WATCH THIS before buying the new 2026 Toyota Rav4

WATCH THIS before buying the new 2026 Toyota Rav4

America’s bestselling car last year was none other than the Toyota compact crossover, the RAV 4. Maybe you missed my driving impressions of the new RAV 4. The new sixth generation Rav 4, which is going hybrid only, as well as plug-in hybrid. Those plug-in hybrids won’t be launching till later, and we don’t have pricing until maybe April, some somewhere around there when those vehicles come in from Japan. All the plug-in hybrids making their way over from Japan. In the meantime, I have a Woodland coming to me, a woodland hybrid coming to me to review. All right. So, that will be coming, I believe, next week, and I should be able to get that in before the end of the year to be able to put it on the spreadsheet uh and grade it against all the other cars I’ve reviewed so far in 2025. But on the exciting end, at least for me, all right, I geek out over this stuff. We I already made a video on the pricing of the RAV 4 because Toyota’s communicated it. But now the builder is officially up and the builder just allows us to have some fun with with what we have here. Now keep in mind, even if you build a vehicle, doesn’t mean Toyota’s going to build it for you just the way you want it. When I was working for Lexus, which of course is a luxury division of Toyota, Toyota’s very similar. Toyota and Lexus, they will build it’s more so a Lexus thing. I will say this, okay? If you want a very specific custommade Lexus, they might just spit it back in your face and say, “No, we’re not making that. That would mess up our production efficiency.” It’s kind of like that for Toyota. I would have to guess. All right. So, just cuz we if we build the the most perfect ideal RAV 4 doesn’t mean you will be able to get it. Now to to the benefit of Toyota though they don’t have as many packages options indivi individual features that you can all a cart on a Lexus per se. So what we build here is going to be pretty close to what you see at the dealership lots with one big asterisk. Dealers as well as distributors the dealers can put on their own clear coats. They can put on their own tent. They can put on their own X Y and Z to upcharge the car. Okay. It’s up to you to try to negotiate those down out of the deal. I personally wouldn’t pay for any of the things unless it’s like window tent, which I find a good value in. Dealerships typically do window tent really well for a reasonable price in my opinion, but many other things they don’t. In my local case as well, there’s also the Southeast Toyota distributor and I work directly with them sometimes because they they’re happy to get cars to me, but as a result, I also see what they add on at the distributor end for options. And sometimes it’s a bit ridiculous, such as, you know, screen protectors, which cost a hundred plus dollars when you can put your own screen protector on, buy it from Amazon for like $10. I’m not kidding. You just keep that in mind that what we build here doesn’t mean this is the sort of price you would actually see at the dealership, right? All these little add-ons are going to increase the price, but this is just a base MSRP and then you’ll do your best to negotiate to MSRP. The world we’re living in right now for Toyota is different from every other manufacturer. If you want to if you want less an MSRP buying a RAV 4, that’s not probably not going to happen with this new generation. Not for a while anyways. More than likely, if you want a hybrid compact in this segment, go look at a CRV if you want it under MSRP. Go look at a um a Kia Sportage or a Hyundai Tucson if you want an under MSRP. Also, because it’s using Toyota’s hybrid system, not the fifth gen that you see here on the sixth gen RAV 4. The fifth gen hybrid is exclusive to this car as well as the Camry right now. The Camry can be had for as low as $25,000 on the current market. It’s amazing. But what I’m trying to get to is Mazda CX-50 hybrid uses last generation hybrid technology from Toyota. Fantastic. It’s bulletproof. It’s efficient. It’s just not quite as smooth or as refined or as quiet as the new one or as powerful, but it’s close. But you can get that under MSRP on a Mazda as well. Right now, CX50. All right. Now that we have that out of the way, shall we play with the builder here? Now it says pick up where I left off. You can see this is a previous generation RAV 4. You got to love the cookies. Cookies will save that for you. All right, so let’s go ahead and click the build button here. All right, and here we have all the different trim levels. LE, which I haven’t driven yet, and I will drive at some point. You got to keep in mind that I do work with my local Toyota dealer a few