Toyota Rav4 Prime: Is It Worth it?

With a base-level starting price of around US$40,000, it’s easy to pose the question “is it really worth purchasing a Toyota Rav4 Prime?”. There are other crossover vehicles on the road today that might be cheaper or better suited, but they’re missing what the Rav4 has. It’s a Toyota.

The Toyota Rav4 Prime is a limited crossover SUV vehicle that is worth the extra cost due to its numerous superior features. With enhanced safety technology, standard AWD, long-lasting mileage, luxurious comfort, and being cleaner for the environment, the Toyota Rav4 Prime is a decent car.

Buying a new car is never an easy decision to make. Miles per gallon is a huge factor in what makes people choose a vehicle, along with its safety and comfort features. What the car looks like will also factor into whether it’s the right vehicle for you.

The Toyota Rav4 Prime has the comfort, the safety, the looks, and the features and you can find out more about the Prime below.

Is it Worth Buying the Toyota Rav4 Prime?

Available in two different trim levels, the SE and the XSE, the Toyota Rav4 crossover Prime is slightly more expensive than its other trim levels but is worth it if you’re in the market for a vehicle that suits the whole family.

The Rav4 is a compact crossover SUV that Toyota has stated on their website is the “quickest, most powerful Rav4 yet” and takes fuel efficiency to a whole new level.

The Rav4 Prime is a hybrid car, but it is not the Rav4 Hybrid and has some different features to the hybrid that make the Prime stand out amongst its other trims. Continue reading on to find out how the Rav4 Prime differs from the Hybrid and what additional features the Prime has to make it your ideal crossover electric car.

Toyota Rav4 sales figures are always in the thousands because the Rav4 is one of the most reliable cars on the road. Not only because it’s made by the well-known Toyota brand but because it has some of the greatest reviews in vehicle history.

The Toyota Rav4 cars are lower in maintenance costs, are great for handling most terrains even in wet and icy conditions (if you have the AWD), have an above-average lifespan rating, and are better for the environment.

If you’re curious about why purchasing the Toyota Rav4 Prime is, as Loreal would say, “worth it”, take a look at the benefits, features, and reviews below for further details on why we believe the Rav4 Prime is a great vehicle.

Toyota Rav4 Prime Benefits and Features

The Toyota Rav4 Prime comes in two trim levels, the sports edition (SE) and the extreme sports edition (XSE). Both have their desirable features and benefits, and we’ll take you through both of them to help you decide if either of these trims is right for you. Honestly in our opinion, the Rav4 Prime is right for everyone.

Compared with a Rav4 Hybrid, the Rav4 Prime features:

• A plug-in battery charger
• Larger brakes
• Larger wheels and tires
• A larger lithium-ion battery
• All-wheel drive (AWD) is standard

Just like its Hybrid brother, the Rav4 Prime can run efficiently on its gas engine for as long as you have fuel if you happen to run out of charge in your electric motor. Though in saying that, there are over 26,000 charging stations across the US available for charging your electric Toyota engine.

Here are some features and specs that make each of the Rav4 Prime trim an ideal car for anyone:

Rav4 Prime SE

• 18-inch painted alloy wheels
• Toyotas Total Safety Sense
• LED projector headlights
• On-demand electric AWD
• 8-inch multimedia display

Rav4 Prime XSE

• Toyotas SofTex trimmed seats (environmentally-friendly faux leather)
• Blind-sport monitoring
• Rear-cross traffic alert safety feature
• 19-inch painted alloy wheels
• Two-tone exterior color standard
• Midnight Black metallic roof
• 9-inch multimedia display

Toyota offers drivers of their Hybrid vehicles a warranty for their electric battery for up to 10 years or 150,000 miles. Whichever comes first. The expected lifespan of a Toyota Rav4 Prime is up to 250,000 miles or up to 16 years according to Motor and Wheels.

Here’s a recap of the features and benefits of a Toyota Rav4 Prime:

• Quickest and more powerful Rav4 to date
• 302 combined horsepower
• Standard AWD handles most terrains
• Standard superior technology including the JBL sound system
• SofTex trimmed seats (in the XSE) provides added comfort
• Boasts an average of 42 miles of electric driving
• Features Apple Car Play, Android Auto, Amazon Alexa, and SiriusXM for compatibility across various multimedia devices
• The average lifespan of a Rav4 Prime is over 250,000 miles

While according to Car and Driver the average lifespan of a car is typically around 11-12 years, the Rav4 as mentioned above has an average lifespan of 16 years. If that doesn’t make a car worth its slightly extra cost, then what does? Its features of course! And the Rav4 has it all.

We mentioned earlier that the Rav4 Prime is better for the environment so to elaborate on that, here are a few reasons why Hybrid and Electric vehicles such as the Rav4 Prime is better for the environment:

• Emits less harmful gasses into the air
• Uses more electricity rather than gas so the use of gas is lowered drastically
• Produces better gas mileage

With global warming and climate crisis issues on the rise, electric and hybrid vehicles are becoming more popular. Have you considered how your vehicle affects climate change?

What is a Crossover?

The Toyota Rav4 Prime is a crossover vehicle. Meaning, it is a sport utility vehicle (SUV) but constructed with a unibody frame platform.

As a unibody vehicle, the Rav4 Prime is made with a cage-like housing that merges both the body and the frame of the vehicle into one single piece. This is not typically how SUVs are made and is one of the reasons why the Rav4 Prime has become so popular today.

Being a unibody-designed SUV makes the Rav4 Prime what we call a “crossover” and other than having the benefit of the raised height of a traditional SUV it has some other advantages too.

• Crossover vehicles are lighter
• Better fuel economy and fuel-savings
• Less prone to rolling over in an accident
• Higher safety ratings thanks to their single-unit design
• Cheaper to build than on-body frames
• Dynamic and flexible designs and styling
• Has the handling of a sedan but the height and space of an SUV

Toyota Rav4 Prime Awards and Accolades

Vehicles with awards are usually the more sought-after vehicles on the market. What better way to prove a car’s worth with credentials through the gift of awards?

The Rav4 Prime has not gone unnoticed by official vehicle awards and the 2021 Rav4 Prime has been awarded numerous honors including:

• Kelley Blue Blook 2021 Best Buy Award
• IIHS 2021 Top Safety Pick with specific highlights

The 2019 Rav4 also made it on to the Autotrader’s list of Best New Cars.

Toyota Rav4 Prime Driver Reviews

According to Rav4 Prime owners and drivers, some of their favorite things about their Prime are its fuel economy, the feeling of safety they get when driving the car, the exterior styling, and the smooth driving feel and handling the Prime has on the roads.

Of course, there are some least favorite parts of the Prime but it’s each to their own and you’re better off taking one for a test drive to get the feel of it for yourself.

Conclusion

The Toyota Rav4 Prime is a limited vehicle as Toyota only makes a smaller handful of these vehicles each year. In 2020 there were only 5000 Rav4 Prime vehicles released on the American market and in 2021 there are just under 20,000.

In short, yes, it is worth buying a Toyota Rav4 Prime and if the Rav4 Prime is the car for you, you’ll want to order yours now before you miss out on this super-efficient crossover SUV hybrid.