The Toyota RAV4 XA50 series shares not only the assembly line of the plant in Shushary, but also the TNGA modular platform with the localized Camry sedan. However, the crossover still has its own atmospheric petrol four. The 149 bhp two-litre is coupled with a six-speed manual or variator, the 2.5 engine (199 bhp) works in tandem with an eight-band automatic. Hybrids presented in other markets will be neither produced in St. Petersburg, nor imported, and there are no diesels in principle. By the way, it is not ruled out that the Camry will also switch to the new engines.
I like the design. Especially as the arches, reminiscent of either a Jeep or a fifth-generation 4Runner, are neatly covered with plastic pads and the sills are covered with doors. Exhaust system's nozzles peek out from under the bumper on both sides. They seem to be the ones limiting the exit angle.
The interior is simple, but fortunately it does without marginal, scratchy gloss. Hard plastic does not get under a hand, cheap-looking plastic "under aluminium" does not irritate. Connecting a smartphone to the multimedia system is best via Bluetooth: Mirror Link does not work with iPhones and is slow, while CarPlay or Android Auto are not supported.
«On all but the base car, the door sills are finished in soft-touch leatherette. The steering wheel is good in diameter and cross-section, but the stitching is rough. The rim is heated only at the grip points. The glovebox is small and unfinished, but key-locked.»
The only RAV4 with in-house navigation and an eight-inch touchscreen costs $35 000. But the menu graphics and user experience in general do not match this price. The archaic multimedia complex should have been forcibly replaced with Yandex.Auto during the localisation process.
Fabric armchairs of Standart and Comfort versions lack adjustment of lumbar support, but the upholstery is more pleasant, than leatherette in more expensive cars. But there the seats are electrified: you can prop up a lumbar shaft and remember the settings. Lateral support is unobtrusive, but sufficient. The multilayer filling, with a soft top layer and a denser bottom layer, distributes the load well.
«The sofa is spacious without reservations. The backrest angle changes purely nominally, with two positions provided. The more expensive options do not add any adjustments to the front passenger seat, and these remain mechanical.»
Visibility in a clean car is good thanks to the moderately wide pillars and huge exterior mirrors. In bad weather it will be worse, because the left wiper stops about four centimetres from the edge of the glass, and the rear wiper rakes the poor sector on the fifth door. The all-around view system is a helper: none of four cameras is protected from dirt, and the quality of the picture does not stand up to criticism.
«The brakes are effective, even with the inappropriate winter tyres. You can't put it down to tyres that make the pedal feel a little sluggish at the beginning of the stroke.»
The rear row is even more spacious than before. The interior width has been increased by four centimetres, with almost five more in the legs. These are significant by interior standards, so even passengers taller than 190 cm sit unobstructed, freely placing their feet under the high-mounted seats. But the middle one can hardly live because of grown up tunnel in the centre. But there are deflectors and a couple of USB sockets.
«All windows go up and down in a single touch. Induction charging appears in the car for 2.3 million, but the smartphone only holds on to it with a silicone cover, and fidgets without it. All five USB sockets in the cabin are old-school. No USB-C.»
The right-shaped boot is remembered for its supremely leisurely electrically operated lid. Two levels are provided for the raised floor. However, if the roll-up curtain is folded into the recess reserved for it, the lower one cannot be used. You can, however, turn the flooring upside down for transporting anything dirty. The sofa backrest can be folded out in parts, almost flush with the floor.
«The cargo area has been increased from 577 litres to 580 litres. The absence of any load-securing equipment is a disappointment. There is no hatch for long loads. There is a spare wheel in the basement.»
All the cars for Romanian test drive were change the winter tyres Nokian Hakkapeliitta R3 SUV. Even allowing for the fact that they are softer than regular summer tires, there is evident progress in ride comfort. When driving quietly, even with 19-inch wheels, you can hear rather than feel transverse joints. As the speed increases, the Toyota begins to shake on them, vibrating on a short wave, but the perturbations come to the cabin rudely smoothed out.
«The dimensions have barely changed. The crossover is only five millimetres shorter than its predecessor and ten wider. But the base has grown by three centimetres at once. Ground clearance depends on the size of wheels and varies in the range 195-200 mm.»
On big potholes with sharp edges the car shudders with its whole body, but it does not allow potholes. Smoothness of run is improved not to the detriment of power capacity. Noise isolation has evidently become better. At low speed it is more silent inside the car than in the old one. But during acceleration the engine mercilessly soliloquizes, and after 100 km/h the wind becomes the main acoustic irritant, drowning out other sounds. In conversation, you have to raise your voice.