times throughout the year and they will give me some of these entrylevel models that I haven’t I haven’t driven an SE on this new one. I haven’t driven the Ellie. I’ve only driven the XLE Premium, the Woodland, the XSSE. I have not driven the Limited and then I’ve also driven all the plug-in hybrids, including the GR Sport model. All right, but you can see that the entry-level LE here actually starts for less money than the outgoing LE model hybrid did. Why is that? Well, the new LE can be had in front-wheel drive. Let’s be real. The vast majority of people don’t need all-wheel drive, okay? So, frontwheel drive is more than enough for the majority of people out there, especially if you live in south of the snow belt for sure. All-wheel drive is kind of just a luxury. It’s not a necessity. Let’s I’m all for base builds. Let’s see here. Um what we’re going to get this for now. There you can get the Ruby Flare red here, which looks fantastic. It’s going to cost you 425 bucks. Most of the base cars, I would say, or I mean base LE. They’re going to be Ooh, you can get it in Stormcloud, which is a great color. Storm Cloud debuted on the Grand Highlander a few years back. Meteor shower is a nice color, too. So, you got some great options here. It’s not just going to be a bunch of white and black cars. Now, maybe the majority they build are going to be white and black. Uh, and Meteor shower is a great color as well, kind of a silver. So, black fabric. You might be saying, Kirk, this is kind of disappointing because on the LE Camry, you can get the boulder color, which is a um kind of a gray. I agree. However, a black fabric seat is not nearly as punishing as a black vinyl seat or a black leather seat. Those things heat up to the the same temperature as the surface of the sun. All right. Fabric though is always going to be cool and it’s never going to be hot. Okay. Uh so it’s it’s kind of like always in in a happy temperature. You’re never going to like stick to a cloth seat either. So fabric here is a big win in my opinion for the base Ellie and is a massive benefit for this trim. Okay. know you don’t have the fing lights up front that you have on like an um you know a Limited for example, but I think it still looks very handsome the new the new RAV 4 overall. A little a little roguish from behind from the side. It looks nice and I do like the new front end all-wheel drive $1,400 upgrade. That’s up to you to decide and that will also depend on your market. For example, when Toyota builds these in mass for your area, Toyota has multiple different districts throughout the United States. It could be like six. I I forget. You kind of have like the Northeast, you kind of have the Southeast, you kind of have the Midwest, you have the South, you have uh California, you have the m the Northwest, the Southwest. So like there are a few different um general areas that Toyota uh has for building cars and sending cars and it depends a lot on politics on some you know at least when it comes to sending electric cars but also comes down to hey what are people in the Midwest going to need versus people in Florida. Okay people in the Midwest they have extreme temperatures gets really hot really cold so you might see a lot more cold weather packages come as standard on some of their models for example. So, now that I got that out of the way, frontwheel drive, let’s stick to that. What kind of options? Phone cable charge. No one should be spending $80 on USB cords. Toyota and your distributor or and or your dealer might try to throw this in there. And do not pay this. This is like This is one of those things. It’s like no one would ever pay $80 for for USBs if it wasn’t maxed behind a 30 thou $30,000 vehicle, right? emergency kit. I was just at Costco and you can get car emergency kits for a lot less money than this, like half the price. First aid kit. Actually, this is not a terrible buy, but let’s look on Amazon. Uh $17 bucks. Okay, $17. So, again, don’t pay the Toyota tax on that. Um uh and maybe say, “Hey, I’m I’m willing to pay $17 because I can get a first aid kit for a car for $17 on Amazon.” But don’t don’t pay this. Okay, don’t pay the $30. I know it’s I’m nickel and dimming here, but the dealers are and and every and Toyota’s going to try to nickel and dime you. They want to get as much money from you as possible, and that’s okay if the product is great, but all these tickytacky things are is just it’s kind of rude, uh, in my opinion. All right, so here it is. This is the cheapest RAV 4 you can get when it comes to market, not including any add-ons. Okay. You have the base MSRP, 319. Okay. And then you’re going to have DHP, which is 1,400 bucks. $33,320 for the cheapest RAV 4. And this is still going to be an