For me it offered more car and better economy for the money I paid. There is no doubt that that the Honda is a very good car and it is also one I considered too. After driving the Toyota, and seeing what real world economy I could get for a car this size, that is what swayed the decision for me. I have had our car a year now and I don’t regret it one bit, I absolutely love it and I got exactly what hat I was hoping for.

I am similar to the previous writer. Had it for one year and it has been excellent. It usually gets 50-53mpg and up to 55 on a run. Plus I got a fantastic deal. What put me off the Honda were the many reports of poor infotainment. Mine is not bang up to date but it works well and is easy to use. The other really good plus point is the space which is huge for the size overall.

I owned a Honda HR-V some years ago and within the family we currently have four Honda CRX two seaters. All have been excellent cars and I am confident that Honda make a very good car.

However, I was very unimpressed with the second generation Honda Insight 4 door hybrid that I test drove, the engine made a shocking amount of noise and it was seriously underpowered and consequently had to be run at rather higher revs than I thought it should. At that point I opted for a year old Auris Sports Tourer Hybrid which turned out to be a brilliant car, comfortable, quiet and good on fuel. (Lesson 1: Toyota make a very reliable well made car). After 18 months and 45k miles, it’s trade in value against a 2017 one year old Prius PHEV was only £900 less than I paid for the Auris (Lesson 2: Toyotas hold there value). Not long after I bought an 3 year old Aygo, which was equally reliable and the only issue I had was some moisture getting into the rear light cluster which was instantly replaced free under the Toyota five year Warranty. I had also had a couple of really minor issues with the Prius which were also instantly fixed under warranty (Lesson : Toyota stand by their warranty). After a further 18 months and 60k miles, when I retired and we no longer needed two cars, I traded in both the Aygo and the Prius PHEV for a new RAV 4 PHEV) again the trade in was remarkable, I lost very little on the Aygo, and got a very good price for the Prius / much more than I anticipated (repeat of Lesson 2!) and a decent (£4K) discount on the RAV.

Quite apart from any of the above, the Rav is very comfort, quiet, handles well, is roomy and excellent on fuel - dependent on what you are doing something around 55 to 65 mpg as a hybrid when the PHEV traction battery is flat.

If you are looking at the PHEV, then be aware that in my experience the claimed range of 46 battery miles is incorrect. For the first four months I was getting around 52 to 54 miles out of a fully charged battery and for the last 8 months it has been around 58 miles on a full battery.

Overall all I can say is that the Rav is a superb car and I prefer the styling to that of the CR-V and my experience over the last four cars is that Toyota make an excellent car, stand by their warranty and their cars hold their value well.

I can not comment on owning a Honda and this is my first Toyota, a RAV 4 PHEV which was registered in June ‘21. I’ve owned of driven many 10’s of cars over the years, LR/Subaru/Kia etc. I did look at a lot of cars before selecting the RAV which I sort because I wanted a reliable car, good support, long life and economy. The choice of a PHEV over an HEV for me was an easy one as I do a lot of local miles with the occasional longer trip, if I had a driving profile which favoured longer trips I’d have probably gone for the HEV.
The PHEV will give you on a full charge around mid 50’s in the summer and high low 40’s in the cooler weather. Overall 46 miles per charge is pretty accurate. (My driving style is more defensive than aggressive) once the car switches to HEV mode then is high 40’s.
A pure HEV will probably give you mid/high 50’s, maybe more depending on driving style, length of trips etc.
Toyota’s media, electronic equipment is solid but maybe not the best in class compared to others, that said it works and works well and links to the MyT app which has coaching and trip data.
The car is planted whatever speed your doing and even on the OEM tyres has performed well all seasons. It’s comfortable and solidly built and works well even with four up.
The PHEV is a bit of a wolf in sheep’s clothing as combined it boasts 302hp and will cover the traditional 0 - 60 mph in 5.7 seconds. Whilst I don’t drive it like that when you need the boost it’s there even when the traction battery is depleted as it retains 30% of the energy to perform to spec and run as more sophisticated HEV. The car can under full throttle put a smile of your face but don’t expect to get 46 miles from the traction battery.
I’m on a number of Toyota forums and people comment regularly about problems that need sorting then I notice that the car was purchased in 2005 and has clocked 150K, so it will last and there appears to be good OEM and third party spare support.
I still look forward to driving the car each time I get in it and right now would not change it for any other on the market in this class, frankly I’m not sure I’d change it for my that cost a lot more, maybe a Lexus but that’s just an up market Toyota.
Finally there is plenty of user support for Toyota cars, I personally find that important when I frustratedly can not find how something is working other brands do not appear to have active forums or user groups with a few exceptions.
If you have specific questions why not ask?

Sorry I should have added that the 10 warranty which works as 3 years plus and additional year every time you have the car serviced at a Toyota dealer, up to 10 years (or 100k miles I think not 100% sure)

I seem to be in the minority as I used to have CRV's (2 over 6 years) and now have had a RAV4 Hybrid for 6 months. In what is a very personal subjective matter BOTH are very good cars, both return good mileage returns (although perversely the newer petrol hybrid CRV is not as economical as the superb 1600cc diesel it replaced) and both are spacious. The CRV has the brilliant fold down backseats which makes the carrying capacity cavernous (definitely more that the RAV4) BOTH vehicles hold their value well but Toyota did give us a really good deal. I'm not a 'techie' when it comes to in-car entertainment but the RAV4 (Design) does everything that I want/need. Currently I prefer the styling of the RAV4 as the CRV is looking a bit dated. The running costs are marginal with the RAV4 ever so slightly better, So the big question is which do I prefer? The RAV4.......its just more fun to drive!!!

Hi everyone, thanks for your fantastic feedback, incredibly detailed and helpful. You guys know more than dealership LOL

It's a big expense, my first new car in years as it happens, so it’s really helping me with my decision.

Right...off to book a test drive!

Thanks again.