191 (and upwards) RAV 4 Hybrid Economy

oldgamerhead · 09-06-2021 11:26am #1

Hi everyone, I'm thinking of buying a RAV 4 Hybrid (not the plugin version), either the Sol or Sport, but I'm reading mixed results around economy.

Met a friend of a friend recently who happened to be driving a 191 and she said that she's getting roughly 450/500 km for a full tank. Compared to everything I've read, that sounds incredibly low.

Any RAV 4 Hybrid owners care to add what they're getting for a full tank?

Appreciate it!
Thanks

colm_mcm · 09-06-2021 11:29am

That’s 23mpg in old money. Assuming they’re using the full 55 litres in the tank.

They’re not as economical as Toyota would have you believe, but they should be doing better than that.

bazz26 · 09-06-2021 12:55pm

On a side note, the cheapest 2019 Sol/Sport are advertised @ 35k and 39k respectively on carsireland.ie. Seems a bit mad money when there is a brand new Sport advertised there for 45k too.

colm_mcm · 09-06-2021 12:58pm

You’d be mad buying a used one be at that money IMO.

Buddy Bubs · 09-06-2021 1:35pm

Friend of mine got a 2018 for about 25000. I do believe it's a different model though, changeover in 19 was there??

Notch000 · 09-06-2021 2:32pm

that woeful economy, is that motorway driving ? my aunty has the same RAV hybrid, I asked her about MPG and she hadn't a clue what i was talking about said it better than here old focus...….

ineedeuro · 09-06-2021 5:15pm

First off it is pointless talking about what they get a tank, very hard to actually get the numbers right.

The 2019 is the newer model with the new engine so you will get better performance to the older model. Also the interior was improved masssively.

Any hybrid will run poorly is you are driving in the wrong conditions. I had one for 2-3 weeks testing, but it was the older model and I was sitting between 7-8ltr/100km. I have a mate with the new RAV and he is in the 6-7ltr/100km(I think better but don't want to be too positive)
What sort of driving are you going to do? is it loads of short trips etc?

unknownlegend · 09-06-2021 10:16pm

I have a 202 Rav4, dynamic (pano roof etc). Have it about 10 months or so. I’ve been rigorous about brimming the fuel tank, taking odo readings and calculating l/100k

Stop start driving, small local trips during the lockdown, to cres etc, with heated seats, high AC etc due to cold weather, wind and rain, it is about 10 l/100k. Probably the absolute worst driving pattern to be fair.

Long motorway / national roads spin, about 6.8 l/100k (and I’m not hanging about trying to eek out efficiency either)

Mixed driving recently, in current dry conditions, 7.4 l/100k.

In all cases usually hauling the family around, boot jammed with stuff.

alan partridge aha · 09-06-2021 10:29pm

If your spending 35k on a 2nd hand motor then fuel consumption shouldn't worry you. If it's for environmental reasons your looking at a hybrid, going by them figures you'd be better in a diesel.

I'm getting over 1100km to the tank in a 9 year old Octavia.

oldgamerhead · 10-06-2021 11:14am

Buddy Bubs wrote: »

Friend of mine got a 2018 for about 25000. I do believe it's a different model though, changeover in 19 was there??

Yeah, the 191 and up are the new shape, bit more angular and sharper looking IMO

oldgamerhead · 10-06-2021 11:16am

ineedeuro wrote: »

First off it is pointless talking about what they get a tank, very hard to actually get the numbers right.

The 2019 is the newer model with the new engine so you will get better performance to the older model. Also the interior was improved masssively.

Any hybrid will run poorly is you are driving in the wrong conditions. I had one for 2-3 weeks testing, but it was the older model and I was sitting between 7-8ltr/100km. I have a mate with the new RAV and he is in the 6-7ltr/100km(I think better but don't want to be too positive)
What sort of driving are you going to do? is it loads of short trips etc?

Mainly dropping the kids to school, 30 minute mainly motorway commute, road trips at the weekend

oldgamerhead · 10-06-2021 11:16am

alan partridge aha wrote: »

If your spending 35k on a 2nd hand motor then fuel consumption shouldn't worry you. If it's for environmental reasons your looking at a hybrid, going by them figures you'd be better in a diesel.

I'm getting over 1100km to the tank in a 9 year old Octavia.

That's fair. Getting around 900-1000km on an 11 5 series

oldgamerhead · 10-06-2021 11:19am

unknownlegend wrote: »

I have a 202 Rav4, dynamic (pano roof etc). Have it about 10 months or so. I’ve been rigorous about brimming the fuel tank, taking odo readings and calculating l/100k

Stop start driving, small local trips during the lockdown, to cres etc, with heated seats, high AC etc due to cold weather, wind and rain, it is about 10 l/100k. Probably the absolute worst driving pattern to be fair.

