Overview & Reviews

User Reviews:

• 

  HATE it LOVE it - 2016 Toyota RAV4
  By justadriver - August 7 - 7:18 am

  My version of the 2016 rav 4 is the most expensive with the birds eye view and thinking that spending 40,000 on this car would last me a lifetime, but I am slowly starting to count down the days until I am able to trade it in. Dont get me wrong the birds eye view is great, the blind spot sensors are great, the car is awkwardly high and low at the same time, but what bothers me the most is that I can never get the Pandora or Iheart radio to work. And the apps for Toyota are really horrible. The car itself is spacious if you are no taller than 5"10 so far the Ive only had one oil change, and seems to be running fine, but I only get 23mpg city which seems very low for an eco friendly 4 cyl. car.

• 

  Problems already - 2016 Toyota RAV4
  By melanie creadore - September 11 - 11:15 am

  After owning 2 weeks I found that no one can hear me using the phone inside vehicle. There seems to be water intrusion when washing vehicle. Acceleration is poor on highway and left me add what a gas guzzler. I expected more quality coming from Toyota, as I had the Lexus suv. The handling is poor. The technology is llacking, it doesnt understand my voice control at all. Already bringing it in to get fixed. If the alignment isnt off then the car absolutely handles horribly on the roads and highways. I put my hand down to pick up a candy and pulled out a plastic cover.

• 

  Decent Rental But Wont Buy One - 2016 Toyota RAV4
  By Villa - June 9 - 6:17 am

  Rented a Rav4 that had only 4k miles and drove it 700 miles roundtrip. Decent cargo and visibility. Couldnt figure out entertainment interface to control by steering wheel, so had to overreach to search and/or change radio and satellite stations. Also, couldnt figure out how to dial using display like my 2013 Kia Rio EX, so had to use my phone, even though the phone was paired to the Rav4. Aside from those small annoyances, the biggest drawback for me was the uncomfortable drivers seat. Another problem I experienced is the super responsive handling is a major flaw on uneven and unpaved highway. I had to fight to control the FWD while going 65-70mph over an unexpected long stretch of unpaved and uneven highway (thanks, CalTrans, for the warning - not!)

• 

  Pro and con list leans to con. - 2016 Toyota RAV4
  By Gloria Stein - December 25 - 2:15 pm

  Too bad this car is way below my expectations. Shifting is tricky. Controls on drivers side (to lock and unlock doors) not visible in the dark (black on black) and the "map lights" dont light much past center of cabin. The ride is choppy and I hoped a heavier car would ride better than the smaller one I traded in. The high sides of bucket seats make getting in a out a challenge and I opted for an SUV to make it easier. Im stuck - I own the car. Its too early to comment on reliability.

• 

  Back Problems - 2016 Toyota RAV4
  By Rick Paul - June 1 - 5:57 pm

  I have to get rid of this car because I cant drive it without being hobbled by back pain even for short distances. The front seat has a "lumbar support" that digs into my back just above my belt line. Ive adjusted the seat every which way possible. Ive tried after market seat cushions and pillows to no avail. I wanted to give this vehicle a chance because there are many things to like about it compared against the other cars Ive test driven. I will lose money when I rid myself of it after only 3 months. Otherwise, I like the smooth power delivery and most notably the quality of the interior. It comes without a lot of frills that come standard on some competitors, like adjustable speed intermittent wipers, automatic headlights, and push button start but it has a high quality feel. The interior switches and the fit and finish are top notch. This is why I bought it. IF YOU HAVE ANY BACK PROBLEMS, OR EVEN IF YOU DONT, TAKE A LONG TERM TEST DRIVE OR RENT ONE FIRST. IF YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO DO THIS, DO NOT BUY THIS CAR.

• 

  COULD HAVE BEEN , the perfect vehicle for me!!!! - 2016 Toyota RAV4
  By ranger@columbus.rr.com - April 5 - 1:20 am

  for rear seat passengers it rides worse than my pick up truck. front seats not too bad. the intune radio is not user friendly. if you are a do it yourself person and want to change your own oil you can expect going to the dealer to get the special oil filter wrench. now for the the big one. mechanically its great. the navigation system system is so bad I may shop for a different brand next time. Toyota has bought a navigation system that is very hard to use ands the accuracy is terrible. if you are paying for the nav. system take it out in the country and try it first. the menue actually give you the coverage maps that you can look at (kinda like a cell phone coverage map) look at it before you waste your money. they must have thought the people in the south would buy the car. the navigation system is so bad that I use my OLD garmin instead. my thought is if I buy a $200 gps at a dept. store and dont like it I can return it. if you buy the $1500 Toyota nav system you are stuck with it and can do nothing. I seriously hope they get sued over this one.

