Toyota’s new “Woodland” trim on the 2026 Toyota RAV4 is my favorite. Here’s why.
I’m here with the redesigned sixth generation 2026 Toyota RAV 4 full hybrid. This is the new Woodland trim. Now, the Woodland was kind of a special edition trim in previous model years, but now it’s a it’s a a staple. It’s not going anywhere. It is a part of the RAV 4 going forward. It has its own badges. It has its own allterrain tires. And I just got done off-roading it for about 40 minutes. And I have to say it is quite capable. It is limited by its ground clearance. Um, there’s no skid plates or anything like that. But what’s really impressive about off-roading this uh Rav 4 Woodland or any Rav 4. I mean, you can put all train tires on any of them. Um, is just that that electric torque and it’s so quiet off-roading. It was very, very impressive. But most of you guys don’t care about off-roading on my channel. And while it is fun, often times more fun than driving these things onroad, um, I’m going to drive it onroad for you guys because most of you guys are driving these RAV 4s onroad. So, I’ll give you a quick tour of this Rav 4 Woodland, tell you what’s uh, different about it compared to other models that I’ve already driven on this media drive. And then we’re going to take it on the road and talk about what it’s like to drive onroad. Underneath the hood of the Rav 4, now it’s fully hybrid. The Woodland is no exception. Now, you can actually get the woodland in fully, well, I shouldn’t say fully electric, but it can drive in fully electric and the plug-in hybrid. And if I had the plug-in hybrid, this is not. This is a standard hybrid, which comes standard with all-wheel drive on the Woodland. But if I had the full electric drive mode with the plug-in hybrid on the trail, it would have been amazing um just to have all that quietness, all that torque, all that electric power at all times. Still, this did uh an admirable job with the 336 horsepower that it has. Um, onroad, all these are capable of around 40 m per gallon, which is pretty insane. Uh, let’s go ahead and close it down. Let’s talk about the front end here. The front end of the RAV 4 Woodland is extremely unique versus the rest of them. All right, you can say the Geo Sport’s very unique, too. It’s very blocky up front. It’s got the Rigid Industries fog lights. Um, it’s got these teardrops underneath uh the headlight capsules. This does not have the fancier headlights that you would see on an XSSE or a J Sport or an Limited, for example. But I still think it it looks good. Now, this model also has a Toyota badge right here in the front. Um, where most of them is kind of laid on top of the front of the bumper. All right. A little silver garnish there at the bottom as well. All right. real blocky, muscular hood to I think to like accompany and accentuate the blockiness of this front bumper. You got parking sensors up front. As we come to the side, we have 18-in wheels. I love these wheels. Uh the six spokes, these are unique to the RAV 4 Woodland. Uh the all-terrain tires, awesome. You know, they are also very quiet onroad. uh these Dunlop Grabber AllTerrains. Uh 235 width is where all of these have been, but 65 thickness. And because the tires a little bit thicker compared to other RAV fours, it does have 8 and 1/2 in of ground clearance, which is a little bit more than the standard model. Not much, to be honest. I still want more ground clearance with the type of off-roading that this trail has. All right. The the the RAV 4 couldn’t do all of the trail, but um have a good spotter with you. That’s that’s the most important thing. All right, let’s get into the back. This is the unique woodland badge. You’re going to see this on every single Woodland model going forward. Every single Woodland model also comes with a a small tow hitch receiver. Now, this one’s pretty tiny. That’s not full size. These things can tow 3,000 lbs. All right. You do have parking sensors in the back. Of course, this, like I said, all-wheel drive badge, automatic lift gate. Got the cool woodland mat here. Like the rubber mat. Lifting this up, we got a spare tire. Heck yeah. 1 1500 watts. That’s one of my favorite things that comes standard on the Woodland. Um, and it’s a bit harder to get on the rest of the trim level. So whether you get the plug-in hybrid or this non-plugin hybrid, you get the 1500 watt power adapter back here, which is awesome for tailgating or doing some overlanding stuff. You can charge your, you know, if you wanted to take battery packs with you, you can easily charge those. Love that feature on this Woodland. All right, get into the back seat. Oh, I forgot to mention as well, standard on the Woodland are these roof rails and crossarss. Hell yeah, I love that. Looks awesome. I think this is the best looking RAV 4. All right. Um, I have soft touch back here. Okay, it’s not as hard as I thought it was going to be. It’s still not that soft. This is unique pattern to the Woodland. a real soft material here, but again, all of the RAV 4s have too thin of armrest padding, but you could always add to it if you wanted to. Now, this does not have perforated seats. That’s a miss for me. These soft tech seats are going to get sweaty. There’s no breathing going on. The pattern might help a little bit, but not enough. See the Woodland uh badged mats back here? Uh rubberized all weather mats sort of thing. USBC’s, vents, headrooms, great back here. You get a a sunroof, not a paner roof here on this Woodland. All right. Love the back seat of the