Heart breaking.... my wife had the best handling SUV on the planet with suspension designed by the Farrari engineer, but it didn't have a touch screen and rear heated seats!!!! She got constant compliments. But it didn't have automatic brighs lights.
See GREAT and appliance are mutually exclusive comments. RAV does nothing well or outstanding. There is zero joy in driving it. It goes from point A to point B with little fair either way. The only thing remarkable about it is in how unremarkable it is.
Exactly, and the people who care more about a touch screen, rear heated seats and automatic high beams are usually not the people that place vehicle handling anywhere near the top of their list. My wife just wants an economical vehicle to drive that comes with bluetooth.
I think we can both agree that the Rav4 is simply an appliance. When I said it's "a great appliance" I meant that it's great as an every day appliance for non-car people. Sure the Rav4 isn't outstanding (despite what it's sales figures say), but it's better than what Stellantis offers right now for most people in that segment. It has more cargo room than a Compass or the now dead Cherokee, gets better MPGs than either, and Toyota is smart enough to offer a Hybrid and Plug in Hybrid version of it in North America.
There are people out there that don't even know the brand of the vehicle that they drive. There are people out there that if the badge were to fall off the back of the vehicle wouldn't know where to take it for service. I can't comprehend living like that, but there are. I had a boss that knew his wife drove a minivan (which ended up being a Caravan), but couldn't remember what he drove to work that morning. My curiosity got the better of me, and so I asked to see his key, saw the Toyota logo, asked him if it was a sedan, and eventually found out it was a Camry, so I mean that explains everything lol.
I have driven the new Prius and love it. It will be interesting to see if the RAV4 gets a similar transformation for its next generation. In the meantime Toyota has stuffed the 5th generation hybrid powertrain in the Corolla Cross, this version has an e-axle standard and is priced much less than the Hornet with one.
When I sat in the Hornet at the autoshow I was surprised how cramped the interior is. If one looks at the price per pound of this porky little Dodge, it doesn't seem so bad compared to it less expensive and lighter rivals.
The new Prius is too small for me, and it's lost cargo room compared to the 4th gen. My wife is happy with her 4th gen Prius so unless something happens to it, we will keep it. Once it's time to replace her Prius I will try to encourage her towards something more interesting. Just the other day she made a comment about how she wished she had taken the Cherokee to work when it was raining really heavily here so she could see better, so perhaps my bad influence is rubbing off lol.
I sat in a Hornet, and although it was more comfortable than the new Prius for me, I wasn't won over by it either. I will eventually take one for a drive, but at $40k to start for the ICE version here, I'd rather keep my current vehicles.