amazing buy. I guarantee it. However, just keep in mind that if you don’t need a crossover and you want a really good hybrid, it’s the same exact same hybrid system. I know it’s spec maybe one horsepower different or something. All right. But if you want the This is I made a video yesterday. Oh, I don’t want I don’t want Rav 4 in here. Hold on. Let’s unselect this. This is a way better buy than the RAV 4. You can get it in all-wheel drive even on the LE. Okay. But look at the deals that can be had. Now, this is just in my area. My I have probably the healthiest and most competitive market in all the United States in in South Florida. It’s a there’s a lot of people with money down here and the deal like there just the the new car volume is so high that you see crazy deals. Okay. So, it’s not unheard of for people to travel from out of state into Florida to get the best deal possible. All right. And you see these crazy deals here. Wesley Chapels up in up and around Tampa area for example, Sarasota here with really good deals, low deals. So, that’s just something to keep in mind. All right. that if you want the same hybrid experience that you get on the Rav 4, you can get it for a lot less, six, seven grand less here on a Camry LE and get gray interior as well. All right. Now, what are some of the benefits of the new RAV 4? Okay. Well, you get newer screen technology. Okay. This 12-in screen is standard. The Camry has a 7in screen. You have um this new 10-in screen here. The Camry is a 7in screen. The Camry I’m almost I have to test it, but the Camry I’m almost guaranteed to tell you has a way better sound system base model to base model. But yep, goodbye here. Big fan of the RA 4LE. I mean, this does have a plastic steering wheel. But let’s go back. Let’s go back to um maybe No, there are no options here. This is what’s fascinating because if I go to the Camry builder, let’s build the LE. The LE Camry. Again, you can have the nice bolder interior, which is really nice. I love the cloth here. All right. Uh, ocean gem. I’m a big fan of this this color. Reminds me of my 93 Mercury Sable. All-wheel drive is actually more expensive option than it was on the RAV 4 for some odd reason. But look at the packages you can get on this base LE Camry that you cannot get or not even an available option on the RAV 4 base model. Okay, so we have this cold weather. Well, let’s see what is convenience. It’s a package. Auto dimming rearview mirror. Cool. Smart key system. Okay. Power adjustable driver seat. All right. Smart key system is pretty nice. But look at this. I can get a heated leather seating steering wheel and heated front seats. Let’s go back to the build um of this car. Okay. Does the Cam or does the RAV 4LE have heated seats? Heated front seats. Look right here. All right. They don’t come on the the LE. All right, you might be looking all the way to the right here where it says fabric trim, heated front seats. Well, let’s see what trim level that is. Those are the SE models. So, if you want heated front seats, you have to get an SE model or an XLE Premium, for example. If we go back up, XLE Premium and the Woodland. All right. So, the Woodland, the XLE Premium, the SE, but you cannot get heated seats even as an option on the base LE trim. And I can even plug this in. Even here in Florida, I can whittle this down and find a heated seat Camryle for under $30,000. And more than likely, it has a convenience package on top of that. All right, which raises the price, which has a keyless entry. Um, so yeah, just keep that in mind if you want heated seats when we when you build your RAV 4, if you’re looking to buy a RAV 4. So it’s like the LE typically is a really good buy, but the fact that heated seats are not in here might be a dealbreaker. You don’t have uh an option of even a leather steering wheel like you have on the base Camry, for example. Let’s go to an SE and look, an SE’s uh base price is almost $3,000 more. And what do you get for it? Well, I mean, you don’t even get red. What in the world? You can get the red, which is a red is a sporty color by nature. You can get red on the Ellie as an option, but you can’t get it here on the SE. Riddle me that. You just get the black and blue FRA Fabric here, 1400. But now you can get all these other things. So, look at the convenience package. What does that give us here? All right. Um, height adjustable power liftgate with jam production protection. Uh, power liftgates not that important to me in my in my opinion. Heated leather steering wheel um is an option here on the SE. And again, you’re going to have to spend 36K almost 37K before destination to get these sort of features. Okay, moon roof package. Let me know if you guys need moon roof. All right, but