Every Toyota RAV4 Generation Ranked Worst To Best
The Toyota RAV4 doesn't elicit a lot of strong feelings, good or bad, from car enthusiasts. It just kind of exists in the periphery, always hanging around grocery store parking lots or next to you in traffic. Still, Toyota still managed to sell exactly 399,941 RAV4s in 2022, so clearly there's something worth taking a look at. The RAV4 has evolved from a quirky little crossover to a primary means of transportation for millions of people in America.
Toyota Supra and muscle car enthusiasts may bemoan the lack of soul or any number of intangible qualities, but for a huge portion of the populace, the RAV4 is a noble steed that performs admirably. For that reason, the RAV4 deserves some deeper consideration. The SUV has been out since 1996 and has overgone many changes. While you likely won't find many lists in car publications titled "15 RAV4s Modified for the Drag Strip," if there were such a list as "Best Cars to Pick Your Brother Up in After His Shift at Sonic," the RAV4 would top the charts every single time.
As good a commuter as the crossover is, not every version of the RAV4 can be the best, and some are downright snore-inducing. Here is every generation of Toyota's popular crossover SUV, ranked.
5. 3rd generation (2006 to 2012)
Picking the worst RAV4 is like picking the worst Pink Floyd album after David Gilmour came on board — there aren't really any that aren't worth listening to. The third generation RAV4 is a bit like the Pink Floyd 1977 album "Animals." It's a fantastic album and loved by many, but it isn't "The Dark Side of the Moon," "Wish You Were Here," or "The Wall." However, instead of David Gilmour's howling guitar solo on "Dogs" or Roger Waters' biting lyrics on "Pigs (Three Different Ones)," the third generation RAV4's only real innovation was the addition of another powerplant, a 3.5-liter V6.
The V6 produced 268 horsepower, which was certainly stout for the time, but it was one of the only meaningful changes to the RAV4 this generation. Unlike the second generation which evolved the whole purpose of the car, the third generation saw the RAV4 flow into complacency and hangout for several model years instead of doing anything worthwhile.
4. 4th generation (2013 to 2018)
There's nothing dismal per se about the fourth-generation RAV4. It's a perfectly competent SUV that comes well sorted out and is even decently fuel efficient when optioned with a gasoline engine at 26 estimated combined miles per gallon. However, it didn't really break any molds or boundaries until the 2016 model year when the first RAV4 hybrid came about. The very first Toyota Prius came to the United States in 2001 and immediately made everyone with even a passing interest in cars adopt extreme opinions in favor or against the hybrid model.
Since debuting sensible and popular hybrid technology in the States, it took Toyota a full 15 years to apply the same tech to one of its best-selling cars, the RAV4. While 32 combined miles per gallon is nice, it was hardly the sales blockbuster that the Prius was and not at all innovative like the original first generation or the striking fifth generation that would come a few years after.
3. 2nd Generation (2000 to 2005)
Like with any good sequel ("Terminator 2," "Godfather II," and "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back"), the second generation RAV4 improved on nearly every aspect of the original. It was bigger, more powerful, and featured more options. You could even get a six-disc CD changer, the absolute height of audio convenience all the way back in the year 2000.
The new motor in the second generation RAV4 featured the same 2.0-liter displacement as the first generation but produced significantly more grunt at 148 horsepower through the use of Toyota's signature Variable Valve Timing with intelligence system. That engine was later bumped to a 2.4-liter displacement that put out 161 horsepower.
The second generation not only made the car more usable, but it transformed the RAV4 from a wacky little compact to a tempting option as a family hauler that didn't have the same unearned social stigma of a minivan and wasn't as woefully inefficient as the Chevy Tahoes and Ford Explorers of the same era.
2. 5th generation (2019 to present)
The current generation of RAV4, especially the plug-in hybrid RAV4 Prime is one of the best versions Toyota has come up with. While lacking the charm of the first generation, the latest and greatest RAV4 can be optioned out to be pretty spectacular, at least as far as hybrid crossovers go.
For starters, the fifth generation RAV4 is fairly powerful for what it is. When both the electric motor and 2.5-liter gas motor are going at full tilt in the RAV4 Prime PHEV, the car can generate up to 302 horsepower and can launch itself to 60 miles per hour in 5.7 seconds. Not lightning quick by supercar standards, but immensely respectable by family crossover SUV metrics.
Plus, since it's a plug-in hybrid, you can drive upwards of 42 miles just on battery power, just two miles less than the current Prius Prime plug-in. It may not offer as much range as a fully electric vehicle, but it's certainly flexible.
1. 1st Generation (1996 to 2000)
The first generation RAV4 garners the most praise because of two very important factors: it was available with a five-speed manual and could even be configured as a two-door.
A two-door all-wheel SUV with a manual transmission basically doesn't exist in 2022, apart from the Jeep Wrangler. Unfortunately, Despite its tiny size and weight of only 2,646 pounds, the first RAV4 didn't wow the world with incredible fuel economy, only achieving a combined miles per gallon in the low 20s.
Power wasn't fantastic either, and it is not remembered as a speed demon. Still, 120 horsepower from a 2.0-liter four-cylinder isn't lacking where it counts. The first RAV4 was surely a strange one and looks more like four-fifths of a Wrangler than a serious SUV, but it clearly did something to the hearts and driveways of Americans as the RAV4 likely won't die out in popularity anytime soon.
Honorable mention — 2012 RAV4 EV
In 2010, Toyota announced something that would seem like a fever dream today – It was collaborating with then-infant electric vehicle company Tesla to build an electric RAV4. Compared to today's electric cars, the model that was finally released in 2012 was less than stellar. However, in 2012 its 103 estimated miles of range was fairly impressive. Tesla contributed to the project by supplying batteries and EV know-how.
Given that Toyota's only current EV is the somewhat unexciting and confusingly named bZ4X, the RAV4 EV clearly didn't go anywhere. The collaboration and resulting EV was a look into the future that the world, for better or for worse, never got. Tesla went on to be the best-selling EV manufacturer in history, and Toyota continues on its mission to fill every driveway in the United States with either a Camry, a Highlander, or a RAV4. A further Tesla and Toyota alliance would have been a strange partnership indeed.