The 2013 Toyota RAV4 excels at mass-market talents like gas mileage and interior room--but for turbocharged fun in a crossover, you'll have to look elsewhere.
A simple safety measure, daytime running lights (DRLs) make cars more visible during the day by illuminating their low-beam headlights at reduced power. In most vehicles, this happens automatically, with no input from the driver.
It's been a rough year for fans of white bread. The last oven timer's gone off at Hostess. Justin Bieber's sprouted chin hair number two. Mitt Romney is just Mitt Romney, no President prefix. In fact, very few cars that are equipped with DRLs provide a way to turn them off and if so, the preference is usually set through an on-board computer menu. However, the new RAV4 has a headlight switch that practically guarantees your DRLs are off. It is a rotary knob on the end of the turn-signal stalk with four positions: Off, DRL, parking lights, and low beams.
The problem is: If you want to use your daytime running lights, you have to take the trouble to switch them on. Virtually every other car thus equipped illuminates its DRLs by default.It's simple to tell whether you're looking at a new RAV4: check out the rear. Older models had a tailgate-mounted spare tire, but this year it's gone, put where all other crossovers have it, under the cargo floor. That plus the gentle migration of the body to a more hatchback-style flow, and to a lower stance, pitch the RAV4 headlong into the lookalike bin filled with the Escape, the Santa Fe, even the subtler Mazda CX-5. The Toyota does a better job than the Escape at putting a carlike face on a taller wagon body, but doesn't win all day like the Mazda at wrapping its rear end seductively in glass and metal. The RAV4's tailgate is its sore thumb: the taillamps are pointy and shelf out, all in the name of meeting safety regulations. There's some discord in the cockpit too--not in the clash of lines and surfaces, but in the plastics that form them. It's rare we like cheaper plastic better, but too many kinds of trim turn us away from the Limited and its synthetic leather, and toward the more durable, less complicated-looking RAV4 LE.
Consumer Reports is a proponent of daytime running lights, and we give scoring credit to vehicles that have them in our road tests. In addition, some insurance companies give premium discounts for cars equipped with DRLs. We may have to rethink how to adjust for such "optional" DRLs or a default mode that essentially means cancelled DRLs. We think insurance companies should take note of this.
Toyota reps we've spoke with say that there are instances where one would want to have headlights off, like when entering a military base. For that matter, there could be a button elsewhere that defeats DRL. Or even simpler, as soon as you shift into Park, let the headlights turn off.The RAV4 ups its safety ante with eight airbags as standard equipment, including knee airbags. Also standard across the board: Bluetooth and a rearview camera. Blind-spot monitors with cross-traffic alerts are available on the top trim level. Among other features, the base RAV4 LE also comes with power locks, windows, and mirrors; air conditioning; cruise control; tilt/telescoping steering; steering-wheel audio and phone controls; and an AM/FM/CD player controlled through a 6.1-inch LCD touchscreen. The XLE adds dual-zone automatic climate control; a sunroof; and fog lights, to which the Limited adds a leather-wrapped steering wheel.
Major options on the RAV4 include navigation on the XLE and Limited, with Entune app connectivity and satellite radio; and on the Limited, a JBL audio system with 576 watts of power and 11 speakers.
The 2013 Toyota RAV4 carries a base price of $24,145 on the LE model. We'd choose it, or the $25,135 XLE, with or without all-wheel drive, and leave the Limited for the few who have to pay $27,855 for a power driver seat and those 18-inch wheels. Knowing the RAV4's core audience, the decider could well end up being satellite radio and navigation: they're unavailable on the LE, an option on the XLE. Choose well--or at least, choose your smartphone substitute well.
Post a Comment