let’s go and finish the build here. And again, you don’t have the option like you do on the Camry to have that light color interior um on on a if you want a heated steering wheel or heated front seats. Okay, so 36K here to get an SE. It’s about again more than three grand more than the base LE, but at least I can get my leather wrapped steering wheel that’s heated and I can get my heated front seats. That might be very important to some of you guys. It’s not very important for me where I live here in Florida, but I know it’s a huge huge deal for many people out there. So, if we go back to the trim levels of the Camry and the availability, this is a good idea of where Toyota is going to aortion some of the or the um the build volume of each individual trim level of the RAV 4. Now, the RAV 4 has an additional trim level called the Woodland. And that woodland trim will vary in volume depending on like your district. So like Pacific Northwest, that woodland’s going to be like it’s got to fight the Subaru. So you’re going to have a ton of woodland availability in northern areas I would say and warmer areas I would say lower availability of the woodland. All right, but time will tell. So if we look at the camera here, a lot of night shade, don’t worry about it. act like Nice Jay doesn’t exist, but a lot of double the amount of SE that will probably be the same case with the RAV 4 as well. Okay, we don’t have an XLE on the new RAV 4, but you have an XLE Premium, but expect around the same volume, not in terms of sheer volume, but I I mean in terms of relative volume. So maybe you’ll have about a quarter of the available volume for XLE premium versus an LE model. about uh an eighth of the volume versus an SE model. If we look at XSSE, it’s going to be very low volume even on the new RAV 4. And I think we should probably look here. The new RAV 4 XSSE is going to be so expensive. And in fact, it was my least favorite trim level to drive. Again, I didn’t drive the Limited here, but the XSSE has massive wheels. The ride quality wasn’t as good. It felt really heavy compared to the like the XLE Premium that I drove. All right, so let’s go and build an XSSE. And again, the starting price is over $41,000. Um, let’s Wow, they they’ve kind of forced you into the two-tones here. The two T unless you get black. So the only color that’s And like here’s the thing again, no red. So the SE did not have red. The XSSE does not have red, but you’re telling me the LE and probably the XLE premium has red. Those are sporty. Those are not the sporty grades. All right. So, none of these colors here are sporty. Stormcloud looks the best. All right. And maybe you guys like the stormtrooper of the um the windchill pearl. Okay. The white and the black here. Um, so that’s kind of unfortunate in my opinion that you don’t have access to better colors for for when you’re spending this much money on an XSE. What um let’s look at the interior real quick. A black and dark gray color combination here with um you know, we have some felt there too. It looks like all-wheel drive is standard here. That’s going to raise the price of course. That’s why the base price is is so high here. Weather package. Okay. Well, let’s look at this. You’re you don’t So the XSSE heated leather steering wheel is optional. It should be standard in my opinion with this much money. All right. Same thing with the windshield wiper deicer, but we’re going to get that. All right. Driving assist package, which um driving assistance package, advanced park, and toggle shift bywire shifter. No, do not buy that. That is a joke. All right. But you can still get the JBL audio and the panel roof. However, I feel like the panel roof that I drove with the XSSE now was pre-production, but it was rattling. That gives me I would have to drive production versions to to see like, is this going to be a real issue? All right. And with all that glass up high, it just felt like the vehicle didn’t handle as well. All right. And the irony is it’s like, yes, it’s it’s the sportiest trim. No, it doesn’t come in red. But also, it it didn’t it was it didn’t feel faster and didn’t handle as well as ironically an XLE model. So, and the ride quality is worse. So, this is this was my least favorite trim level for the RAV 4. Um, and now it’s even confirmed like heated steering wheel you have to pay extra for. JBL you have to pay extra for. Panel roof you have to pay extra for. So, you’re just like it’s like what does this actually give you? Big wheels. All right. and two-tone paint that you have to pay extra for and not even in the red color that XSSE deserves and you get a black interior that you have no option out of. All right, so not a fan of the XSSE whatsoever. All right, so let’s go