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What’s Wrong With This Picture: One For The RAV-id Compact CUV Fans Edition
“The American people are willing to forgive and forget, but they would like a little gift,” AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson tells Toyota [via USAToday]. Toyota’s answer (other than possible warranty...
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Curbside Classic Outtake: Get More Shorties Edition
All right, I have a thing about short cars. I haven’t spoken to a therapist about it yet. Perhaps its just a reaction against the obesity crisis in modern cars and trucks. But where did they all go?...
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Toyota To Pay Money, Give Free Loaners To Chinese Customers Affected By Recall
A few weeks ago, we reported that the commerce bureau and consumer protection committee of China’s Zhejiang Province’s called on Toyota to compensate drivers for costs stemming from its recall of the...
View ArticleToyota Cries Uncle On GX460, Will Fix Problems In A Flash
That was fast: Two days after Consumer Reports slammed the Lexus GX460 with a “Do Not Buy” rating, and one day after ToMoCo halted the sale of said vehicle, Toyota already has a fix. Today at...
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Let’s Do it Again: Toyota and Tesla Build RAV4 EV
Finally something tangible out of the Toyota/Tesla-hookup: Tesla and Toyota will build an electric version of Toyota’s RAV4 compact crossover. According to a communiqué by Toyota, the two companies...
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Piston Slap: The budget is Tight, the Ranger is Right?
Ryan writes: I have a friend who just got her PhD and is moving to Texas for her post-doc. She has never owned a car, but now needs to get one so she can go out in the field to do research. I’ve...
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What’s Wrong With This Picture: Where’s The Tailpipe? Edition
I should go on vacation more often. No, really. Last time I took some time off, I accidentally caught a parade of BMW prototypes descending the Sellajoch in Italy’s Dolomite Alps. Then, just weeks ago...
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Pre-Production Review: 2013 Toyota RAV4 EV
With California’s Zero Emissions Vehicle mandate looming it is only a matter of time till we see an EV from each of the major players in the California market. Nissan has the Leaf, BMW has the Active...
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Living With an EV for a Week – Day Five
Day five in our week-long look at living with an EV started once again with a full battery. If you’re just checking in, catch up by going to Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4 before coming back to the saga,...
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Living With an EV for a Week – Day Six (Don’t honk at me, I’m saving the planet)
Day six brought a typical Northern California morning: it was 41 degrees, foggy and raining in my forest. But because I was driving an electric vehicle, a squirrel greeted me at the doorstep to thank...
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Living With an EV for a Week – Day Seven (EV death and resurrection)
It was the end of the line for the orange creamsicle Fiat 500e dubbed Zippy Zappy. She and I covered some 675 miles together during our seven-say odyssey (if you don’t know what I’m talking about,...
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Deadly Threat: A Deer In The Headlights
The deer emerged from the forest and leapt into the roadway in a sudden swift movement. The sights and sounds of the busy two lane highway assailed the animal’s senses and drove it towards panic. In...
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A Deer In The Headlights: Update
Last week I wrote an article called A Deer In The Headlights about my parents hitting a deer a few days prior. In the story, I talked about the impact and reported that the RAV4 they were driving...
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Review: 2014 Subaru Forester 2.5i Limited
Between the A+ report card from Consumer Reports and a last-crossover-standing result for the IIHS small overlap test, even Tommy Callahan could sell somebody a Subaru Forester. “Here comes the meat...
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Crossover Sales Soar
If you want to know why Jaguar and Lexus are introducing compact crossover concepts at the Frankfurt Auto Show this week, all you have to do is check the sales data. Crossover sales are soaring,...
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Review: 2014 Toyota RAV4 (With Video)
When the RAV4 landed, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. In a world of unified corporate identity the RAv4 goes off script with a look all to its own. While the old RAV sold on mini-truck looks, the...
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Toyota Recalls 57K Over Takata Airbags
Toyota issued Thursday a global recall of 57,000 vehicles affected by the Takata airbag crisis. Reuters reports the majority of the vehicles — 40,000 — were sold in the automaker’s home market of...
View ArticleToyota To Build Next-gen RAV4 in Ontario, Other Cars To Follow?
Toyota will build the next generation RAV4 and RAV4 Hybrid on its new global platform in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada near the Lexus RX in 2019, the automaker announced Tuesday. The plant, which recently...
