Toyota RAV4 GXL AWD 2026 long term review

On the July morning that our newest long termer, the 2026 RAV4 GXL AWD, landed in the Chasing Cars garage, Toyota’s medium SUV was about to celebrate its third month back on top of the Aussie sales charts as the biggest-selling nameplate bar none.

So, in our discovery of the lived-in RAV4 experience, we’re in prolific company with many other Aussies. Moreover, given the one-up-from-base GXL – aka the first ‘nice’ variant beyond the fleet-special GX – has traditionally been a popular choice in its range, a lineup that recently added PHEV options to its staple series-parallel hybrid convention.

The PHEV has proven popular in its own right. According to Toyota Australia, its oh-so-new plug-in powertrain for this “all-new” third-generation model made-up almost 40 percent of RAV4 sales, pretty much right out of the oven.

We’d love to run a PHEV for the same six-month duration as this ‘regular’ hybrid petrol (or “hybrid electric”, says Toyota). But right now, we’re keen for a critical and intimate long-burn on what you could quite easily call the most archetypal middle-of-the-road medium SUV money can buy.

On money, you can’t land a RAV4 in your driveway for under $50K privately in 2026. And the three-grand walk up from entry GX 2WD ($45,990 list) to GXL ($48,990) trim, plus another $3350 for all-wheel drive ($52,340) and $675 for Urban Rock premium paint ($53,015) becomes $58,200 drive-away adding on roads, as tested here.

So what does GXL add over the base GX, features wise?

The three-grand splurge brings larger 18-inch wheels (plus a spare that’s otherwise a $300 upcharge in GX), electric driver’s seat with lumbar adjustment, wireless Qi phone charging and privacy glass. Otherwise, from cloth trim to ‘entry’ 10.5-inch media touchscreen, they’re dead ringers.

And what do you lose not prying an extra three grand out of the kitty for the Edge AWD ($55,340 list)? The next rung up the RAV4 ladder fits larger 12.9-inch media, leather-accented (so semi-vinyl) trim, a powered tailgate, and a ‘fat guard’ exterior treatment with 20mm wider track and generally sportier aesthetic.

As noted in reviews past, the new fifth-gen version Toyota’s 2.5L self-charging hybrid system somehow lost up to 20kW of power over the old fourth gen, netting 143kW and 221Nm totals regardless of driven wheel count (or the supplementary 121Nm provided by the AWD’s rear axle motor).

Emission controls to blame? Perhaps, though not officially. But that might help explain why its modestly-powered Atkinson cycle naturally aspirated engine, in gen-five guise, demands 95RON premium fuel.

Whatever the case, it’s not the 221kW/221Nm poke machine that is the PHEV AWD option, that’ll pry the thick end of $70K out of your hip pocket (XSE AWD, $63,340 list) drive-away.

Consumption? Toyota claimed 4.6L/100km combined, with a 0.2L benefit around town (4.4L) and a 0.2L deficit on the open road (4.8L).

So while it’s fair to question why Chasing Cars would long-term review a model (and variant) passenger car statistically most have bought, it’s likely to remain the most sought-after option for buyers moving forward, yes?

And given roughly 400 different new cars come through the CC garage each year – so 1600-ish in my time at the outlet – we can provide a particular perspective about how everything RAV4 fares against the general new car landscape.

Month 1: Beeping heck

Challenges posed by arguably the most middling new car on the market

• Kilometres this month: 980km
• Fuel economy this month: 4.6L/100km
• Running costs this month: $102

Urban Rock, it’s paint colour is called. Handsomely (and subtly) speckled to the naked eye in direct sunlight, if thoroughly un-photogenic for your viewing pleasure from a device screen. It does look better, in a brooding and unassuming dad-friendly kind of way, in the flesh.

RAV4’s unisex appeal is something Toyota absolutely knocked out of the postcode with the last, fifth-gen (from mid-2019 locally), a design that aped the brand’s boxy, American pickup trucks to a broad degree.

And complete with an interior fitout not a million miles from the commercial vehicle ranks, even on fancier variants.

And what a raging, sales-topping success the fifth-gen became, right up until its recent replacement with this still oven-fresh sixth generation.

As we’ve pored over extensively in its initial months on the market, the new sixth-gen RAV4 – thematically, technically – doesn’t fall far from the old gen-five tree. Little broken, little fixed. Right down to some of the annoying stuff…

In the maiden trip in Urban Rock, detailed to the nines and with 2900 nicely run-in kilometres on the odo, I’m reminded of Toyota’s conventional penchant for beeping.

Locking or unlocking doors, lifting tailgates, reversing (if mostly the BEVs)…the only brand seemingly intent on outbeeping Toyota is, in my experience, its very own luxury arm Lexus.

So the end of Day One was spent digging about in the media screen submenus and turning as much of the preset beeping off…or at least as much as I could find. What remained was a RAV4 set in the sweet relief of silence, save for the ominous audio whirl it emits at low speed when motioned by electrons…

Or so I thought. A new, more annoying gremlin has now crept into the Toyota DNA, an error rather than the usually beeping attempt at passive-aggressive safety advice. It’s voice command tech pinned to the GXL’s basic 10.5-inch media system – all other variants above fit a larger (presumably smarter) 12.9-inch format.

From Day One, Trip One, the Voice Assistant system triggers for no good reason. But it will trigger with in-cabin conversation, during Bluetooth phone calls, and even in response to speech broadcast through streaming media sources. Grrr…

It’s really in this initial honeymoon period where one notices all of the silly, unnecessary, overbearing or undercooked functionality, and they’re particularly apparent in the new RAV4 because, very much to its credit, it’s otherwise such a fundamentally normal experience. For the driver and occupants alike.

It’s why a number of other newly introduced features feel like backwards steps or inconsequential inclusions. And the latest RAV4 sprinkles a few added tricks as ‘newness’ sweeteners that aren’t so convincing in the eating.

The 12.3-inch driver’s screen can display sat-nav mapping, which is a standard feature even on the base GX.

It seemed strange at first that this look, functionality – even lack of mapping accuracy, such as the absence of Sydney’s M4 tunnel – was completely different to the navigation in the touchscreen. And for good reason: it was mirroring Google Maps from my phone…

Like the beeping, I turned that off too. But what (seemingly) one cannot switch off is the driver monitor system, which bleats at you if you even dare to quickly glance at either cabin screen for longer than an instant. More grrr…

Days passed, but not the RAV4’s incessant posting of one or seemingly many different warning or disclaimer screens popping up on vehicle restart: one of which included a QR code one presumably uses with one’s phone once the vehicle is operational, with questionable legal ramifications.

We’re hoping that as the days, weeks and months roll on by, our new RAV4 experience becomes a little more normalised and somewhat less annoying than it initially has been.