back to the different trim levels again. LE SE are going to be the largest volume. Now I drove the premium XLE premium enjoyed it. Look again the XLE can be had in red SE and XSSE at this point in time cannot and even can have blueprint. So you see all these color options here. This tells me that hey this is going to be one of the big volume sellers more than likely too. And look at the interior. I can get a nice tan interior with you know that I couldn’t get on an SE or XSE. So really really enjoy this trim level. I think this is One of the better sweet spots of the Toyota RAV 4 hybrid lineup. All right, what other options here? Oh, you can also get it in gray. Fantastic. Now, keep in mind these are all soft texts. It’s not the cloth. I wish we had a light color cloth. The outgoing RAV 4 had a light color cloth available on the base RAV 4. Pretty sure. Almost positive. Okay. The new one doesn’t. If you want a light color interior, they force you to upgrade all right to the XLE Premium, which is very frustrating. Maybe depending on how the market speaks, Toyota will have to be forced to offer a a bolder or a gray interior cloth. All right. On the LE trims, time will tell. But I do like the color combinations here. The beige and the gray look great. And this is what the black looks like. Looks like black to me. All right. So, I like the gray. I like the harvest beige here. All-wheel drive, still 1,400 bucks option. Weather package. Again, that gives us a heated leather steering wheel, which is not an available option on the base LE trim. Yeah, we want to add that. Um, driver assistant package. What does this have? Front cross traffic alert. No, no, no, no. Do not get this. The driver monitor, the Safeex alert, the traffic jam assist, the lane change assist, front cross traffic alert. I would pay not to have these on there because they are so intrusive and annoying all the time. The car beeping at you because you’re messing with the touchcreen, which you’re kind of forced to do in a lot of situations. All right? Because your eyes are not on the road, they’re on the touchcreen, so the driver monitor yells at you. The front cross traffic alert is one of the stupidest things ever. It’s really bad. Rear cross traffic alert is is standard. Front cross traffic alert. It just beeps and chimes at you when traffic passes or you see the traffic going by. I don’t need the car to yell at me when I’m inching forward to plan my time to merge into traffic and the car just yells at you. Uh, hate front cross traffic alert. Sorry, I was I had traffic jam assist highlighted. Traffic jam assist is uh like radar cruise control but for lower speeds. And these things, guys, why are there asterisks here? These asterisks are all subscriptionbased. So you’ll pay an upfront charge to have the hardware here. And then Toyota will say after whatever the trial period is, probably 3 years. After the trial period, they’re like, “Oh, you need to keep paying if you want these features.” F that. Do not get the driver assist package. Do not get it. All right. What about the panel moonroof? You can still get the panel moon roof on an XLE premium. 18 almost $2,000. No thank you. Does it come with anything else? Digital rearview mirror. Come on. They package those two things together. No thank you. Not Not worth it. Cool technology. It’s great to have the extra light in here. All right. But you see this? It doesn’t look like in the XLE they’re not even giving you a a sunroof option. Unless you pay almost $2,000 for the pano roof. That’s dodgy to me. I feel like for an XLE Premium, this is a premium packaged car. Where is the standard sunroof here? This This model is losing interest to me. All right, but if you want a light interior, this is the cheapest way to get it. So, that’s frustrating. Anyways, let’s finish the build here. All right, sub $40,000 is the sweet spot for the RAV 4 once you go like the diminishing returns are massive. All right, once you get to $40,000 and beyond, but let’s entertain it. I already entertained it on the XSSE. Again, my least favorite build. But what about the woodland? Well, the woodland’s pretty special. It’s look, you get it in the Everest color or storm cloud. Those are my two favorite colors here. Everest is fantastic. And look, let’s take a look at the inside. The downside of this is that the seats are not perforated. This is my biggest hesitation with this model. I like I well, you know, the mineral’s fine because I like the orange accents. It breaks it up. Sorry, the black. The mineral’s better. All right. Cuz it’s kind of like this teal color, which is kind of nice. All right. But the problem with this this trim is that the seats are not perforated. And because they’re not perforated, they’re