smartzuuk Posted August 1 Posted August 1 With the 2022 Corolla gone from the driveway after getting rear-ended and it being written off, the replacement after a number of test drives on new and used Toyotas at two dealers is going to be a brand new 2026 Rav4 LE, which is a "base model", and for Canada, that means it is hybrid (not plug-in) and AWD. There are no more gas only Rav4, and FWD are not available in Canada. I would say we were "fortunate" to get one for pretty much immediate delivery, with no price gouging, dealer installed this or that, "diamond kote", mandatory this or that, or simply outrageous fees. Lower than Toyota website suggests. $45 out the door, cash. Only four "colours" offered in the LE, we will have the white. You could also get "Storm Cloud" which is a blue/grey of sorts, a "Midnight Black Metallic", and surprisingly, not a silver, but actually a light sand colour they call "Brown Sugar Metallic". None anywhere anyway, so moot point, just saying... We tested in an XLE Storm Cloud. Could have bought that demo for approx. $6,000 more with a few dealer installed items. Anyway.... all that aside. We had driven these: 2026 C-HR BEV, FWD Would have been less than the Rav4 with current offer and federal rebate. But have determined full EV not for us currently. Explained below. Drove nice though! Would have been white, a demo with a couple hundred kms. Would have been about $43 out the door. The taxpayer funds $5000 incentive, plus Toyota is discounting $5,000. 2022 Rav4 LE AWD, 48,000 kms, non-hybrid This was NOT enjoyed. lurchy, shuddering 8 speed auto (known issue) which presented it's personality a few times on the test drive. I do not enjoy this generation Rav4 driving experience at all. Have previously been out in hybrid, and did not enjoy that either. Only thing better there, the CVT doesn't have a shudder. The road noise and jarring pavement feel is "bad". Yes, this was also a white one. Wife thought it was "okay". It was the cheapest option at $35 out the door. 2026 Corolla Cross, LE, FWD Finally a colour and drive that put a smile on wife's face. It leaves the impression of driving better than the 2022 Rav4 by a country mile. Cavalry Blue! Great colour. Why is this not used on the Rav4? Anyway. $37 out the door, but, they cannot sell this one. We can get one in 10 weeks. Hmm... Hey, AWD is literally just $1010 more plus tax. Oh, that will be at least 5 months. Okay..... I guess not. Drives like a Corolla. Bigger wheels. Sits higher. US made. Okay, do we wait for a $38k spend getting 7.5/100 average fuel economy? No. The math here is wrong. 2026 Prius e-AWD. This was in lieu of testing a plug-in SE which was being considered. Nice. I really liked it. Sharp angle on A pillar, and feeling closed in on a bit inside. Wife? HATED IT. Big spend for A-B. I will consider a used plug-in of this gen to replace the current daily 2007 RHD Prius in the future, but this is not for now. The plug-in SE would be about $40 out he door. Also subject to arrival and wait, time not discussed. Maybe 6-8 weeks? The taxpayer funds $2,500 incentive here, plus Toyota is discounting $5,000. We departed that dealer, considering the Corolla Cross as a contender. But the wait, the price, the lacklustre fuel economy... Hmm. Oooh, but the colour! Cavalry Blue! So pretty! Still, I reached out to two more dealers to see what Cross they had coming in - nada - or yes, but not a desired trim/colour. The math is really looking bad here. This is not happening. Wife grumpy. Just wants a car now. LOL. One advisor on Jul 30 was sharp enough to say "hey - would you consider a 2026 Rav4 LE in white" for immediate delivery? Uh, well, we've done out homework, except on that one! Couldn't even drive one previously (no demo that day). Alright, we're heading into town. 3ish hours later to downtown Vancouver and then an hour more waiting with wife getting grumpy again, we finally went on road with a demo. What a freaking difference versus previous gen. Toyota fixed so much. Huge improvement. Now this is worth the spend. Okay, not a plug-in, but we can actually HAVE this one. Or the Storm Cloud one in XLE. Hmm..... Okay, took the LE. Wife choice. She did not like the Storm Cloud as a colour anyway. It does have some cool features, and the seating is better material, but..... custom seat covers are "cheap". And I like 17" wheels versus 18" any day of the year, so there's that. Fuel economy is ridiculous. 5.5 combined. Okay, not zero. Not 1.5 with PHEV support... but economically speaking, pretty awesome. $10 to drive 100 km. A full EV at 18-22 kWh/100 on a road trip will be the about the same or likely more, especially outside of BC. Maybe 15-16 with ME driving, charging at home for $0.15 kWh comes to $2.50/100, which if I kept it up with no expensive road trip charging, I could break even on the $12500 extra cost some 167,000 kms later. (Yes, I used a calculator for that comparison. PS, don't forget to factor in the government subsidy in your future tax bill, lol) Not to slag full EV though, just to say, I think this is a solid path too. The Gen II Prius has been fantastic over 65,000 km and 3 years and appears to have massive life left in it. There's the eco-advantage - drive it til it dies.... Lifecycle cost. So, the Rav4 is made in Canada. (Only the Plug-In are Japanese) Lots of people would brag on that, and perhaps we should, but not for the obvious reason. Toyota had a record year in 2025 building in Canada, over 537,000 vehicles, mostly Rav4 and some Lexus. 