So, what's the difference if you are paying for gas at the pump, or for electricity at a recharging station (or an outlet in your home)? Few things in life are free.

The big problem with Ferraris is not so much gas but simply staying out of the repair-shop. Beautiful cars, but notoriously unreliable.

 

isn't plugging in at home in a nice warm garage just a tiny bit more convenient than stopping at a gas station to fill up?

 

Yes, if you can do that. (many garages aren't heated and many people don't have a garage). But my point was that it costs money either way....and you're also paying for the heat in the garage.

 

MM, you didn't read my post about I don't care about the money side of it....

 

OK, if that's the way you feel about it, fine.....I won't argue otherwise.

 

not really. I go to a gas station about once a month right now maybe. Lugging out some charging cable to plug in every day is a pain.

the rav4 prime is an impressive vehicle. There's a youtube guy who forced tesla to buy back his model X because it had so many problems and then he got a rav4 prime. He loves the prime to be sure. Redline reviews guy also just got a rav4 prime.

as clever and fuel efficient (and fast) as the rav4 prime is, it's still a pretty cramped and imo ugly cuv with lousy rear seat room, a screen that sits up like a tombstone, a buzzy 4 cylinder under load when needed.

one thing that is appealing though, and dealers know it of course, is the fed tax rebate on it. If one can get past the looks and is ok with the packaging, it's a good vehicle.

 

This is huge for us. We haven't been to a gas station in over 3 months. Our e-tron is obviously electric and then swapped out our Odyssey for the Pacifica PHEV. Nearly 700 miles on that and most of the gas that we've burned so far was the first day getting home from the dealer because they didn't have it charged up.

 

Plugging in our Pacifica nearly daily isn't bad at all since we have the wall mounted unit and cable.

Rav4 prime is fairly impressive, in just over a day or so of driving, it is pretty smooth on EV mode. Smoother than our Pacifica Hybrid. Will try hybrid modes later this week. RAV4 has decent space so far, yes the rear seat room isn't super flexible (doesn't slide back and forth, limited recline, but I can sit behind myself (6 ft) fine, and that's with our giant car seat in the middle position.

Toyota definitely counting on people factoring in the federal rebate, our tester is nearly $50K. Definitely not a luxury cabin at that MSRP. Brushing up against a base XC60 Recharge, but that only has 18 miles or so of electric range. And similarly equipped you're looking at a $10K premium for the Volvo. Which, honestly could be worth it depending on what your priorities are.

So initial thoughts are pretty high, but yes some RAV4 bones are not the best for the price.

 

Bit - I'm referring to more normal times, not right now where nobody is driving.

also -- looks are very subjective - I think it looks TONS better than the previous RAV4.

 

Not in the county at the moment, but if still haven't decided I just wanted to say the Rav4 is an amazing option! I couldn't recommend a car that would be better than this. I actually love the fact that even though I have a 2001 model, quite old if you ask some people, it's still running as well as when I first got it. of course, I had some problems over the years with the transmission for example, but I got a very qualitative 2001 rav4 ecm repair and I haven't had any issues with it since then. As long as you know you can trust the whole repair then I don't think it's worth getting a newer model.

 

Sounds like you are fortunate enough to avoid daily commuting and do a lot of work from your home????

Yes, it's hard to beat the quality and engineering of of Toyota drivetrains. I just wish, however, that, particularly on the RAV-4, the interior quality was up to that of what is under the hood. As with some other Toyota products (not all of them), too much cheap plastic inside.

Those gull-wing doors on the Model X have been an especially problematic area. No manufacturer has ever really gotten gull-type doors correct....even Mercedes on the famous SL-series. And, to Tesla's credit (if you could call it credit) the gull-doors on the DeLorean sports car were even more problematic, and had serious safety-problems.

 

Nobody has mentioned the fact that Rav4 primes are not available in most of the USA because Toyota only sells them in CARB States(11 last I knew) to get the credits like Tesla.