• 

  Good SUV but missing A LOT of refinements - 2016 Toyota RAV4
  By Jason in Nebraska - April 22 - 8:54 pm

  Overall, the RAV4 XLE is a good vehicle but far from great. I have many good things to say about it, especially the comfort of the seats. Its easy to find the good things about it, so Ill focus on all the little annoying things I find with it. Ill start with the Entune system. The software that supports it is poor at best. Its full of little bugs that make Entune incredibly annoying to use. While in USB mode, I can set it to randomly play songs from the entire flash drive. Itll go from playing REO to playing Metallica next. But when I turn the car off, Entune forgets that I want to randomly play the entire drive. Instead, it only plays songs from the artist being played when I got out of the car. So every time I get in the car, I have to tell it to play the entire flash drive again. When using satellite, Ive yet to figure out how reliably scroll through all stations. It seems that after I select a station and then keep scrolling, it stays within the genre. I have to tell it again that I want to see all stations. I could go on, but I think you get the point. The instruments leave a bit to be desired as well. There is no digital display for the speed. Not a big thing, but something I was used to with my last car. Theres also no display to tell me what the current tire pressure is in each tire. Im told a warning light will appear if one tire is low, but it wont tell me which tire. If theres already a monitoring system for tire pressure in place, it shouldnt be too hard to give the driver just a little more information. I noticed that my speed readout is also off about 3-4% or so. I took it in to the dealer and said that on the interstate, its consistently showing me going 2-3 MPH faster than I actually am going. I checked with 2 different GPS units as well as using a stopwatch between known fixed points and manually calculating the speed. The dealer told me that 2-3 MPH off is normal and is within tolerances. I pointed out that that if the speed is off, the odometer is probably also off. The dealer told me the its also off but within tolerances. Of the 4 other cars (Chevy, Dodge, Mercury and Subaru) Ive driven within the last year, the Toyota is the only one which has a speedometer thats not dead on accurate. So that means, its shorting you roughly 1000 miles on warranty. I find the placement of the daytime running lights (DLR) switch odd. Its with the headlights. In order, the light settings are: off, DLR, parking, headlights. When I turn the headlights off at night, I naturally just move the switch down till it stops. Well, that means I just left DLR off too. It should be DLR, off, parking, headlights. What would be even nicer is automatic lights, but that doesnt come with XLE. I also noticed that for being a brand new car, it doesnt bead up water like it should. I used to have a job where I drove a different new car every day. This is the first new car Ive driven that the water doesnt just slide right off the windshield when it is raining out as I drive down the highway. The water on the hood also doesnt bead up. The A/C also needs a little help. For whatever reason, the RAV4 doesnt remember that I like to have fresh air coming into the car all the time. Every time I start the car with the A/C on, its set to recycle the air. Like the USB on Entune, I have change that each time I start the car. It also doesnt seem to cool as fast as other cars I drive or have recently driven. That may be more of a subjective thing though.

• 

  Well keep our superior 2011 Rav4 Limited - 2016 Toyota RAV4
  By Tim - October 28 - 3:56 am

  Try before you buy! When we needed more cargo room to take daughter and dorm stuff back to school 100 miles away we killed 2 birds with one stone. Were considering a new Rav but a 10 minute test drive IS NOT enough so we rented a 2016 Rav4 Limited which was hard to find for rent and seemed to ride the same as a 2015 we had driven prior. The car served its purpose in 2 ways: 1: It got the job done. 2: It convinced us to keep our 2011. Why? Ok so if you drive mostly smooth highways its ok. When tooling around/commuting on anything else it rides like a brick (yes tire psi correct) You feel every imperfection on the road.The other annoyance is the 6 speed which in theory makes sense but its annoying as it constantly hunts for gears. The 15/16 just have an overall cheap feel inside and out including fake leather. Our 2011 by comparison feels solid, no gear hunting, not a squeak or rattle, nice ride and real perforated leather. We have owned many fine Toyotas including our current Rav and 2009 Camry Hybrid but I think corporate greed has caused their quality to decline in recent years including far too many recalls some of which years later STILL dont have a fix which speaks volumes right there.

• 

  Dissapointed - 2016 Toyota RAV4
  By Jim S. - June 19 - 3:39 am

  Probably just luck of the draw but my Brand New Rav 4 had a faulty transmission that the dealer acknowledged and replaced to their credit. It had a very pronounced whining/whistling noise on deceleration and still has some whistling noise to it on acceleration now. If I knew then what I know now about CVT Transmissions, I would have purchased a different vehicle that has a conventional trans. Did much research before the purchase and the Rav 4 had awesome reviews across the board which heavily influenced my decision to purchase it. Live and learn.

• 

  ok rental. lots of space. great city, bad freeway - 2016 Toyota RAV4
  By jsohiorenter - April 1 - 6:12 pm

  Very attractive little suv, esp with the alloy wheels, which were above and beyond the entry level offerings for other comparable vehicles. Nice. For a small suv, great cargo space and overall roominess. The powertrain is really great and smooth up to about 35 and accelerates nicely. But get this thing going faster and the engine seems to really labor, buzz unpleasantly, and the transmission seems to get confused, searching for gears then delivering some really hard shifts. The trip display computer is not as intuitive as those in other cars. Lots of wind noise from the windshield. Ride was very good and there were no rattles or squeaks, good considering it was old by rental car standards, pushing 30k. The freeway ride was a little unsettling in that steering was imprecise and floaty. the driving position was pretty good, but would have appreciated a seat that raised up a little higher and the console armrest was too far back to be useful with a hand on the wheel. Ergonomically, it gets a big F just for the window switches alone. your left arm almost has to reach awkwardly around the door handle to get to the power windows. Bad design here. No long term review as I only drove it for three days, but probably wouldnt buy it. Brake pedal modulation was terrible. you have to push the pedal a few inches with no resistance or response whatsoever, then a sudden grab.