View Article2016 Toyota RAV4 Review – The Soft Soft-roader
Compact crossovers are big business and the Toyota RAV4 is one of the segment’s corporate all-stars. In 2015, the RAV4 almost outsold Mazda. I’m not talking about the RAV4 outselling the Mazda CX-5,...
View ArticleNo Fixed Abode: High-Low, High-Low, It’s Off To Work You Go
Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of editing Daniel Ho’s theories on crossovers as reflections of the zeitgeist. In his thoughtfully-written piece, Daniel argues that crossovers are chimeras,...
View Article2016 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid Review – The Crossover Unicorn
A few short weeks ago, I was inside a very purple 2016 RAV4 marveling that Toyota’s compact crossover nearly outsells the Mazda brand. My bottom line for that RAV4 read like this: Why are the RAV4’s...
View ArticleWant To Beat The Honda CR-V? Sell a Hybrid
After finishing a close third behind the plunging Ford Explorer and Chevrolet TrailBlazer in 2006, the Honda CR-V went on to claim the top spot among SUVs/crossovers in America in eight of the...
View Article2019 Toyota RAV4: From Cute Ute to This
While the fourth generation of Toyota’s RAV4 contained a touch of menace, the model has always been an easygoing compact utility vehicle. When it hit North America in 1995, it didn’t have a lot of...
View ArticleToyota Wants More Dudes Buying the RAV4, Along With Everyone Else
The RAV4 has quickly become Toyota’s most important vehicle. While the Corolla still trumps it in overall global volume, the small crossover has made a ridiculous amount of headway over the past...
View ArticleNissan Finds the 2018 Rogue Hybrid, Gives It a Sticker Price
The crossover Rogue Hybrid appeared last year, teaming a 2.0-liter engine and 30kW electric motor that made 176 net horsepower and worked in concert to achieve the magical 35 mpg figure. For what it’s...
View Article2019 Toyota RAV4 First Drive – Choose Adventure Time
The 2019 Toyota RAV4 wouldn’t, at first glance, be my first choice for a run down famed California Highway 1 from just south of Monterey to the famed Bixby Bridge and back. It probably wouldn’t be...
View ArticleThe Toyota RAV4 Hybrid Is Now, by Far, Toyota’s Best-selling Hybrid in...
You weren’t crazy. In 2000, when the Toyota Prius first arrived in the United States only slightly behind the Honda Insight, it wasn’t unreasonable for you to wonder whether the odd little duck had a...
View ArticleDrinking Problem: Owners Cry Foul Over Toyota RAV4 Hybrid Gas Tank
Buyers of the revamped-for-2019 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid seem pleased with their vehicle’s upgraded fuel economy, but ask them about range, and you’re liable to get an earful. In an unusual development not...
View ArticleKentucky Kicks Off Production of Toyota RAV4 Hybrid
Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky (TMMK) has announced the start of production of the new RAV4, the best selling vehicle in America that isn’t a pickup. Officially, TMMK is handling the hybrid...
View Article2019 Toyota RAV4 Review – Half a Million Buyers Can’t Be Wrong
Well, maybe the crowd can’t always be trusted. Over the last two hundred-plus years, there have been more than a few instances where our plurality voting system has yielded suboptimal victors in...
View ArticleToyota, aka Hybrid King, Storms Into New Year
We told you late last year how the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid is the hybrid the Toyota Prius wishes it could be. The two models have essentially swapped positions, with eco-minded American consumers now...
View Article2019 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid Review – Second Glances, Second Chances
When I first drove the newest generation of Toyota’s popular RAV4, I was lukewarm on the hybrid model. I liked the previous-gen hybrid better. At the time, I wrote that the best new RAV4, in this...
View ArticleToyota Prices Its RAV4 Prime, the Crossover With a Plug
By bestowing a name once associated with the Prius on its top-selling RAV4 crossover — while adding beefed-up electric motors, battery pack, and charging port for good measure — Toyota catapulted the...
View ArticleFluke? Electrified RAV4 Outsells Normal RAV4
Please don’t send us emails complaining about the use of the word “normal” in a headline. Yes, the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid is still a RAV4. Yes, it has every right to exist, and it makes its parents proud,...
View ArticleToyota RAV4 Hybrid Fails the Moose Test in Dramatic Fashion
Sweden’s evasive maneuver test, better known as the moose test, is a brutal simulation of what might happen if your lane was suddenly occupied by a giant mammal and you had to get out of the way in a...
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