new RAV 4. Let’s go ahead and get in the front. Just a quick Oh, and this is a weird thing, too. All right. And I’ll get on the other side of the vehicle. We have glossy mirrors and we have glossy door handles on this trim. It’s strange because, well, we have matte finishes on the bottom. And I guess, you know, but still, if you’re taking this on the trail, this sort of material is likely to get scratched. And there’s that woodland, a little badge there, a little logo. All right, let’s get on the inside. Non breathable seats here. They are heated. I have um power on this side. Got the orange stitching, the orange piping, the orange accent here around the center console. All right, this seat is manual over here. You can see the woodland mats on each side like that. All right. Don’t know what that is, but that’s a neat little uh plug there. That’s not a real button. Hatch button, for example. Again, the same materials here on this door. They look and feel real nice. Just a little thin here. Closing the door. Um 10-in screen here. You cannot get this, I don’t believe, with the 12-in screen on the Woodland, but that’s okay with me. I prefer the smaller screen. Standard is a 12-in screen throughout the lineup. Leather wrapped steering wheel. We get some orange uh accents here. Love the traditional shifter. Check this out as I’m resting my arm. Boom. Hand just resting right on it. Perfect. Like it a lot better than the little tiny lever that you have on the Limited model, for example. You have trail and snow mode. All right. And I was playing with that on the trail. So, for example, here if I’m in trail, it gives me a more in-depth camera system. I can see on the sides of the vehicle. Um I can press while I’m in I’m in reverse. So, if I put this in, let’s put this in drive real quick. And then you can uh, you know, look at where the vehicle’s heading. I can click it again. All right. And I can get different angles if I want. Kind of like the the 3D. It can draw underneath the vehicle sort of thing. So, I love the camera system here. You get your pitch and dive and roll uh degrees as well. So, it’s very similar to what you would even see on like um camera technology on a Lexus GX or a Land Cruiser. It’s really, really well done here on the Woodland. has the best 360 camera here on the Total Rav 4 lineup. All right, I even have a wireless charger. And with that being said, let’s go and drive this Woodland Toyota RAV 4, all new for 2026. All right, shall we uh pull off in the BZ Oh, I almost said BZ Woodland because there is a fully electric woodland coming. This is the hybrid electric woodland, the Rav 4 Woodland. All right. The the RAV 4 Woodland, like I said, the looks just do it for me. You know, the RAV 4, has it ever been that off-roady? No. I mean, the closest thing maybe is like the two-door convertible beach buggy of the first generation. All right. They did the Woodland last generation. They did TRD off-road sort of uh with mechanical all-wheel drive. This all-wheel drive is electric assist. And man, going off-road with it, it was smooth, quiet, and great torque on demand. It was awesome. It It’s really like it never felt like it was breaking a sweat. It was very, very impressive with that electric torque. All right, but now we’re doing we’re on. What’s it like to drive onroad with the Woodland? Well, like I said, I expected this to be noisy. It’s not noisy. These tires, even on highway when you’re going fast, they are not loud. So, they’re all terrain, but they’re really focused on minimizing um on-road tire noise. So, really, really well done. All right, the powertrain, just like all the other RAV 4s with this fifth gen hybrid. Super super quiet unless you do pedal down. Even then, it’s quieter than the last generation, and it’s definitely more powerful than the last generation. But I love that instant response and torque you get from Toyota hybrids. The ECVT transmission, it just grips and rips, baby. There’s like it’s just awesome. It always grabs theoretically the perfect gear and just rolls away. All right, comfort in here. Well, I think these seats are the most comfortable. Like I said, assuming they’re not scorching hot, cuz then since there’s no perforation, you might be sweating your butt off in them. I got to test these seats in hot Florida. It’s only 83 degrees right now here in Arizona. So, it’s not like these seats aren’t an issue right now. They are a little bit sticky. And I know add 10 more degrees to that, it’s going to be very sticky, very uh swampy in here. Okay. Uh the visibility is great. That’s something I feel like that’s improved with this generation RAV 4. The dash sits super low. This is just the perfect screen size for this vehicle, man. the the 12-in screen, it just it’s too much and it like you have to move your arm too much. This is just perfect, perfect size, volume knob, great temperature select, absolutely great. I have a heated steering wheel and heated seats like I mentioned in terms of stiffness with the steering. This vehicle does feel lighter than the XSSE. All right, maybe that pano roof or the the 20-in wheels or whatever it was, that vehicle just felt pretty heavy. All right. This still handles really, really well. I’d say it handles almost as well as the XLE premium frontwheel drive that I tested. That one’s probably the lightest. So, it handled the best, but the steering feel here might be a little bit better than the XLE. The XLE steering. Throw it in the turn. Power out. Great grip. I mean, I floored it mid turn and it