going to get hot, sweaty, and uncomfortable. You’re going to stick to them. All right. Cloth seats are far superior. All right. Cloth seats are actually the best for hot climates regardless of what you you think. All right. That’s my testing. In all my testing, cloth seats are always the best in in where I live anyways. All right. For letting your body breathe. The these seats are at the absolute worst for hot climates. You’ll stick to them. You’ll be sweating even if it’s cool on the inside that it’ll still be hot as heck on the seats. perforated uh synthetic leather or perforated leather are a good option. Ventilation, even ventilated vinyl seats or ventilated leather seats don’t do as a good job of letting your skin breathe as cloth seats. Okay. The only thing that comes close or maybe even superior would be true airond conditioned uh front seats which like General Motors products have air true air conditioning pumped through the seat. Those are probably the best, but they’re very expensive to get and cloth as durable uh and very clim climate neutral. If you want a sunroof, you can have it. It’s 850 bucks or what else does it give you? That’s it. Just sunroof. But keep in mind, heated steering wheel standard. Heated seats are standard. Even in hot weather, they’re going to be standard because they’re going to be so hot, even if you don’t have the heated toggle on. All right, but these also come standard with a 1500 watt power accessory in the back, which I find a lot of value in. All right. Uh, also comes with standard roof rails. We go back to the exterior design. St uh standard all-terrain tires with really cool 18-in uh, you know, six-spoke wheels. Um, and really unique, beautiful front end. It’s my favorite front end of the RAV 4. This is the most I would probably spend on the new RAV 4 new. That’s just me. All right. Because once you like we looked at the the XSSE, very very expensive and it’s it just wasn’t didn’t feel that special to me. Actually drove worse than the other trims that I drove. Limited. I didn’t get a chance to drive it. You have the option again limited, not sporty. But for whatever reason, the sport the non- sporty trims have access to the red. Um, you of course get beige here. So, the interiors here are exactly the same as the XLE premium options. Black, softest, softax, harvest beige, as well as light gray. Exact same interior color combinations. All right. This has the bigger screen. I prefer actually the smaller screen. The smaller screen is seen in the Woodland, the XLE Premium, the SE, and the LE. The XSSE has a bigger screen, too. I like the smaller screen. The bigger screen, it’s too much area for your arm to slide around and move. Okay. And they offer the exact same technology, if I remember correctly. All right. They all have driver monitor, too. Uh, not driver monitor. I take that back. They all have a dash cam. Okay. Standard, which is kind of nice. Um, 20-in wheels. Is that worth it? Well, let’s look. What do these I like these. Are these 19inch wheels then or 18inch wheels? What do these look like? Um, well, you you have to get the head-up display. Well, let’s get it. All right. This is maybe the only trim level you can get head-up display in is the Limited here. Okay. Um, unless uh Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Let’s Let’s look at these wheels. Nothing is changing. So, this is something broken on the builder here. Nothing is happening when I select 20-inch wheels here. So, that’s a bit strange. And if I go to RAV 4 brochure, um because the brochures have the wheel designs, um the the brochures here, or maybe I should go to electrified. Is is it maybe under here? Uh the RAV 4. I don’t that’s weird. I don’t see it in there. So, that’s that’s unfortunate that I can’t even look at the brochure what the 20-in wheels look like. So hopefully that builder gets fixed here for the 20-in wheels. All right, so we’ve added every package here on this trim. We added the most expensive paint color. Um what is this? 40 almost $47,000. $47,000 after destination. Now is would I pick this over some other cars that you can get for 46 almost $47,000? Oh, well, remember there’s this other vehicle Toyota also has called the Crowns Signia. The Crowns Signia is very upscale. It’s beautiful. It’s a wagon. Not not super low to the ground like an old school wagon, but it’s it’s it’s lifted. I think it’s better looking than the RAV 4. Absolutely. And you can get these. Look, these are on discount. Look, a four grand discount here. If you’re spending over $45,000 and you can get them for less, I would heavily heavily recommend you at least take a look at the Crowns Signia. It’s amazing, amazing car. Um, you have tons of cargo capacity like a RAV 4, probably