The RAV4 will be available in Army Green this year, the same color as some of Toyota’s bigger trucks and SUVs. The color will be an extra choice in the Adventure and TRD Off-Road grades for free. The two-tone color scheme on these types can be paired with either a black or white roof.

Pros

• Strong value when using old technology.
• Great safety scores and features.
• It comes with servicing for two years.

Cons

• It’s less fun than a race.
• It is a punishment that has a good amount of bounce.
• Off-road trims are only for looks.

A 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine with 203 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque is paired with an eight-speed automatic gear. The only RAV4 trims that don’t have front-wheel drive are the Adventure and TRD Off-Road. These only have all-wheel drive. A simple AWD system can be added to the LE, XLE, and XLE Premium types. The Adventure, Limited, and TRD Off-Road trims have a more complicated AWD system that can disconnect the rear axle to save gas and direct torque to different wheels. This new RAV4’s TRD Off-Road version sped up to 60 mph in 8.3 seconds on our test run. The RAV4 Hybrid ran even faster in our tests—in 7.4 seconds than the other cars. When we needed to downshift, the transmission in our test car seemed to stutter, and the standard four-cylinder engine can be cranky, especially when trying to pass on the highway. Workaday also talks about how well the small crossover handles, saying that it can handle a narrow stretch of road with ease and steadiness while going on the highway. But it doesn’t give off the same sense of security as the Mazda CX-50.

Some simple driver aids are built into the RAV4 series. The base model doesn’t come with rear-cross traffic alerts or blind-spot tracking, but buyers can add them if they want to. Visit the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) webpages to learn more about the RAV4’s crash test scores. Some important safety factors are:

• Most automatic emergency brakes detect road users.
• Normal exit alarm to keep you in lane.
• It comes with adaptive speed control.

Inside, the RAV4 puts storage space and comfort first, but if you want a nice-looking cabin, you’ll have to look above the base LE model. The LE is still cheap, even though it has fabric seats, all-black plastic interior trim, a steering wheel without any leather, and manual climate control for a single zone. The XLE tries to do better by adding a few more features and an extra two-tone color choice for the cabin. With its high-quality plastics, leather-wrapped shift knob, steering wheel, stitched and padded dashboard, and center-console seat, the XLE Premium doesn’t skimp on comfort. The back seats of the RAV4 are easy to store and fold almost flat, which makes more room inside for bags. Ten of our carry-on bags fit behind the back seat, or twenty-two if we fold them up. All of the statistics show that the Subaru Forester did better than the Nissan Rogue in this case.

The EPA said that the RAV4 got good gas mileage for a car in its class. People who drive front-wheel-drive RAV4s should get up to 35 mpg on the highway. The all-wheel-drive TRD Off-Road got 32 mpg on our trip on the interstate at 75 mph. The RAV4 did better than expected in its class, but the Volkswagen Tiguan got 33 mpg, which was better than the RAV4.

A 10.5-inch touchscreen is on the Limited and TRD Off-Road models, while an 8.0-inch screen is on the smaller trims. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto can be used wirelessly on the entertainment system, which also has a 4G LTE mobile hotspot. GPS, a wireless charging pad for smartphones, and a JBL premium sound system are all choices. The Limited has a 12.3-inch fully digital gauge display as standard, and so do the XLE Premium and TRD Off-Road. The other models have a second 7.0-inch display in the set of gauges.

We like the TRD Off-Road, but we would be smart and pick the more affordable XLE Premium instead. The SE comes with many extras that the LE and XLE do not. These include fog lights, 19-inch wheels, a power liftgate, a sunroof, dual-zone automatic climate control, faux-leather seating, a leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob, and soft-touch armrests. All Toyota models come with the company’s range of driver-assistance technologies, so there’s only a little reason to move up to a higher trim level unless you need ventilated seats or a tougher look.