«In the top-end Prestige and Prestige Safety models, there is a seven-inch display. In simpler cars, there are two classic dials and a 4.2-inch screen. Such panel is more informative. The multimedia is good with that the touchscreen listens to hands in gloves.»
The steering wheel is light and a little bit bendy in the near-zero zone. Stabilizing force logically grows only at rotation of a steering wheel by a significant angle, and at small deviations it is hardly marked. It is comfortable to drive RAV4 calmly, but no more than that. But when one tries to change a course abruptly or to dump gas in a corner, the crossover suddenly goes into a skid, giving a shot of adrenaline.
Stabilization system, which is not switched off, activates rather sharply at steering correction, but it is still necessary to be able to do it in time. Such attacks may amuse the skilled driver, and a beginner will hardly drive fast enough for Toyota to show arrogance. But on the road, anything is possible...
«The suspension allows you to keep a high pace on dirt roads, providing more than bearable comfort. The steering wheel is perfectly decoupled from jolts and vibrations.»
In September, journalists of Swedish magazine Teknikens Värld noted suspicious behaviour of hybrid modification during elk test: RAV4 falls into a skid with connivance of stabilisation system and even tends to stand on two wheels. Then the colleagues-automotive inspectors have complained, that in a turn with uneven surface the already localized crossover jumps dangerously off the trajectory and behaves badly on change-over. It only returns to normal when loaded with maximum ballast.
«All Rafiks have fully diode lighting. Only the top-end Prestige Safety variant has headlamps fitted with lenses and is able to switch automatically from high beam to low beam. Optics of other versions use parabolic reflectors.»
We have not met such criminality in Romania. True, I just drive a laden car with soft and less tenacious winter tyres. So in our case the transitions are smoothed out. The route is on public roads only, where you are not going too fast. Just bear in mind that a spirited driver should keep an eye out for this Toyota.
«The electronic assistant kit in the top version doesn't work perfectly. The Adaptive Cruise Control functions reasonably well on the motorway, when there is not much traffic. But in traffic jams it is tiring, because one can't fully trust the automatics.»
Having tried RAV4 with various power units, I should say that I like the character of two-liter car better. The variator is nicely tuned: on acceleration it pretends to shift between seven virtual gears. Accelerator communication is purest. I lack it in the car with the engine 2.5 and automatic. That reacts to fuel delivery with a little hesitation, though I can't complain about the work of the box. Besides, the version of 2.5 does not go with two hundred "horses". The two-liter subjectively justifies the declared hundred and a half completely.
«The uncovered seam on the door frame looks untidy. The double seals at the bottom of the doors fail to cope with the onslaught of road grime that settles on the ostensibly covered sills.»
The new RAV4 is offered with two types of all-wheel drive. The Comfort line-up has the former scheme with a multidisc clutch of rear axle connection. Top versions are equipped with transmission without rear differential: each axle is driven by own friction package. With the ability to redistribute power to the rear wheels, Toyota is more responsive under power and feels more confident off-road.
«Multi-Terrain Select is a must for all four-wheel drive vehicles. This is what the remote control looks like on the most expensive cars. In Comfort, there is no handle, only buttons, but the modes are the same. When lifting out the boot aperture is deformed a little, but all doors are closed normally.»
The crossover easily copes with demonstration diagonal stretching both with a variator and "automatic". It is easy to feel features of different modes of Multi-Terrain Select system, which Land Cruiser has shared with Rafik. Rock & Dirt, zealously struggling with slipping, is more suitable here. If to activate Mud & Sand, wheels receive greater freedom. However, the old Toyota also works here. You only need to rock it a little bit or give it a minimum of speed to get around the obstacle...
I am not going to belittle Toyota's objective achievements: driving comfort has been improved, the interior has been slightly refined, and the car has become more spacious. And people have got used to compact parkettes with two-million price tags.
Technique
Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA) is a set of modules and components that enable the creation of related, yet different, 'bogies' for different classes of passenger car (including crossovers) with different drive types. In TNGA unified elements of the floor, sills and engine compartment, they can be completed with standard "cubes" of suspension and different in length rear parts of the floor. So far, three platforms have been formed: GA-C, GA-L and GA-K - the latter is used by the RAV4, while its co-platformers are the Toyota Camry and Lexus ES.