even more since it’s longer. All right. And you can get these in the Limited trim as well as the XLE. Now, XLE here. Let’s go ahead and build one. Um, XLE we can have in the copper crest as well. Oh, big fan of the copper crest. Well, I call it copper crest. It’s called Bronze Age. Copper Crest is a Lexus name for it. Um, and Lexus probably is more metallic flake or something. All right, but the XLE, um, you know, get it with the saddle tan. Oh, yeah. This interior smokes the RAV 4’s interior. Smokes it. Uh, even on the Limited trim. All right. Um, here we go. There are no options here. This is the the downfall of the XLE trim here because the XLE it doesn’t give you like parking sensors if I remember correctly, which I think is bizarre. But if you that doesn’t matter to you. You’re still going to have a 360 cam or so you’ll have a backup camera. Um, wow. The the images here. There we go. Uh, yeah. And you have heated and ventilated seats. So, this is um even on this base XLE trim of the Crown Sigma, you have heated and ventilated seats. You’re going to have a heated steering wheel. All right. for 46K. All right. It’s not doesn’t have the new Toyota software or technology, but it has a nice screens. I’ll say that. Nice screens. Much much better interior, uh, I would say, than the Toyota. And better climate control features, too, uh, than the Toyota RAV 4. And these seats are a lot nicer and more comfortable. Way nicer and more comfortable seats. Okay. So, definitely consider this whether it’s XLE or the um the the Limited here. the limited again they give you advanced tech package 360 camera uh which again I don’t like the lane change assist traffic jam assist front cross traffic alert blah blah blah front and rear parking assist though is really important to me and it’s just unfortunate that it’s packaged with this stupid traffic jam assist front cross traffic alert driver monitor etc okay so I’m a big fan of the parking sensors and you get the 360 camera here, but it’s not necessary. Definitely not necessary. But this here, $50,000 when we looked really on the market here, you can get uh let’s look at lowest prices. There’s not a lot of availability here. All right, on the Crown Signia, but look, you can get them for under 45K right now um in in non black. Great buy. I would be picking this over the new RAV 4. I know the new RAV 4 has a more updated hybrid powers power powertrain, but this the the aesthetic here just speaks to me more, okay, than um the RAV 4. And I’d be picking this over the XSSE as well as the Limited RAV 4 hybrid 2026 models without hesitation. Now, what about Lexus? Um Lexus NX. The NX is a little bit smaller and we’ll look at NX hybrid here. Lexus is a little bit smaller and that might be a benefit to some of you guys. The Lexus NX kind of feels like it’s between a Corolla Cross in size and a RAV 4 in size. All right, but we look at NX’s here. You know, once you’re close to $40,000, as I go back to the builder here, uh not on the Camry, once you’re close to $47,000, it’s worth it to look at maybe a Lexus, too. Lexus is going to have fantastic seats. You’re going to have that Lexus badge. However, uh let’s see here. Let’s look at a premium front-wheel drive here. 51K. Would I still rather have a Crown Signia than this? Well, I actually reviewed them side by side. Uh the Lexus NX and a Crown Signia side by side. So, check out that video. The Lexus is quieter. It’s built a little bit better than the Crown Signia. It just doesn’t look as good. All right. So, I’m a sucker for that wagon aesthetic and I’d be saving a little bit of money and getting the the Crown Signia here. But uh yeah, once you’re in the upper $40,000, definitely consider a Lexus 2 because it’s going to be quieter, more comfortable than your RAV 4. But Crown Signia here is to me the pick. Once you’re over $40,000, well above $40,000 for the RAV 4, get a Crown Signia. You will thank me for it. My overall buying guide here would be if you want the best value, get a Camryle or a Camry SE. Okay, those you’ll be able to get under $30,000 or just slightly over. Um, and it has the exact same fifth gen powertrain as the new RAV 4. All right, but once you, you know, if you want the Woodland, Woodland’s a great buy because it’s very unique, very unique, uh, trim level. Um, and it’s it’s beautiful. Has the best looking front end of the new Rav 4. Has cool tires and it it rides really well and handles well, and it’s quiet despite it having all-terrain tires. So great great here. Excellently premium I also really enjoyed. Okay, those that’s about 37,000 38,000 after destination and depending if you want some options. Woodland’s going to be a little over $40,000. Again, SE is a good buy here if you need to have a