2013 Toyota RAV4, un-rocking the boat: Motoramic Drives

It’s hard to fault Toyota for producing vehicles that lack emotion and appeal mostly to those who view cars as a means of transportation and nothing else. After all, it’s Toyotas like the Camry, Corolla and RAV4 that continuously outsell their competition despite being inferior in many measures.

What Toyota does well is connect with people who just want a reliable set of wheels. The customer who doesn’t care about horsepower, Fusion-like styling and the latest and greatest interior technologies. The only reason you would buy a Camry over the Ford Fusion, or a new 2013 Toyota RAV4 over the Mazda CX-5, is because you value practicality over performance, and function over form.

The fact is, most buyers don’t care whether their car has fully independent suspension, a V-6 or four-cylinder engine, or a dual clutch versus a single-clutch transmission. All they care about is whether it can comfortably handle their day-to-day activities, be cheap to run and let them drive off the dealer's lot without feeling had. The RAV4 has traditionally been bland and boring, and yet Toyota will sell around 170,000 this year — despite the current third generation RAV4 being introduced seven years ago.

With that said, Toyota engineers rarely deign to fix what's not broken, regardless of how much pressure media and enthusiasts may impose. They do know they need to deliver more emotion in their machines, but without alienating their core customers, a delicate balance to uphold.

The design of the new RAV4 shows Toyota is sticking to its proven strategy. It’s quietly more refined – losing the tailgate-mounted spare tire and placing it under the cargo floor. The rear end with a conventional liftgate sports a more chiseled demeanor, but despite this, it still appears dull and uninspiring. From the side angle, the bulbous front lip looks remarkably like Bubba Gump.

True to fashion, the interior is comfortable, efficient and average. The good points include the horizontal SofTex (faux leather) band that runs from the instrument panel, across the center console to the passenger side door, and the backup camera on the 6.1-inch touchscreen that comes as standard. Rear seat legroom is good and trunk space (with the rear seats folded) is a class leading 73.4 cu. ft. On the negative side, the third row seating is no more, the plastic utilized is distinctly low-grade, and I never realized you could buy sun visors from Wal-Mart.