Organizing a Photo Shoot for the RAV4 and CX-5

We're organizing a photo shoot for the ones that we have and that we're driving. We're not going to do just a shoot of just one, because they look so different. And that's kind of on purpose, right? Yeah, just to clarify. We have two that we rented from Toyota, which are early cars. The car doesn't go on sale until December. In due course, we'll buy our own RAV4. It's going to be hybrid and probably an Adventure? No. It'll be XLE. The Adventure will account for maybe 5% or 10% of the mix. But it looks so cool. That's part of the point, though, right? So you can have a car that's the same as everyone else's, but different.

Well, it's one thing about the RAV4. When they sell so many of those, one of the draws against it - the draw against it, doesthat even make sense? But one of the problems with it is that not everybody wants to have such a car that everyone else has. It's so crowded nobody goes there anymore. Right, exactly. So I think that's why there is some breathing room for some of these other vehicles, like the Mazda CX-5.

OK, I want a RAV4, but I want something that stands out a little bit. What they're trying to do here is like, OK, fine. You've got a RAV4, but we've got the truck-y one, or we got the hybrid one. We got different kinds of flavors of it. It's a kind of smart strategy. We've seen this before from Toyota. They've done this with Camry with the Camry Sport. There's like two flavors of the Avalon with different grills. Try to differentiate it and give a little bit uniqueness to it, even though you're having such a commodity vehicle.

Yes, Toyota is trying to satisfy their current owners and being very careful not to alienate them. But at the same time, they want to expand the appeal of the car. We see it, like Jakesaid, in other lines. And also it's a more crowded field than when it first came out, when it was RAV4 versus CR-V. Now it's everyone.

Absolutely. Now it's the category. Yeah. So what are some of the changes that have come for 2019? Because it's a totally different totally different car. It is. It's based on what Toyota calls this general architecture that underpins pretty much everyone of their new models.

It has a more powerful engine, 208 horsepower, which is one of the more powerful engines in this category. And what's the powertrain? It's a 2.5 liter mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission, which is still rare in this category. It's not a turbo, right? It's not a turbo. Typical Toyota. It's a very conservative company, so they stay away from turbos.

They're a little slow to adapt to all kinds of whiz-bang technologies. And that's part of the reason why the reliability is rock solid. Yeah, last week when we announced the reliability - When you really look at the reliability going back to 2013, it's not even - a lot of people are like oh, Japanese cars are reliable. No, it's not even that. Toyota is reliable. Toyota stands out.

They have had the most reliable makes since 2013 in our surveys. So obviously, reliability is utmost important to them. And that's why they are so conservative. You look what Toyota's just now put putting in, CarPlay, finally, when everyone else seems to have it. No small displacement turbos in the RAV4. The Camry's still got a V6, while everyone else is going with small displacement turbos.

So they really are taking their time with the technology. But they're getting more horsepower. They're refining. Yeah, those numbers aren't quite out yet. We're going to test it ourselves when we get our own in. And also to mention, speaking of fuel and fueleconomy, the hybrid, too. The hybrid is also updated.

