Stalwart Toyota Genetics

THERE’S STILL GOODNESS IN TOYOTA’S OLDEST CUV

- Brett T. Evans

Toyota tends to build vehicles that could be likened to whole-grain crackers: wholesome, nourishing, and sometimes delicious, but not that exciting. The advent of the company’s Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA) is set to change that, transforming even the Prius—long a pet peeve of auto enthusiasts—into something with a little driving verve.

The next model slated to undergo the change to TNGA will be the RAV4, which should arrive in showrooms about the time you read this. If the new architecture is as transformative as it was for the Camry, Corolla Hatchback, and Prius, then the ’19 RAV should be stiffer, more agile, and more comfortable than before. Keen to get a baseline, we rang up Toyota and asked if they had any ’18 RAV4s for us to borrow, and since we wanted to run it through our Daily Driven cadre, could it please be a hybrid?