2023 RAV4 PRIME

Installed the seat covers yesterday (CR grade Neoprene from CoverKing). I've put them on every car since the 2014 Accord. Decent medium grade seat cover, saves the seats from all the twisting and turning in a tight garage.

I think I have it now where it needs to be. I ordered 17 oil filters (the wrong ones). They are larger and will fit but I'll use them when out of warranty. Cross bars will stay on for now because will need them for the Xmas tree. Did the gutter guard condenser mods too.

Maybe one more accessory, body mouldings. Last year I paid 103, lowest I can find now is 159 all in.

At about 450 miles with 293 range remaining. I'll keep charging it up but it looks like 800 miles will be easy and I rarely use EV only mode.

The instant, short bursts of speed are useful and fun but really this is just a RAV4 that's quieter and really quick if you want it to be.

The siren space ship sound when in reverse it a bit loud, feel like I'm going to wake up sleeping babies. With the regular hybrid you can turn on the heat or A/C and the engine comes on and the siren goes off. The Prime is eager to stay in EV. (It has a heat pump system that will operate and will have to be really cold for it to defer to the engine for heat). The only way around it that I know of is to make the engine stay on manually to charge the battery.

I also find myself not turning the car completely off, it's a quiet experience so I make mistakes. My daughter's hybrid had a physical key so I didn't make mistakes. I rarely drive the bride's hybrid.

Haven't found a way to put it in accessory mode to keep tunes playing. Liked how the Passport would keep tunes playing until you opened the driver's door.

Daughter pointed out it had rear seat heaters. Kind of strange since no fogs, auto dim mirror or Homelink.

Auto high beams seem very bright, I'll have to compare them to the wife's XLE Hybrid they look identical.

Really liking it so far, capable and sort of fun. Toyota's update of the infotainment lets me give it verbal commands to do things like turn on the A/C etc. Still think regular hybrid is the way to go for a daily workhorse though. Put in 11 gallons and go 500-600 miles no charging times or cables to deal with.

Every time I drove the regular hybrid I said to myself, "got to get me one of these" and now have one plus a little more. This car reminds me of the Accord V6. I never got tired of driving it but it had winter/cargo limitations. This RAV is an even better fit, like the ultimate CRV. I don't see anything topping it for me. (Probably the next gen one).

As for not having a truck, or something bigger to haul with, that will be an issue but there's family with an Expedition or rentals for one-offs but that takes planning and it's inconvenient. I'll never say never so we'll see how it goes. Like the saving 1k/yr for insurance. This is the first time in a long time we're down to 2 cars at home. I think since 2008.

Waiting for the electric bill to get some more data but one thing is for sure, that Passport was a guzzler.

Had to be out an about this morning. Had to do some rush hour commuting on a route that I did for years with my Accor V6. This Prime is a star.

I loved my Accord V6 and I loved CRV's. The only way to combine them into one would have been a V6 RDX. Did not want the luxury of the RDX or price. Next best thing I could think of was a Passport. Unfortunately, that came up short as the Passport was a frustratingly lethargic highway commuter in traffic. V6 RAV4 had been out of production since 2011 I believe. The only other option I could think about was a CX-5 but that meant a turbo 4 banger and smallish rear quarters and no touch screen. Not a realistic option.

It took some years but Prime is the answer for me. The regular hybrid comes close but the Prime has the performance that tops even the beloved Accord. Very happy, has surpassed expectations, great formula. Where else can you get all this performance, MPG's and utility? Hope this baby holds up and Toyota massages the battery tech.

So first tank ran mostly in hybrid mode. Took about a month. Charged 7 times using 31.3 kWh at 19 cents per yields $5.95. No electric bill yet. RAV forum says the kWh values from the app are inaccurate. Only way to know for sure is with a level 2 charger which can account for heat loss and actually measures the electrons that went through the cable. App does not do this. Either way, this thing is fun and when the electric bill comes should have an idea if charging will have an impact.

Last week, my brother's 2018 F-150 company vehicle was in the shop yet again (cam phaser this time, coil pack last time, transmission is next - 76K miles), so he drove his 2023 RAV4 Hybrid to work and was proud of his accomplishment. He has about the same 15-mile mixed city/highway commute that I do.