Long motorway / national roads spin, about 6.8 l/100k (and I’m not hanging about trying to eek out efficiency either)

Mixed driving recently, in current dry conditions, 7.4 l/100k.

In all cases usually hauling the family around, boot jammed with stuff.

Ah fair enough. Thanks for the reply. I know you can't measure it and driving conditions vary hugely, but curious to know what the range says once you fill up completely?

The 7.4l/100k still seems not great, less than 32 mpg. I can't get my head around this, I've been watching a fair few youtube videos about RAV 4 hybrid, and many reviewers are showing 55 mpg on a decent stretch of road. I know a lot of the these vids stretch the truth, but that's some difference?

ineedeuro · 10-06-2021 11:43am

oldgamerhead wrote: »

Ah fair enough. Thanks for the reply. I know you can't measure it and driving conditions vary hugely, but curious to know what the range says once you fill up completely?

The 7.4l/100k still seems not great, less than 32 mpg. I can't get my head around this, I've been watching a fair few youtube videos about RAV 4 hybrid, and many reviewers are showing 55 mpg on a decent stretch of road. I know a lot of the these vids stretch the truth, but that's some difference?

What time of driving do you currently do?
Also what MPG are you looking to hit?

oldgamerhead · 10-06-2021 11:54am

ineedeuro wrote: »

What time of driving do you currently do?
Also what MPG are you looking to hit?

Long trips on the occasional weekend, but generally motorway driving to work, dropping kids to school

Currently hitting around 44-50 mpg, so to be honest don't really want to go below that. I was completely under the impression that the RAV 4 would achieve that in it's sleep, hence I'm very curious to see how many kms / miles people are getting for a full tank with just "basic" driving (totally get the led foot, different conditions etc.) but just something I can get a half decent idea from

ineedeuro · 10-06-2021 12:29pm

oldgamerhead wrote: »

Long trips on the occasional weekend, but generally motorway driving to work, dropping kids to school

Currently hitting around 44-50 mpg, so to be honest don't really want to go below that. I was completely under the impression that the RAV 4 would achieve that in it's sleep, hence I'm very curious to see how many kms / miles people are getting for a full tank with just "basic" driving (totally get the led foot, different conditions etc.) but just something I can get a half decent idea from

It's a SUV, so will be harder on fuel, the size and weight alone. If you are currently sitting at 44MPG-55MPG you must be driving a car and not an SUV?

alan partridge aha · 10-06-2021 2:06pm

oldgamerhead wrote: »

Ah fair enough. Thanks for the reply. I know you can't measure it and driving conditions vary hugely, but curious to know what the range says once you fill up completely?

The 7.4l/100k still seems not great, less than 32 mpg. I can't get my head around this, I've been watching a fair few youtube videos about RAV 4 hybrid, and many reviewers are showing 55 mpg on a decent stretch of road. I know a lot of the these vids stretch the truth, but that's some difference?

7.4l/100km is 38+mpg, Imperial gallon not US gallon.

Water2626262 · 10-06-2021 2:31pm

A lot of these hybrids are dependent on how you drive them. If you have a heavy foot then I wouldn’t expect much. They haven’t a bad 0-60 either so you could be inclined to drive them heavy enough.

It is a big square shaped car with a 2.5 petrol so the efficiency probably isn’t great anyway.

kirving · 10-06-2021 2:39pm

As far as I can work out, there are a ton of people who stretch the truth very far when it comes to fuel efficiency figures - either on purpose or because they only remember the "good" runs that they've done.

For a load of cars which I have driven, I check online, and I've got nowhere near what other people quote. That goes for my own 2016 PHEV to brand new rental diesels in ideal conditions (eg: 80km/h on N roads with no traffic). Even this statement is anecdotal I realise, but don't be too concerned about it unless you're doing very high milage.

unknownlegend · 10-06-2021 3:05pm

oldgamerhead wrote: »

Ah fair enough. Thanks for the reply. I know you can't measure it and driving conditions vary hugely, but curious to know what the range says once you fill up completely?

The 7.4l/100k still seems not great, less than 32 mpg. I can't get my head around this, I've been watching a fair few youtube videos about RAV 4 hybrid, and many reviewers are showing 55 mpg on a decent stretch of road. I know a lot of the these vids stretch the truth, but that's some difference?

To be honest the appalling economy I was getting in my initial driving during lockdown was so at odds with what I had seen written online / videos on YouTube, that's why I started taking precise readings. I thought there was a serious problem until I started doing longer runs and the average dropped to what it is now.

If I look back over all my data and cherry pick some of the best runs (motorway/national roads almost exclusively) I have a couple of 5.5 l/100 entries, that's a shade over 50mpg in old money. but the reality is with stop start urban traffic it creeps back over 7 l/100 in my own personal experience. I guess ultimately it is still a 2 ton box!

