I don't doubt it, these little utes may weigh in or near the GS's weight but their little four cylinders and newer transmissions offset the older GS. Of course it's all relative to how you drive too

 

On the highway at ~80mph, the Rav4 is revving at about 2,100 RPMs. The GS is revving at about 3,100 RPMs. As much as I love the 2JZ, with a 5AT, it absolutely inhales gas anything above about 65 mph. If they had put a 6AT in there, it would make a huge difference, but that is a high revving engine that is in bad need of an extra gear for modern highway driving. Another plus is that the Rav4 takes regular and the GS has a thirst for premium.

Right now I am going from a full tank to the fuel light being on (fill ups are about 16.5 gallons usually) every 4-5 days. For a 70 mile commute, 4-5 days a week, that means the car is returning around 20 mpg. If the Rav4 cannot considerably improve on that number, I will be shocked. From what I have seen, most owners are reporting 27-32mpg for the AWD models, often a bit above what the sticker predicts.

 

so at 20mpg, your 70mi. commute is 3.5 gallons today.
at 30mpg say, your commute drops to 2 1/3 gallons say 1 1/6 gallons, or about $5

so now you'll be able to stop at starbucks and break even.

 

Mike again congrats, you should not be chastised nor have people break out internet calculators on your purchase. You are happy and it fits your needs and you have a nice new car. Your review was excellent. But we spoke about this

 

3.5 gallons x $3.89 per gallon = $13.62 per day.

2.3 gallons x $3.49 per gallon = $8.03 per day.

In a year, that's $3,268.80 for the GS and $1,927.20 for the Rav4 in fuel costs...savings of $1,342. Not too shabby, in my opinion. Plus no maintenance on the Rav4 for the first two years - a big factor as the GS just crossed 100k and will be needing additional maintenance in the years ahead.

Anyway, plenty of other factors here as well. Really excited for all of the new technology...feels like I have been living in the stone age.

Thanks man...I guess everyone sees it differently lol.

 

it's all good MP, was just playing (about starbucks), and you already said it was just time to get something newer and not primarily about mpg or math!

yeah, car tech marches on, few vehicles age well. and welcome the 'boring car' team. like you said, no worries about rims and curbs etc... a 'utility' vehicle is liberating in many ways! when i had the ute AND a miata, it was kinda the best of both worlds, one for work, one for play. had to bag the miata (divorce fall-out), but i'll be back with a fun car soon... meanwhile, the exploder keeps on tickin'... got a few dings, etc., but i don't care. wish it was an lx570 or cayenne - that would be sweet... but maybe my ute replacement will be a rav4 or cx-5 or something, who knows...

look forward to your updates! when you take delivery?

 

Very informative and helpful review! Will bookmark this page for future reference. The new Rav4 is sounding better and better the more I read about it.

 

Glad to do it! I'm also going to guinea pig the spray on 3M paint defender because a little over a week after we take delivery of the car, we're road tripping it from CA to NJ because of a new job

Enjoy the Rav!

 

Should've just swapped 430 diff in there - i used to get 28-30mpg highway in the 430.

 

I didn't care for the hit-with-an-ugly-stick styling of my Ridgeline, but functionality trumped fashion when I was shopping. In your shoes, I would have checked out the Subie, too. I think its superior AWD system would also be a benefit for your needs.

 

I wanted an fully loaded Outback but the wife loved her last generation CR-V and really wanted another one even after looking at the '13 RAV.Her car,her choice..
I will say the new generation CR-V is much better in everything over the last generation CR-V.Except for the lockout Nav.

Good luck with the RAV.

 

makes you wonder - $5 per day for Starbucks, $1825 per year

:-)

 

People need to start brewing their own coffee at home...

 

Now, why would you mention this ? I do have a Starbucks every day....

 

Excellent review/comparison, and well-thought out. A number of your conclusions agree with what I myself noticed about these vehicles. And congratulations on the RAV-4 purchase.

I got one or two brief questions, though. You've already explained why you didn't include the Forester (I'm not terribly wild about its new design myself), but did you look at the Mitsubishi Outlander?....... (assuming there is a dealer near you...a sparse dealer network is one of Mitsubishi's problems). The Outlander woud probably go out the door for a good price, given the generally low demand for it....the question is if it would have been acceptable to you. And the Chevy Equinox might also have been worth checking out....GM is doing some nice stuff nowadays, though the recently-introduced Buick Encore did not terribly impress me (see my recent review of it).

BTW......given the specific vehiclesyou posted, I myself probably would have chosen the CR-V, based on ride-comfort, vehicle assembly/build quality, and potential long-term reliability.....with the other four potentially all tied for second place.

One thing you apparantly didn't mention about the Escape (though, being a single guy, it might not make much difference if you don't often carry people in back) is the simply awful rear seat, which is little more than a super-thinly-padded park-bench. I'd have the inmates down at Guantanamo sit on it if we were trying to get some intelligence out of them.