Bill_R said:

Please don’t stop posting, to me this is real world mileage and cost associated with a plug in hybrid. While I am not quite ready to go full electric, a plug-in may be in my future. I really enjoy reading your experiences with the plug-in. That may be my next vehicle. I truly wished Honda had not done away with the Clarity, as it was a good vehicle, I needed a year or two to convince my wife to go to a plugin vehicle. We currently have two hybrid vehicles, a 2010 Prius and a 2019 Rav4 hybrid. I like data to compare, etc. and figure my next move.

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I'd like to get to bottom of what the actual charging costs are (because I gotta know) but all I have for now is the Toyota app. I suppose I can try to charge it while being hooked up to a Kill A Watt device but Toyota wants you to plug directly into an outlet. I've been away for a few days at graduation (got 41 mpg over 400 miles with the AC blasting in a regular RAV4 hybrid) but the electric bill came and out of something like 17 years of data it was the third lowest mid-April to mid-May on record for kWh used. (I log the therms and kWh each month.) Far from conclusive but looking good so far. At this point charging it as much as possible will most likely be cheapest. At my current pace of driving in regular hybrid mode looks like I'll be filling up once per month. If I plug it in could go many months without going to the gas station. Winter use will be a big question mark and when it gets cold and snowy I'll probably be missing the Passport.

If you are prioritizing cost, Prime is not the answer and I see you already have a RAV4 hybrid and a Prius so you are well positioned for savings. If you are looking for a different driving experience, Prime can give you a dose of what EV is like. If you do short drives you can pretty much be in EV all the time or you can drive it like a regular RAV4 hybrid. Those are nice options to have. It's pretty sweet, the pull with all the available torque defies logic and pure EV's are even better than this. I'd say anywhere below 50 mph in pure electric it's shockingly fast, smooth and quiet. ICE setup seems primitive and sort of back to the stone ages now, when the engine kicks on ha ha.

Probably won't have much else to report unless its bad news but I've been impressed with Toyota. Everything works as advertised and if it lasts a long time that will be the icing on the cake. I've been looking at it closely compared to my wife's RAV4 Hybrid and they drive completely different. Prime is firmer and drives bigger, like light vs. heavy feel. I won't leave Toyota when looking from a long term ownership perspective. I feel like they aren't cutting edge but the stuff that they release to market is proven . They address defects and they've had s few with this current RAV generation but that says a lot about a manufacturer.

If you get a chance to drive one see if you there's anything you like about it to justify the extra cost over the hybrid. Many would say they'd want luxury features of a Limited trim which is about the same price (vs. discounted PRIME). I've always been looking for a lightly optioned Accord V6 in an SUV package and this Prime has been a welcome surprise.

14v6 said:

I'd like to get to bottom of what the actual charging costs are (because I gotta know) but all I have for now is the Toyota app. I suppose I can try to charge it while being hooked up to a Kill A Watt device but Toyota wants you to plug directly into an outlet.

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For level 1 (120 volt) charging, you'll very likely find that the vehicle is drawing 12 amps (80% of a 15 amp circuit) which is 1.44 kW. If you pay 15¢/kWh, that's 21.6¢/hour of charging. If the vehicle charges for 8 hours, for example, then it will have consumed 11.52 kWh ($1.73), but may report having used 9.216 kWh in which case you had a 20% loss for charging overhead (heat lost through wires, power to heat/cool battery, run fans, and keep computers running while charging, etc.). Generally, level 2 (240 volt) charging is more efficient because you have less charging overhead and a larger percentage of the power used ends up in the battery.

There's no problem plugging into a power monitor like a Kill-A-Watt - that's basically a "straight through" device with no significant loss. It's plugging into an extension cord that automakers want you to avoid for two reasons: 1) There's no way to ensure you're using a heavy enough extension cord which could create a fire hazard and 2) long and/or light extension cords will result in a voltage drop which will take the vehicle longer to charge and be less efficient while doing so.

Installed the body moldings. 4th time doing it no instructions necessary. Also installed some mud guards on the wife’s RAV. Took me a year to notice..