We tested the hybrid in its last generation. We got some crazy good fuel economy. And we'll see how the new ones do.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enWe talk about the all new2019 Toyota RAV4, some safetynews out of CR, and answer yourquestions next on Talking Cars.Hey, we're back.I'm Keith Barry.I'm Gabe Shenhar.And I'm Jake Fisher.And today we've gota lot to get through,new cars, your questions.But first, we're goingto take a little victorylap around our test trackhere at the Auto Test Center.We're actually going tomake news here today.Jake, do you wantto do the honors?Well, sure, Iguess what I reallywant to talk aboutis the names that wecall all these newadvanced safety systems.There's a lot of thesesystems on these cars today,and everyone likes to call themsomething different dependingon what car you get into.They're called everything--Pre-safe, andPost-safe, and Sensing--Right.And we're doingsomething about that.So we're doingsomething about this,because this is somethingwe've talked about it before.If you don't knowwhat's on your car,you don't know howto react to it.You don't know how toorder in the dealership.So this is a big deal.What we have talkedabout before is itwould be great ifeveryone calledthe thing that stopsyour car when it sensesanother car the same thing.It would really, reallymake a lot of sense.And we've gotten a lot ofother interested partiesto say, hey, we wantto do that, too.Some major, major namesthat folks out theremight have heard of, right?So we have been talking with alarge group of organizations,I mean, everythingfrom government,industry, what notto try to figure outhow to go about this.Because it's notreally that easy.So you may have heard someof these terms before--automatic emergency braking.I've heard of that one.Forward Collision Warning.adaptive cruise control,Blind-Spot Warning,lane departure warning,lane keep assist.Depending on whatcar you get in,these are calleddifferent things.And actually up until now, a lotof organizations, even safetyorganizations, have calledthese different things.And this is somethingthat we did.Right, we organized this.We organized this push.So going forward, AAA,the Insurance Institutefor Highway Safety, IHS, JDPower, mycardoeswhat.org,National Safety Council,the NTSB, the NationalTransportation Safety Board.These are just some of theorganizations that will nowadopt these same terms.This is just--I don't want to takethe big victory lap,because this is the beginning.OK.Because what we reallyneed to do is weneed to get a lot ofthe automakers startingto use the same terms.I've been in talks withmany of the automakers.Some of them arecloser than others.But the point is thatyou're going to seethese terms on the internet.You're going to see them fromall these different areas.It only makes sense becausethe people who are buying carswant these systems.So if they don't knowwhat package has it,or what Super Safety Sense is--Yeah, we've definitelyincreased the awarenessamong the public regardingthese kinds of systems.But it's very importantto be very precise here.If you call lane keepassist Lane ChangeAssist, or something likethat, that's very confusing,if you mean that's actuallya Blind-spot Warning System,like one manufacturer,at least, calls it.So it creates a lot of confusionnot only among customers,but also dealerships themselves.Dealers don't knowthe difference.Well, Toyota, for instance.It's all one clump of termsthat nobody can decipher.Toyota has that, what isit, their Safety Sense Plus?Yes.And when you go tobuy a car, it soundslike oh, I'm getting allof the safety features.Exactly, and that pointwas driven home to mewhen I rented a ToyotaCorolla in Austin, Texasa few months ago.I was happy.Oh, it's got allthe safety things.But when I had toswitch three lanes over,and I thought I had Blind-SpotWarning, and lo and behold,there was a Ford F-250 nextto me that I hadn't realized.You need the F-250assist is what you need.But just to be clear aboutwhat we're talking about is.We're talking about kind ofgeneric names, the ingredientswhat goes into Safety SensePlus or whatever it is.We're not saying, youcan't call it Safety Sense.We're just saying when you goand you order Safety Sense,It'll be clear.OK, it comes with lanedeparture warning,whatever it is, if we have tohave those consistent names.So people actually knowwhat they're getting into.Now on sort of a relatednote, one of these systemsis Blind-spot Warning.We also made achange to our ratingsthis week about how we'regoing to look at Blind-SpotWarning going forward.And that's theright name, right?Blind-spot Warning?Well done.Well done, my friend.I'm not calling itLane Master Flash.No.OK.When we look at the overallscore of each vehicle,we do take into accountstandard safety features,such as Forward CollisionWarning and Automatic EmergencyBraking.Nailed it, got those.But no, up untilbasically last week,we haven't taken intoaccount Blind-Spot Warning.The reason we've made thatchange was a couple of reasons.First of all, we donationwide surveys,and we ask people theirexperiences with these systems.Absolutely, Blind-SpotWarning, people love it.But also when we ask whatsystems helped you avoida crash, this is what they say.They say