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Comment by wkpinecone | Hacker News Reader

At over 1.6 tons a RAV4 is still hundreds of kg heavier than a sedan and has significantly more wind resistance and higher fuel consumption. It's not as bad as even bigger SUVs but it's hardly efficient. It's not difficult to find more efficient sedans with more legroom or equivalent trunk size.

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2019 rav4 hybrid does 41/37/39 mpg. (City/highway/combined)

Now imagine what it would do if it weighed 30% less and had lower wind resistance.

The Toyota Prius does 53 - 55 mpg...

That's effectively a Camry Hybrid. It gets 20% better mileage and has about a quarter the cargo space.

Like a Camry hybrid from which the RAV4's platform is based on? 44city/47hwy/46combined.

The Camry only weights 10% less though. 20% reduction in fuel economy for far more cargo space, AWD, and higher ground clearance seems like a reasonable tradeoff to me.

You might have a different opinion if your fuel costs priced in the negative externalities of that 20% additional fuel consumption. It might not seem like much at $2.25/gal. What about at $4? I'm paying about $4.25 USD/gal now in Canada and that's still lower than many European countries. At $5/gal you might start asking whether you actually need AWD or how many times you've actually needed higher ground clearance driving on developed-country quality roads.

I'd like the higher ground clearance daily just to avoid scraping up my bumper on the dips on my commute home on the residential streets. Instead I just take the 30% longer/slower route around.

Even if gas were $6/gal, at the typical American 12k miles/year, that's still less than $300/year extra to run the CUV over the sedan. That's less than the cost of a rental for a weekend trip.

> just to avoid scraping up my bumper on the dips on my commute home on the residential streets

That sounds like you're saying we also need a significant amount more investment in infrastructure in America.

Please. The Camry has 5.7 inches of ground clearance. The RAV 4 has 6.1 inches of ground clearance. That's not getting you over any fallen logs any easier.

It's more the difference of a ~29° approach angle on the RAV4 vs the 15° on the Camry. Neither will get you over logs, but one does far better on steep driveways.

The Toyota Highlander shares the Camry platform. The smaller-then-Highlander RAV-4 platform is not shared with a car model.

The last generation RAV4 (2005-2017) used Toyota's 'New MC' platform which is shared with the Prius and Corolla. The current generation RAV4 uses the 'TNGA-K' platform which is shared with the Camry and Avalon. Since we're comparing 2019 models, the comparison of the RAV4 with the Camry is appropriate.

I believe Toyota is moving all their FF vehicles onto the TNGA-K platform.

Thanks, I hadn't caught that change to the 2018+ models. That also explains why I'm not a fan of the current model as they drive differently to me... I'm keeping my old XA-30 ;)

Only a fraction of rav4's sold last were hybrids, about 11%.

True, but Detroit doesn’t sell nearly as many hybrid vehicles as the Asian brands.

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