After a fill I think the onboard says somewhere around 740kms range, I don't trust it for accuracy though. I tend to fill after 500kms.

Buddy Bubs · 10-06-2021 3:14pm

kirving wrote: »

As far as I can work out, there are a ton of people who stretch the truth very far when it comes to fuel efficiency figures - either on purpose or because they only remember the "good" runs that they've done.

For a load of cars which I have driven, I check online, and I've got nowhere near what other people quote. That goes for my own 2016 PHEV to brand new rental diesels in ideal conditions (eg: 80km/h on N roads with no traffic). Even this statement is anecdotal I realise, but don't be too concerned about it unless you're doing very high milage.

I can't get near claimed figures either. Claimed by manufacturers, claimed by the trip computer or claimed on messageboards. I'd use a good 20 to 25% extra

PaulRyan97 · 10-06-2021 3:31pm

unknownlegend wrote: »

I thought there was a serious problem until I started doing longer runs and the average dropped to what it is now.

If I look back over all my data and cherry pick some of the best runs (motorway/national roads almost exclusively) I have a couple of 5.5 l/100 entries, that's a shade over 50mpg in old money. but the reality is with stop start urban traffic it creeps back over 7 l/100 in my own personal experience. I guess ultimately it is still a 2 ton box!
.

That is the exact opposite of what you should be seeing. Hybrids excel at that sort of urban traffic. I'd expect it to be around 5-6 in the city and 7-8 on the motorway. I know the RAV4 isn't the most aerodynamic car going but at those speeds it should t make a big impact.

Do you just bury the accelerator from the lights or something?

ineedeuro · 10-06-2021 3:45pm

Buddy Bubs wrote: »

I can't get near claimed figures either. Claimed by manufacturers, claimed by the trip computer or claimed on messageboards. I'd use a good 20 to 25% extra

Neither have I, the claimed MPG etc on boards seem to be always extraordinary good compared to what I see in cars. Im no rally driver either so unless everyone on boards is crawling around the roads at 20kmph I have no idea how they achieve it.

oldgamerhead · 12-06-2021 7:00am

unknownlegend wrote: »

To be honest the appalling economy I was getting in my initial driving during lockdown was so at odds with what I had seen written online / videos on YouTube, that's why I started taking precise readings. I thought there was a serious problem until I started doing longer runs and the average dropped to what it is now.

If I look back over all my data and cherry pick some of the best runs (motorway/national roads almost exclusively) I have a couple of 5.5 l/100 entries, that's a shade over 50mpg in old money. but the reality is with stop start urban traffic it creeps back over 7 l/100 in my own personal experience. I guess ultimately it is still a 2 ton box!

After a fill I think the onboard says somewhere around 740kms range, I don't trust it for accuracy though. I tend to fill after 500kms.

Out of pure curiosity on the “standard” normal week of driving for you, are you filling up every week?

ineedeuro · 12-06-2021 8:01am

oldgamerhead wrote: »

Out of pure curiosity on the “standard” normal week of driving for you, are you filling up every week?

Ok I think you are going the wrong way about this. A standard week for everyone is different, the person might not fill up because they only do 200km or they might have to fill up twice but they are doing huge KM's and getting great efficiency out of the car.

If you want a high efficiency vehicle then go electric and they will give you the cheapest running costs. The ID.4 will be around your budget with the range.

If you don't want to go electric then if you do lots of short runs and in traffic hybrid is best but to get the best efficiency you need to look at a car and not a SUV. If you go SUV it is going to cost you more. The Camry is knocking around second hand, beautiful car, big and more efficient

The other option is diesel, not really a favorite at the moment but it will work, the stories of car exploding because you are doing the wrong type of driving are exaggerated. But don't think you are going to get better efficiency in an SUV compared to the hybrid. You will find a larger range of crossover which will be more efficient because the weight is less.

A different view is cut budget in about half, buy Outlander PHEV, newer model I think will do 40km on battery and then moves back into a hybrid mode so you will save fuel on running on battery.

If you are about to spend 40k on a car and are so concerned about the cost of a tank of fuel I wouldn't do it to be honest. You are never going to be happy with it. I just got a X5, I knew before it was going to be a pig on fuel, but I wanted it for a number of reasons so I am looking back the poor ltr/100km because it meets all the other requirements.

unknownlegend · 12-06-2021 1:55pm

oldgamerhead wrote: »

Out of pure curiosity on the “standard” normal week of driving for you, are you filling up every week?

I will only do approx 10k kms per annum. My typical week is a bunch of 2km spins during the day, completely urban stop start (school run, shops, etc) barely breaking 50km/h

Every couple of weeks we do a long to families or activities or whatever - anywhere from 300 to 600kms+ over a couple of days. So I really don’t need to fill up for a number of weeks until the longer jaunts kick in.

