BUYER'S GUIDE: Toyota RAV4 Mk5

FROM £17,000 Spacious five-seat SUV also offers loads of standard kit and unburstable reliability

- Richard Dredge

TOYOTA is often credited with creating the leisure-focused compact SUV, with the original RAV4 of 1994. Suzuki might argue, because its Vitara was launched six years earlier, but the RAV4 brought car-like construction methods and road manners to the affordable SUV segment, while the Vitara had an 'old-school' chassis.

That first RAV4 was a big success in the UK as well as around the world; by 2020 Toyota had sold 20 million examples globally, including 220,000 in the UK.

It was initially sold only as a three-door model with a petrol engine, but five-door cars, diesels and a hybrid came later. By the time the latest model (as covered here) was launched, it had a hybrid powertrain, with a plug-in hybrid added later.

History 

THE RAV4 Mk5 reached UK showrooms in April 2019, in front-wheel-drive form only. Within a month there were all-wheel-drive cars available though.

All were fitted with a 2.5-litre petrol engine and self-charging hybrid tech; front-drive models had 215bhp whereas all-wheel-drive editions got 219bhp.

Altogether more powerful though, was the 302bhp RAV4 plug-in hybrid which arrived in spring 2021. It was also capable of 46 miles on a charge, and could do up to 84mph in electric mode.

An upgraded RAV4 was supplied from August 2022. This brought with it an improved infotainment system with a 10.5-inch display, customisable digital instruments, and extra driver-assistance systems for Toyota's Safety Sense package. These were Pre-Collision System, and Emergency Steering Assist.

Which one?

DIRECTLY compare a RAV4 PHEV with its all-wheel-drive hybrid counterpart, and you'll see that you're not necessarily paying a huge premium for the former, even though it's a significantly better car.