heated steering wheel and and heated seats on your RAV 4 and you don’t really care about much else. Unfortunately, you cannot get red here on the SE like you can on the non- sporty trim levels like the LE, the XLE, and the Limited. The LE I do want to test because it is the cheapest RAV 4 hybrid. But the fact that it doesn’t have heated seats is bizarre to me. Not even an option for it is frustrating when the Camry, which costs a lot less money, can have those features. All right. No. Um, light interior here is a bit questionable, too. All right. So, I will see you guys in the comments. I’m not that sold on the value of this LE. Is it should provide a better value than it does. Instead, you’re going to have to upgrade to the SE to get heated seats um and a heated steering wheel, which is a huge jump, a huge jump in price. We look here. All right. 347 versus 319. So, it’s going to be like a $3,500 price jump just to get heated seats in a RAV 4. All right? Because you’re going to have to get this weather package right here that has a heated leather steering wheel. The little heated seat icon. Let me show you. Heated seat icons right here on the the SE trim. And if I go back, let’s go back to the Ellie here. Let’s check out the interior. That little icon’s completely gone, missing. So, no heated seats, just to to double clarify. Under $30,000, look at a Camry. You’re going to save a lot of money and you’re going to have a great experience on a Camry Alley or SE. If you want to have obviously people like sitting up a little bit higher and having a hatchback uh or lift back like like in the RAV 4, for example, this is still a great value, but its strength, the RAV 4 strength is between $35,000 and low 40s. Once you get to the mid to upper 40s, these Limited and XSSE trims really lose their value uh to something like Crown Signia, which has better design, built in Japan. Um just a gorgeous, gorgeous vehicle here, and it has more comfortable seats and a nicer interior, too. All right, I’ll see you guys in the comments. Let me know if you enjoyed my breakdown of the the RAV 4 builder. Again, stay tuned. Subscribe. is coming to my driveway and I will be reviewing it, putting it through the paces. I’ll do a nighttime review of the Rav 4 Woodland. All right. Um, I want to see what those fog lights look at night look like at night. I’ll be doing an overall review of the Rav 4 Woodland. And I’ll also do a miles per gallon test to see how efficient the new Rav 4 is. I know it’s not going to be ideal because I have all-terrain tires and it has all-wheel drive. So, it’s not going to it’s not going to be the most fuel efficient. The SE frontwheel drive, uh, actually the LE frontwheel drive will be the most fuel efficient cuz it has the smallest wheels and the lightest weight because it doesn’t have that extra motor in the back for all-wheel drive. So, if you want the best fuel economy on a RAV 4, you’re going to have to look at the LE frontwheel drive, but you’re not going to have the option of heated steering wheel and heated seats, which hurts me, or a light interior option, which hurts me because I know the Camry can get those on the base trim. I just love the Camryle. The the RAV 4 not that great of a value in the low30,000s. It’s going to be about 30 35 to $42,000 is the sweet spot. The SE uh is is a better value, maybe a better value than the LE. All right, cuz the LE is just so expensive and you can’t get the features that you can on a much less expensive uh Camry Ellie. That’s just I love the Camry Ellie. That’s one of my favorite cars of 2025. All right, thank you guys. Stay tuned. I’ll catch you in the next one.

#toyota #rav4 #hybrid #camry #crownsignia

Before you start shopping for the new 2026 6th gen Toyota Rav4, you need to watch this buying guide. I’ll show you the strengths and weaknesses of each build and the best value for these models.
Should you buy a Camry instead or a Toyota Crown Signia?

The 2026 Toyota RAV4 kicks off the sixth generation of the popular and functional small SUV. It is available in a choice of Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) or Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) powertrains with available Front- or All-Wheel Drive (FWD or AWD), depending on grade. New Core, Rugged, and Sport styles give RAV4 a fresh look, too. Core designs are available in Hybrid LE, XLE Premium, and Limited grades; the Rugged design is available on a new HEV Woodland grade; and the Sport designs are available on the HEV SE, XSE models. For more about the RAV4 PHEV models, click here. It also launches new versions of the Toyota Audio Multimedia system and Toyota Safety Sense active safety suite.

00:00 – 2026 Toyota Rav4 Buying Guide
34:28 – Final Recommendations