I spent approx 45k on the car (note it’s the AWD version, I think that is worse on fuel performance) so mpg wasn’t really high on my list - safety, comfort, functionality and other things trumped it. Considering my paltry mileage, As an ongoing expense fuel pales into insignificance compared to depreciation :-)

I used to have a Leaf so going back to ICE was always going to be losing on the fuel economy front!

ineedeuro · 12-06-2021 5:32pm

unknownlegend wrote: »

I will only do approx 10k kms per annum. My typical week is a bunch of 2km spins during the day, completely urban stop start (school run, shops, etc) barely breaking 50km/h

Every couple of weeks we do a long to families or activities or whatever - anywhere from 300 to 600kms+ over a couple of days. So I really don’t need to fill up for a number of weeks until the longer jaunts kick in.

I spent approx 45k on the car (note it’s the AWD version, I think that is worse on fuel performance) so mpg wasn’t really high on my list - safety, comfort, functionality and other things trumped it. Considering my paltry mileage, As an ongoing expense fuel pales into insignificance compared to depreciation :-)

I used to have a Leaf so going back to ICE was always going to be losing on the fuel economy front!

AWD is harder on juice certainly

The move from the Leaf to the Rav could explain the poor MPG when travelling short distance. You are used to the instant power of the Leaf, on the Rav you are better with a gradual speed increase. I expect you might be unknowingly over revving thenCVT gear box and burning fuel

As above with short distance, stop start you should get better fuel consumption compared to long distance

oldgamerhead · 15-06-2021 8:49pm

kirving wrote: »

As far as I can work out, there are a ton of people who stretch the truth very far when it comes to fuel efficiency figures - either on purpose or because they only remember the "good" runs that they've done.

For a load of cars which I have driven, I check online, and I've got nowhere near what other people quote. That goes for my own 2016 PHEV to brand new rental diesels in ideal conditions (eg: 80km/h on N roads with no traffic). Even this statement is anecdotal I realise, but don't be too concerned about it unless you're doing very high milage.

That's a fair point alright! Doesn't seem too consistent

oldgamerhead · 15-06-2021 8:53pm

ineedeuro wrote: »

Ok I think you are going the wrong way about this. A standard week for everyone is different, the person might not fill up because they only do 200km or they might have to fill up twice but they are doing huge KM's and getting great efficiency out of the car.

If you want a high efficiency vehicle then go electric and they will give you the cheapest running costs. The ID.4 will be around your budget with the range.

If you don't want to go electric then if you do lots of short runs and in traffic hybrid is best but to get the best efficiency you need to look at a car and not a SUV. If you go SUV it is going to cost you more. The Camry is knocking around second hand, beautiful car, big and more efficient

The other option is diesel, not really a favorite at the moment but it will work, the stories of car exploding because you are doing the wrong type of driving are exaggerated. But don't think you are going to get better efficiency in an SUV compared to the hybrid. You will find a larger range of crossover which will be more efficient because the weight is less.

A different view is cut budget in about half, buy Outlander PHEV, newer model I think will do 40km on battery and then moves back into a hybrid mode so you will save fuel on running on battery.

If you are about to spend 40k on a car and are so concerned about the cost of a tank of fuel I wouldn't do it to be honest. You are never going to be happy with it. I just got a X5, I knew before it was going to be a pig on fuel, but I wanted it for a number of reasons so I am looking back the poor ltr/100km because it meets all the other requirements.

Totally get what you're saying. I am probably looking at it the wrong way, but it was the online craic of people get really impressive mpg that led me here in the first place after hearing from an owner at how poor it was in reality. I was convinced they made a mistake. It's not 40K on a car, I've feck all left for fuel LOL, so I figured that if the RAV 4 was as economical as claimed, then my fuel bill would drop dramatically.

I'm not really taking the methodical / scientific approach to it, but it's definitely being a bit of an eye opener.

oldgamerhead · 15-06-2021 8:54pm

unknownlegend wrote: »

I will only do approx 10k kms per annum. My typical week is a bunch of 2km spins during the day, completely urban stop start (school run, shops, etc) barely breaking 50km/h

Every couple of weeks we do a long to families or activities or whatever - anywhere from 300 to 600kms+ over a couple of days. So I really don’t need to fill up for a number of weeks until the longer jaunts kick in.

I spent approx 45k on the car (note it’s the AWD version, I think that is worse on fuel performance) so mpg wasn’t really high on my list - safety, comfort, functionality and other things trumped it. Considering my paltry mileage, As an ongoing expense fuel pales into insignificance compared to depreciation :-)

I used to have a Leaf so going back to ICE was always going to be losing on the fuel economy front!

Thanks so much for this reply. Really helpful.

191 (and upwards) RAV 4 Hybrid Economy

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