just put down all the power. Um, but uh what was I gonna say? Uh, yeah, the steering feel is a little bit a little bit more dialed. The XLE, it was so light. And I still love the XLE. And I love it a lot. All right. I still don’t know the price of the XLE or the Woodland. The Woodland without hesitation. Without any hesitation, I would pick it over the the XSSE that I drove earlier. All right. the XSSE, it it felt like it handled the worst out of all of them I tested. Um, and that shouldn’t be the case. It’s a sporty model. All right. So, uh, the wind getting a bit strong here. And that’s what’s really nice. This Toyota Safety Sense 4.0 is unbelievably good at lane tracing and and steering assist. It’s one of the best in the business. Really smooth and really not intrusive. It’s not fighting me while I’m driving it. It’s fantastic. Really, really good. All right. Now, XSSE had auto dimming rearview mirror. I got dumb mirrors here. I don’t even have a garage door openers here on this Woodland. That’s is that’s a miss. Um I don’t have auto dimming side mirrors. Yeah, that’s that’s unfortunate. But I have this. I have the old school dimmer, the manual dimming rearview mirror, which hey, I’ll take it. I’ll take it. That’s not a dealbreaker for me with the woodland. Man, I just love the fog lights on here, too. That really sets it apart. Makes it look a little bit cooler. Uh, and the fog light bars because it’s not they’re not just the dorky fog lights that you get on like a Limited, for example. This This right here is the coolest looking despite it having not the nicest daytime running lights, but they had to cut cost somewhere. Uh, and like I said, the looks do it for me. I love the roof rack. I love the all-terrain tires. Uh, this interior, that’s the thing. You know, if you’re in a really hot climate, maybe these seats aren’t going to cut it for you. Uh, that’s the only con I have with this Woodland Rav 4. Why can’t you just give us perforated seats? They don’t need to be ventilated. Just make sure that I’m not going to be glued to them in a hot soupy mess. Other than that, I mean, the shifter is just right. The steering wheel, the baseball stitching, great. Uh, it’s this is it. This is my favorite RAV 4. I think the XLE, again, it just comes down to pricing, but this one is very, very impressive. I’m going to end it there. Beey Woodland. Can’t wait for that to come. Yes, I accidentally called this Beey Woodland again, but the Beey Woodland’s coming. We’ll have more woodland models coming. What’s next? A Corolla Cross woodland. That’d be cool. That’d be cool. Um and that’s about it. You know, maybe they’ll do a Woodland of the Oh, you know, they they have a Woodland Sienna. I forgot about that. Um then, you know, they could do a Woodland Grand Highlander, you know, etc., etc. It’s only going to affect the crossovers that are not body on frame. Body on frame gets TRD. All right. So, yeah, the Rav 4 Woodland super well executed. They nailed the design, nailed the features. You know, the roof, like I said, they just got the aesthetic downright, and it’s fun to drive. You get greater fuel economy. It’s It’s a really, really good soft rotor. I still want more ground clearance and I want underbody plating, but it all comes down to price. Maybe those things or underbody plating skid plates will be available after after launch from Toyota dealers. That would be cool. All right, but what do you think about the Woodland? Let me know down below. Is this your favorite RAV 4 for the redesign? I mean, put a plug-in hybrid in this and it’s a wrap.
#woodland #awd #hybrid #rav4 #toyota
In this first drive, I test out Toyota’s all-new 2026 Rav4 in the new woodland trim. Is this the home-run redesign that the industry has been worried about? Here’s my impressions on this 6th gen Rav4.
2026 RAV4 Highlights
• All-New 6th Generation RAV4 Available in Three Different Designs Across Seven
Grades
• Choice of Hybrid or Plug-in Hybrid with Available Front- or Electronic On-Demand All-
Wheel Drive
• Debut of 6th Generation PHEV Powertrain with a 23% Increase in Manufacturer
Estimated All-Electric Driving Range Rating of up to 52 miles
• PHEV Output Boosts to 324 Net Combined System Horsepower while Gaining Fuel
Economy for up to a Manufacturer Estimated 41 MPG Combined Rating
• RAV4 Hybrid Models Move to 5th Generation System and Improve Fuel Economy with
up to a Manufacturer Estimated 44 MPG Combined Rating (FWD model)
• Hybrid Models also Add Power with 236 Net Combined System Horsepower on AWD
Models and 226 horsepower on FWD Models – an 11% Increase Over the Prior Gas FWD
Model
• First-Ever RAV4 GR SPORT, Developed in Partnership with Toyota’s GAZOO Racing
Company, whose Mission is Making Ever-Better Motorsport Bred Vehicles
• RAV4 GR SPORT has GR-tuned Suspension and Steering, Functional Aerodynamics,
Standard PHEV Powertrain with AWD, Sport Seating, and more
• RAV4 Woodland Grade is Available in HEV or PHEV with standard AWD, All-Terrain
Tires, Split Grille, Tow Package, All Weather Floor and Cargo Mats, and more
• New Technology Includes All New Driver’s Display, Toyota Safety Sense 4.0, new
generation of Toyota Audio Multimedia System, and Arene Software Developed Vehicle
Platform
• Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price* starting in the low $30,000’s (Hybrid FWD)
00:00 – Woodland Introduction
01:15 – Powertrains for Woodland
01:56 – Exterior tour
03:55 – Interior tour
07:50 – Rav4 Woodland HEV Driving Impressions
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