this system reallyhelps them avoid crashes.And that's backed upwith IHS data, right?I have some data here thatshows that having a Blind-SpotDetection System--See, there's a name there.It's not that bad.We've got to fix that.But it cuts the likelihoodof lane change crashes,like into F-250s by 14%.And it cuts the likelihood ofinjuries related to lane changecrashes by 23%.In a lot of cars, visibilityis really getting much worse.Yeah.You get those thick pillars.Yeah, it definitely is helpful.So for going forward,standard equipment.And the other welooked at is that itseems that Blind-Spot Warning,specifically, most vehicleshave this available.I think it was about 85% when Ilooked at the make and models.But only about 15% of them aremaking it standard equipment.We're going to spare readingyou the entire list, but--I'm not reading any list.It's mostly brand new ones.Fortunately, we have awebsite, consumereports.org.We have the whole list there.That's available free.But to that point, you'retalking about in termsof Safety Sense, becauseBlind-Spot Warning isa different system thanmost of the other stuff--Most of the stuff requires thiscamera looking forward, right.That deals with ForwardCollision Warning,Automatic Emergency Braking,even lane departure warning.That's a camera looking forward.These are sensorslooking backwards.And what that means is veryoften when you go and equipyour vehicle withthe safety package,the high-tech safetyassist package,it doesn't include this.So it's very confusing.A lot of people arewinding up checkingwhat they think is all theboxes for the safety systemsand not getting blind-spot.So you're going tobe able to find outby looking at ourscores, basically,whether that car has that.Yeah, certainly onthe model pages,but also free for anyone, wetalk about Blind-spot Warning.We talk about whichvehicles have it standard.It's right on our site.Well, speaking of new carsand also speaking of Toyotas--wow, these segments are reallyflowing into each other today.Everything just meshes.Yeah.Coincidence is lovely.A real popular car we'regoing to talk aboutis the Toyota RAV4 I can sayit's much better than the RAV3But I can't wait forthe RAV5 Gabe, RAV4.If there's anyonewho's listeningwho's never heardof the RAV4, wheredoes it stand in the market?What's so importantabout this car?OK, the RAV4 is reallya significant car.It started the whole car-basedSUV craze about 25 years ago.I'll spare you and thelisteners the whole historyof the OttomanEmpire here, but--Whoa, CR-VS was rightaround there, too.Yeah, a few years later.What about AMC?Can we go back to AMC?No.No AMC and no Outback,because those are wagons.Anyway, the RAV4 isvery significant.First of all, it's a verypopular car among our members.But it's also one of the highestselling cars in the country.It beat the Toyota Camry forbest selling passenger car,right after all threeclassic pickup trucksthat are perennial bestsellers.It sold over 400,000units in 2017,beating the Camry, whichheld the record before that.There are some car makers,some entire brands,that don't sell thatmany cars in the US.Lots of them.Yeah, it's very popular.And now with thisgeneration, Toyotais really trying to imbue theRAV4 with more adventurism,with more outdoorsykind of feeling.They're literally callingone of the trims Adventure.Exactly.I mean, you look at thething, and it kind ofreminds you, the wholesilhouette, and someof the styling details,such as the wheel arcs,it looks like a Jeep Cherokee.Add the grille fromthe Toyota Tacoma,and it looks really muscular.Yeah, it's rugged.Yeah.One thing I noticed though,is that there are lotsof different flavors of RAV4.When we were at the New YorkAuto Show when it debuted,they had like fourof them there.They looked like different cars.We're organizing a photo shootfor the ones that we haveand that we're driving.We're not going to dojust a shoot of just one.We're going to doa shoot of two,because they look so different.And that's kind ofon purpose, right?Yeah, just to clarify.We have two that we rented fromToyota, which are early cars.The car doesn't go onsale until December.And in due course,we'll buy our own RAV4.It's going to be hybridand probably an Adventure?No.It'll be XLE.The Adventure will account formaybe 5% or 10% of the mix.But it looks so cool.That's part of thepoint, though, right?So you can have a carthat's the same as everyoneelse's, but different.Well, it's one thingabout the RAV4.When they sell so many of those,one of the draws against it--the draw against it, doesthat even make sense?But one of theproblems with it isthat not everybodywants to have sucha car that everyone else has.It's so crowded nobodygoes there anymore.Right, exactly.So I think that's why.There is some breathing room forsome of these other vehicles,like the Mazda CX-5.OK, I want a RAV4,but I want somethingthat stands out a little bit.What they're trying to dohere is like, OK, fine.You've got a RAV4, butwe've got the truck-y one,or we got the hybrid one.We got different kindof flavors of it.It's a kind of a smart strategy.We've seen thisbefore from Toyota.They've done this withCamry with the Camry Sport.There's like two flavors of theAvalon with different grills.Try to differentiate it and givea little