CAR REVIEW – 2014 Toyota Rav4 Crossover SUV

I was provided with a week long test drive of the Toyota Rav4 featured in this post. This post has not been monetarily compensated. Please note that, as always, any personal opinions reflected in this post are my own and have not been influenced by the sponsor in any way.

We’ve had an SUV in our house for years. Last winter I finally retired my huge SUV (a 98 Expedition). Hubby still has an 01 Explorer Sport, which is a two door. I bought it for him with his taste in mind, to me it’s always felt small. I was curious to see how I’d feel about the 2014 Toyota Rav4 that I recently had the opportunity to check out.

The 2014 Toyota Rav4 is a crossover SUV. It’s got four doors and the tailgate, which made for a promising start for me. The back opens up to reveal an adjustable power liftgate, which would be awesome for those times when you’re hauling bigger items around. The Rav4 has a smartkey, not only locks and unlocks the car but also raises and closes the tailgate.

Despite being more SUV then car the Rav4 didn’t require a “leg up” or any climbing to get into, it was a very smooth motion for me to get into the seat. Speaking of the driver’s seat, there was plenty of leg and head room for me, and I am 5′ 10″. I as the driver found it comfortable to sit in.

Everything is easily accessed from the drivers seat, which is adjustable in a bunch of ways and has a memory to save your preferred position. The center of the dash has a touchscreen monitor that contains a reverse camera and menus to control many functions such as music, phone, GPS and more. The mirrors on each side of the car feature lights that will flash if something gets too close to you or gets in your blind spot. Many controls were also accessible from the steering wheel, including stereo and phone and even the information display. The front of the Rav4 has dual zone climate control, so the driver and the front seat passenger can adjust the heat or air to their own liking. The Rav4 model that I drove had a JBL stereo that sounded good in both front and back seats.

We took a family trip to Hershey, PA in the Rav4. For the trip I’m referring to I define family as two adults and three teens. So basically for all intents and purposes five full-grown people. At first we thought everything would be hunky dory. We had sufficient head room, a concern since my oldest is 6 foot tall. There looked to be sufficient leg room in the back.

Technically there was, leg room wasn’t the real issue. Seat, or seat back, room was the issue. The backseat of the Rav4 is a split seat. Both of the seats of the Rav4 fold all the way down, leaving a decent sized open space where you can put things. The split backseat is actually where much of our problem came to be. Everyone that sat in the middle found it uncomfortable to sit in the middle of the backseat. The reason for this is because there’s a built-in console right in the middle of the seats. Yes it is part of the seat when folded up but everyone found it uncomfortable to lean against while folded. And of course if not folded up then there was no room for a third person.
The other issue we found is that the back seat of the Rav4 has no vents for heat or air. It was very hot while we were traveling. Even with the ac cranked up the three passengers in the back got uncomfortably warm and sweaty. When the people in the back got warm and wanted air they opened the windows. We noticed there was a very noticeable noise within the vehicle cabin when driving with the windows open. I found it extremely annoying.
If you can get past the ventilation issue, the Rav4 is a very capable crossover. It gathered speed fairly quickly. It cornered nicely, I didn’t have the feeling like I was going to tip over when going around a corner a little quickly like I have in some vehicles in the past. The gas mileage was decent, we got about 28 miles per gallon. I think the Rav4 would be a good fit for couples and for families with tweens or younger children. If a family was larger than four people or had older children and more adults I’d have to say I would find it to feel a bit small. BUT. The Rav4 is actually the smallest crossover that Toyota currently offers. I personally would be very curious to see what the larger Toyota crossovers and SUVs felt like, such as the Highlander, 4Runner and Sequoia.
The 2014 Toyota Rav4 has a starting msrp of $23,550.00.

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