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There is, after all, no excellent automotive. But the Toyota RAV4 is as shut as you’re ever going to come back for most individuals.
In 2025, the RAV4 was the best-selling client car in America, not counting fleet gross sales. In whole, the Ford F-150 and Chevrolet Silverado outsold it. But that got here due to fleet gross sales. If you merely rely the variety of Americans who went right into a automotive dealership and drove out with every automotive, the RAV4 gained.
And Toyota modified it. Completely. The 2026 RAV4 is an all-new technology of Toyota’s best-selling mannequin.
That have to be greater than a bit anxious for its designers. How do you enhance on essentially the most profitable product of its form with out risking that success? Do you purify what’s already working? Do you diversify and provides patrons extra choices?
Toyota has chosen a bit of each approaches.
More of what works — the 2026 RAV4 comes solely in hybrid or plug-in hybrid type. There’s now not a purely gas-powered mannequin obtainable. That resolution is so consequential that A-Z Eventz information scientists inform me America’s document hybrid gross sales in latest months are partly as a result of each RAV4 purchaser is now a hybrid purchaser. People aren’t selecting extra hybrids than ever. They’re nonetheless selecting RAV4s. Those are all hybrid now.
And extra alternative — the RAV4 now is available in a number of devoted fashions, together with a sporty GR version and a Woodland mannequin with some off-road functionality.
I spent per week testing the 2026 Toyota RAV4 Woodland version. I didn’t check it off-road. Instead, I drove it as most patrons doubtless will — for errands, in site visitors, on highways, parallel parking in city settings, and driving across the suburbs.
And yeah, truthfully … this nonetheless strikes nearly each word properly.
It left me feeling sorry for different automotive designers. A mentor on this enterprise as soon as stated to me a couple of rival compact SUV, “This is 94% pretty much as good as a RAV4. Which means individuals ought to simply purchase a RAV4.”
I’m comfortable to report that Toyota’s bestseller stays maybe essentially the most sensible alternative you possibly can make … in a number of flavors now.
Which Trim Level
Toyota now builds six trim ranges of hybrid RAV4 and 4 extra trim ranges of plug-in hybrid RAV4. The firm lent me the hybrid version in Woodland type. It’s not meant to cross the Andes, however commonplace all-wheel drive (AWD), all-terrain tires, Rigid model fog lights, a roof rack, and all-weather floormats and cargo liner imply you may take it into most gentle path conditions with confidence.
Mine had one accent genuinely designed for actual overlanding — a roof basket.
New 2026 Toyota RAV4 Prices
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Retail Price
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Fair Purchase Price (92620)
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Woodland Edition
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TBD
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TBD
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LE
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$33,350
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$33,400
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SE
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$36,150
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$36,200
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XLE Premium
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$37,550
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$37,300
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XSE
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$42,750
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$42,800
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Limited
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$44,750
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$44,800
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Favorite Feature
The powertrain within the 2026 Toyota RAV4 is a marvel. The new hybrid system is extra highly effective than both the gasoline or hybrid techniques obtainable final yr — 226 horsepower for front-wheel drive (FWD) fashions and 236 on this AWD model. Yet it will get 38 mpg in mixed driving on this, the least-efficient mannequin obtainable. Other trim ranges get as excessive as 43 mpg. It’s clean, responsive, environment friendly, and calm. Given Toyota’s reliability historical past, it’s more likely to maintain up properly through the years.
What It’s Like to Drive
The 2026 RAV4 is now one of the highly effective automobiles in its class. In AWD type, its 236 hp dwarfs the 204 of the Honda CR-V Hybrid. The Mazda CX-50 Hybrid comes shut with 219 however, mockingly, makes use of the Toyota-designed powertrain from the last-generation RAV4. Toyota constructed this one to interchange that one.
Around city, it accelerates quicker than most rivals. When passing on the freeway, its constantly variable automated transmission can drone a bit, however that’s commonplace at this value level.
Steering effort may be very gentle, and braking is agency and predictable, with not one of the barely spongy really feel you typically get with regenerative braking in hybrids.
The Woodland mannequin particularly comes with an invisible hood view that exhibits what’s beneath the car — a helpful trick in difficult parking conditions.
I didn’t have a lot alternative to check the bounds of its AWD system in per week of truthful climate.
Interior Comfort and Technology
Toyota has gone with a rugged, boxy look within the 2026 RAV4’s cabin, even for non-Woodland fashions. Buttons are actually huge squares and rectangles appropriate to be used with gloves on, and the dashboard contains extra storage cubbies than another compact SUV I’ve pushed — each a helpful contact and a ache to maintain clear.
Dual wi-fi charging trays permit each front-seat occupants to cost their telephones on the identical time.
The screens additionally offer you entry to a built-in dashcam that data a steady loop of 90 one-minute increments and routinely saves what it sees within the occasion of an accident.
Most mainstream automobiles now use fake leather-based rather than material, even on inexpensive trims. Toyota’s SofTex model is comfortable and wears properly over time. On my tester, it got here in a mixture of gentle and medium grey, divided by orange distinction stitching. Metallic orange trim on the middle console added to the outdoorsy theme, and seems solely on the Woodland mannequin.
The driver faces an instrument display screen that’s not shrouded, however glare was by no means an issue, even in shiny daylight. A central touchscreen is mounted excessive sufficient that you just don’t need to look down far to see it. Most options, together with local weather management and drive modes, might be accessed by means of buttons if you wish to keep away from touchscreen menus.
The Woodland mannequin comes with all-weather rubber floormats which are among the many greatest I’ve seen. The mat within the cargo space stretches to cowl the backs of the seats, with accordion folds in order that it protects them equally properly raised or folded.
You get extra rear legroom and cargo house in a Kia Sportage, however not the safety to maintain it as clear.
Limitations
The RAV4 is the best reply for a lot of patrons, however it’s a bit uncommon at sellers in mid-2026. Toyota builds it at three factories, however needed to shut every down for 2 weeks to transform from constructing the previous mannequin to the brand new. That left sellers with a thinner provide than regular.
With a slower-selling automotive, that wouldn’t create a significant stock downside. But, in one which sells this quick, it has left some sellers with few RAV4s on the lot and backed-up ordering techniques.
That downside ought to self-correct later within the yr. But it would make it exhausting to search out the exact mixture of colours and options you need.
I query the knowledge of spending greater than a thousand extra {dollars} on the roof basket. It’s chargeable for a lot of the mpg penalty — different fashions stand up to 5 miles extra out of every gallon of gasoline.
Key Considerations
The Woodland mannequin presents off-road capabilities that few drivers use. Buying an SE mannequin with AWD may offer you all the potential you want.
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