4, for the record, if for nothing else. To begin with, there’s not much of a surprise in this new model being sold out.
Toyota has sold 2.5 million RAV4s in Europe (and 15 million worldwide) since the first model was introduced in 1994. Last year, the outgoing RAV, even though everyone knew a new model was due, became the world’s bestselling model.
On the back of that success, Toyota has changed very little. The styling’s all new. From that robot-like face with its dramatic LED lights, to the rear, which is neat and clean but looks surprisingly like a Nissan.
The last RAV4 wasn’t a conventionally handsome car, but I rather liked its chunky Land Cruiser jnr styling. This one? My personal subjective jury is still out, I’m afraid.
The cabin is much better, although I mourn the loss of the last RAV4’s wonderfully tactile rubberised climate-control buttons. At least this new RAV4 still has physical buttons, lots of them, and they’re all chunky and easy to use.
The steering wheel is also simply round – no pointless square shapes here – and you can really see the Land Cruiser influence on the styling in the cabin. It’s also very comfy and practical in the front.
As well as being rather high-tech. The RAV4 is the debut car for Toyota’s new “Arene” software, designed to take all of the separate control modules that look after the various vehicle systems from the touchscreen to the brake-by-wire and roll them all into one, homogenous whole.
The idea is that Arene can be more flexible, and give regular upgrades and revisions via over-the-air software updates. For now, it works well, with the big 12.9-inch touchscreen being notably slick and easy to use. It’s not even too hard to turn off some of the more annoying bing-bongs.
Toyota is also setting you up for a soft landing in the case of disaster – the forward-facing safety camera double jobs as a dashcam, automatically storing footage if it detects you’ve got into difficulty, while the new – and much upgraded – ToyotaConnect phone app now includes not only a digital key, but also a remote shutdown and immobiliser if the car is stolen.
It’s a bit of a shame, then, that amid all this high-tech, more focus could not have been put on basic practicality because this RAV4 has a smaller boot – 514 litres – than the last one.
Toyota says there’s actually more space if you stack stuff up to the roof. But up to the luggage cover, you’re down around 65 litres. At least rear seat space is roomy.
When it comes to the driving experience, the standard front-wheel drive hybrid (Irish customers won’t get the chance to buy a four-wheel drive hybrid) feels entirely familiar. The combined 185hp is just about enough to shift the RAV4’s not over-burdening weight (it’s only around 1,700kg in basic form), and while there’s the traditional hybrid engine groan when accelerating hard, there’s also the potential for average fuel consumption of, or better than, 6 litres per 100km, which isn’t shabby.
The RAV4 is also slightly better to drive than before. The previous front-drive model always felt a little ponderous, but while this version feels more or less the same at first, when you dig a little deeper – and find some properly challenging roads – there are reserves of grip and composure that weren’t there before.
Better still are the plug-in hybrid versions. There’s a new 272hp front-wheel-drive PHEV model, with a 22.7kWh battery, giving it a claimed EV range of 137km (and 100km in reality, based on our experience). That extra power makes the PHEV feel more engaging and authoritative to drive than the hybrid, and who doesn’t love seeing a combined range-to-empty readout that tops 1,100km?
At the top of the line-up is a new GR Sport RAV4, but whereas previous GR Sport models have been just sticker-and-badge items, this one is a bit more pukka. Toyota’s Gazoo Racing engineers have genuinely been at work, widening and stiffening the suspension, fiddling with the steering, and generally making the RAV4 look and feel more sporty.
[ Toyota hits reset on its electric crossover with new name and big upgradesOpens in new window ]
For now, GR Sport models come only in top-spec 309hp all-wheel drive plug-in hybrid form (and it’ll do about the same 100km on a full charge). Is it properly sporty? Well, it’s no Alpine A110 ... but, in fairness, for a two-tonne hybrid-engined SUV, the GR Sport RAV4 is actually pretty good fun, and feels firmly planted and yet surprisingly agile on a challenging road. It’s kind of like a Porsche Cayenne for those who don’t like to show off (Tokyo Red paint and 20-inch alloys apart).
Prices for the new RAV4 start from €48,005 once you’ve allowed for the fact that there’s no “free” paint option, and you can choose from well-equipped trim levels starting with a basic Sol model, and then rising through Sport, Platinum and GR Sport.
But forget it. You’ve already tuned out, haven’t you? You’re probably already reading Patrick Freyne. You’ve already ordered your RAV4. Back to the DIY for me, then.