80-85% of the Rav4 are exported to the USA. We have a ONE YEAR wait for Rav4 in Canada at many dealers. They are literally gouging in the resale market, flipping our LE base model for $48k plus tax at other dealers. (a half dozen on FB Marketplace right now.) The reason this plant did so well was because of a cooperative free trade agreement. Toyota builds one model in Canada for sale in US/Can mainly, and then imports many other models in lieu for sale in Canada. What's the issue? It was a sound business decision for Toyota to manufacture in Ontario. They've done a heck of a job. The USA just started building Rav4 in June, in Alabama I think. They might hit 80,000 in the next year. It's all for the US market to try and keep up with surging demand. Short supply there too. Even bigger picture: We build approx. 1.3 million vehicles a year in Canada, and we purchase about 1.9 million. We are a net importer overall. But.... Canada exports more cars TO the USA specifically than we import FROM the USA. Maybe it's a million we send them, and we take 750,000 back. Approximately. I wish it were simple enough to say, let's "equalize" at least for the USA (will that make you happy?), send them 250,000 less, sell those here instead, and take 250,000 less from Japan/Mexico/Korea/China/Europe etc.... I certainly could make the case for more Honda/Toyota on the road than other brands. But. it doesn't work like that. Can someone please tell Donald? Quote
MikeT Posted August 1 Posted August 1 (edited) Congrats on the new car. I'll be hoping to see it on Spritmonitor. Here's mine on Spritmonitor: https://www.spritmonitor.de/en/detail/1645350.html Edited August 1 by MikeT Quote
smartzuuk Posted August 2 Author Posted August 2 I hope. If I can get her to use Fuelio to track her fills, that will help. It was supposed to "RDR" Friday, but did not make it to the dealers garage.... So possibly Tuesday. Nice "homepage"! https://recensement.leclub404.com/ Quote
stickman007 Posted August 11 Posted August 11 Congrats on the new car! I would’ve taken the Prius too…but happy wife, happy life. 1 Quote
smartzuuk Posted Saturday at 12:38 PM Author Posted Saturday at 12:38 PM Have "filled" tank one, and now a few hundred more kms into tank two. I'm not bragging yet. The FE indicator on the Rav4 at 1000 km says 4.7. My pen and paper result from the fillup says 4.1, but caveat - it's one of those new Costco nozzles with the extra rubber to "prevent" vapour escape (surely this has a name?). Did it really "fill"? The "blobs" in the vehicle indicate that it did - and the distance to empty is at more than 100 km longer than when we took delivery with a full tank at 15 kms... so "maybe". I need to see a second fill. City driving is incredible whatever the story ends up being. I see 75% "EV" sometimes on city trips. Even a mixed trip with long highway stretches is still over 50%. The European WLTP cycle is about 1 L/100 km LOWER than the "drive like an idiot North America" ratings.... So there's that. I think 4.2 in the city. We've got the "drive mode" set to "ECO", which feels the smoothest anyway. I've popped it into Sport to wind up the noise level a couple times during break-in, but seems rather pointless. Seats could be more comfortable would be my one item to point out. Probably will add a seat cushion. Never had to in the smart, even though I was up to 20 lbs heavier then. Quote
smartzuuk Posted Saturday at 12:41 PM Author Posted Saturday at 12:41 PM "A very exclusive discussion with the three stooges posting in it all featuring Canada1 cars in their avatar!" Quote
smartzuuk Posted Sunday at 04:18 AM Author Posted Sunday at 04:18 AM Well, the numbers are real! Filled up at a different gas station today that didn't have a vapour loss rubber on it, even sloped downhill slightly... Second tank anecdotally was probably at least 10% more highway driving and)or higher speeds. Used sport mode a few times just to see what it could do. And actually the custom setting is best, you get Eco fuel economy and air conditioning with Sport feel on the steering (tighter). Except that it will not automatically keep either Sport or a Custom setting the next time you start the vehicle, it will revert to Normal! Only Normal and Eco will be kept as the drive mode the next time you start the vehicle. C'est la vie. First tank: 4.1 Second tank: 4.4 😲 "I scare myself"😨 (Thomas Dolby) "It's some kind of voodoo!" Quote
smartzuuk Posted 17 hours ago Author Posted 17 hours ago I had a quick look at my Prius data in the Fuelio app - just to get an anecdotal idea of the summer/winter difference. I'm not likely to extract out all the data and crunch further, but, I can suggest a winter average approaching 5.5, whereas summer is 4.8. Meaning about a 15% winter penalty. The Rav4 will likely be similar, but it'll still be a great number, and likely still LOWER than the 2007 Gen II Prius! (Hi Eddie!) Quote
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