The suspension is designed from scratch, although the architecture remains the same: McPherson struts are used in the front and a multi-lever arm is used at the rear. Unlike the fourth-generation RAV4, the new car has electric power steering from JTEKT on a rack and not on the steering shaft.
The body is predominantly steel. The bonnet, front wings and tailgate are made from aluminium. High-strength steels are used mainly to reinforce the floor and centre tunnel. The Japanese don't specify their share in the body. The torsional stiffness of the body has increased by 57% compared to its predecessor due to an increased number of welding points and a larger area of glue joints.
Both petrol fours belong to the new Dynamic Force family. Combi-fuel injection is combined with a high compression ratio of 13:1 and the ability to operate in the Atkinson cycle at low loads. Both camshafts are phase-shifted and an electric actuator is fitted to the intake. The two-litre M20A-FKS engine (left) features laser-clad valve seats and slightly cooler spark plugs. For the Russian market it was downgraded from 175 hp to 149. In addition to Rafiki, this motor can be also found in crossover Lexus UX. The second engine A25A-FKS is also downgraded from 205 to 199 powers. It is also available in the Lexus ES and the Toyota Camry for the Chinese market.
The Direct Shift-CVT variator (pictured left and centre) fitted to the two-litre crossovers is interesting with its starting gear. At 20-25 km/h the gears open and the pulleys start working. Thus, the start is more intensive and without stress on the belt. This is also useful off-road, where the gearbox is subjected to adverse conditions. The range of ratios for the new UB80F eight-speed automatic (right) has been increased to 7.8 versus 5.42 for the old six-speed. First gear is shortened for more confident off-road driving, while upshifts in seventh and eighth serve to conserve fuel.
The top versions of Prestige and Prestige Safety feature Dynamic Torque Vectoring AWD with a separate friction package on each of the rear axles and a pair of cam clutches to disengage the driveshaft. In addition to a more precise distribution of torque across the axles, this system enables fuel savings of up to two per cent compared to the conventional design.
History
In 1994, the appearance of this baby created a sensation! Toyota bosses just wanted to make a youth car for outdoor activities (hence the abbreviation - RAV4: Recreational Active Vehicle, the "four" indicated permanent four-wheel drive), for which they used a platform of all-wheel drive coupe Celica, but in fact created the whole car class, interest to which still remains.
«The pioneer of the compact crossover class remained in production until 2000.»
Initially RAV4 was produced in three-door body, but already in a year and a half after the debut there was a five-door modification. The only two-liter petrol "atmospheric engine" developed 128, 135 or 178 hp. There were two gearboxes: five-speed "mechanics" and a four-range "automatic transmission". Drive was permanent all-wheel drive or front-wheel drive.
«A turbo diesel engine (113 hp) also appeared under the bonnet of the 'Ravic', and the most powerful 2.4 engine (163 hp) was shared with the crossover by the sedan Camry in 2004. The second generation only rolled off the assembly lines for five years.»
The mature RAV4 of the second generation has grown up in sizes and comfort, but the ideology of the automobile has remained the same: a crossover for outdoor activities with three- or five-door body, with front or full drive. At first there were two engines. Gasoline "four" 1.6 (100 hp) was applied to base three-doors, and more advanced versions were equipped with new two-liter "atmospheric" engine with variable valve timing mechanism with power of 150 hp.
«At the top of the range was a crossover with a 270bhp V3.5. The motoring line-up was so variegated that it meant a wide choice of gearboxes: there were six types of gearbox!»
In 2005, the third generation RAV4 was released, built on a completely new platform. The crossover was stripped of three-door versions and permanent all-wheel drive, but was available with standard wheelbase and lengthened to 2660 mm. A multidisc clutch was in charge of connection of rear wheels. And as a whole it was already another RAV4. Larger body demanded more powerful engines. Thus, instead of the old turbo-diesel a new D-4D unit with 136 horsepower output appeared.
«The fourth generation crossover, introduced in 2012, had only one body size and was produced in Japan, Canada, China and Russia. The RAV4 underwent a restyling in spring 2015 (photo below right).»
The fourth generation RAV4 was an evolution of the 2005 design. Beneath the cover of the new corporate design was familiar technology. The body was based on its predecessor's platform - or rather, its lengthened version. Suspension, all-wheel drive transmission and part of the engine are the same, but the V6 engines disappeared from the range: there are only inline fours. At the same time with the restyling there is a hybrid modification.
