The Prius has spoiled me. On the RAV4 I keep forgetting to put the car in park when pressing the power button to turn off the car. The reason is because on the Prius, when I press the power button, it automatically puts the car in park. On the RAV4 it's a lever like a regular car which physically has to be put in park. OTOH, on the Prius, I must admit at one car wash for a moment I forgot how to put the car into neutral I moved the shifter to neutral but it wouldn't go into neutral. The problem was that I was not holding the shifter there long enough so it would just stay in drive. This is not an issue on the RAV4, since you're physically moving the shifter to a different spot and it stays there when you let go. At that car wash I must have looked like a complete moron, holding up the line.
It's interesting how one's perspective changes so quickly. I've been driving a Plug-in Prius for the past year, so going to the RAV4 Hybrid was a definite increase in trips to the gas station. In our first tank of gas for the RAV4 Hybrid, we "only" got about 575 km, city driving in the winter. The actual fill up was 44 L or 11.6 gallon, so 7.65 L/100 km, or about 31 mpg US city in the winter. So, about 1/2 to 1/3 the gas mileage of my Plug-in Prius (not counting the electricity use). However, when compared to our 2008 Yaris it replaced, it's actually much better gas mileage, since the Yaris was only getting in the mid 20s in winter city driving. Given the difference in sizes of the vehicles, that's pretty impressive. The RAV4 Hybrid is rated at 34 mpg US city. The Yaris is rated at 29 mpg US city.
Thanks for all the info. We got an email invite to evening look-see-and-test-drive for the Rav4 Hybrid from a dealership, will check it out. Really can't see (or afford) to make any moves right now, but it'll be interesting to try it out. There's a possibility the date coincides with a grandkid's birthday, so that might nix it. I should know the date, lol.
I have created a contact in my phone for all of my kids & relatives kids so I have that sort of information available when I need it. Also as the kids get older & have email address & phone numbers it's easy to just update the contact with the new information.
Picked mine up today. (Limited w/ ATP) 1st impressions comparing to the 2013 v is very positive. Quieter and smoother ride by far. I'm sitting a good 6" higher off the ground which makes for hugely better visibility and easier ingress and egress for old farts. Even in ECO mode it has much snappier response. The new big hybrid gauge is a massive improvement over the old Prius version, and gives much better control over ECO and EV driving, plus a continuous charge indicator instead of 3 little pips. Me like!