bit uniqueness to it,even though you're havingsuch a commodity vehicle.Yes, Toyota is trying tosatisfy their current ownersand being very carefulnot to alienate them.But at the same time,they want to expandthe appeal of the car.We see it, like Jakesaid, in other lines.And also it's amore crowded fieldthan when it first cameout, when it was RAV4versus CR-V. Now it's everyone.Absolutely.Now it's the category.Yeah.So what are some of the changesthat have come for 2019?Because it's a totallydifferent totally different car.It is.It's based on what Toyota callsthis general architecture thatunderpins pretty much everyone of their new models.It has a more powerfulengine, 208 horsepower,which is one of themore powerful enginesin this category.And what's the powertrain?It's a 2.5 liter mated toan eight-speed automatictransmission, which isstill rare in this category.It's not a turbo, right?It's not a turbo.Eight-speed automatic.I think only the Tiguan, theVolkswagen Tiguan, gets that.Yeah, a good pointthat it's not a turbo.Typical Toyota.It's a veryconservative company,so they stay away from turbos.They're a little slowto adapt to all kindsof whiz-bang technologies.And that's part of the reasonwhy the reliability is sorock solid.Yeah, last week when weannounced the reliability--When you really look at thereliability going back to 2013,it's not even--a lot of people are like oh,Japanese cars are reliable.No, it's not even that.Toyota is reliable.Toyota stands out.They have had the mostreliable makes since 2013in our surveys.So obviously, reliabilityis utmost important to them.And that's why theyare so conservative.You look what Toyota's just nowputting in, CarPlay, finally,when everyone elseseems to have it.No small displacementturbos in the RAV4.The Camry's still got a V6,while everyone else is goingwith small displacement turbos.So they really are takingtheir time with the technology.But they're gettingmore horsepower.They're refining.Yeah, those numbersaren't quite out yet.We're going to test it ourselveswhen we get our own in.And also to mention,speaking of fuel and fueleconomy, the hybrid, too.The hybrid is also updated.We tested the hybrid init's last generation.We got some crazygood fuel economy.And we'll see howthe new ones do.Yeah, excellent.All right, I think that'senough on the RAV4.It's time for--well, let me justsay something personal first.I don't know about you folks,but I get a lot of questionsfrom my friends, my family.You know, \"Hey, can you help me?I'm buying a car.\"Or, \"Hey, I got aquestion about my car.\"You know what?We're done.No more questions tofriends and family.You're going tosend your questionsto TalkingCars@icloud.com.Friend time, familytime is not work time.So you're going tosend us your questions.That's one of the dangersof this profession.It really is.That way you canask us questions,but you don't have toinvite us to Thanksgiving,or your birthdays, or anything.So TalkingCars@icloud.com.That's my ultimatumfor everyone out there.None of these arefriends or family.They could be though.We could meet them.Maybe they're not friends yet.Not friends yet.Friends we haven't met yet.So the first one isSony in Austin, Texas,has a question about leasing.\"Hi, CR,\" and a bunchof compliments to usthat we're going to skipover in the interest of time.\"Even though it'snot ideal, do youthink leasing a vehicle isa good way of finding outif a vehicle is rightfor you in the long term?I've always purchased to own.But recently I leaseda 2018 Mazda CX-5.I love the car, butSUVs are not for me.I'm glad I leased it,because after the lease ends,I can go back towhat I truly love,which is hatchbacks and sedans.\"Can I take this one?Go for it.No.OK, moving on.This is a terrible idea.So a lease--When you buy acar, it's your car.It might be the bank's car.But in the end, aslong as that title,you can do whateveryou want with that car.You can sell that carif you don't like ittwo days after you buy it.Sure, you're going to takea hit in the depreciation.When you lease, youare signing a contract,and you're basically stuck withthat car for the entire termof the lease.You can swap a lease.You can kind of trade out of it.You can sometimesnegotiate with the dealer.But that is really,really hard to do.What were you saying?It's like on your firstdate, you have to sign on.Right, you're not really sureif you're interested or not.But you're like, OK, well, sinceI'm not sure, I'm going to go,here, can you signthis contract?We're going to live togetherfor exactly 24 months,and here's exactlywhat we're going to do.This is the problem.It is a commitment.And if you're not sure,signing and gettingtrapped into a commitment isprobably not your best bet.Yeah, it's not like rentingan apartment in a neighborhoodto see if you wantto buy a house there.A lease is what you do ifyou know you want the car.I'm always in favorof living togetherbefore getting married, butthis way, you're more marriedthan living together.Yeah.So what I would recommend,sometimes you can rent a car.Some places have extended testdrives, 24-hour test drives.You can really findout what you like.But don't lease to findout if you like it.Any other relationshipadvice that we need to give?That comes later.OK.That's at Thanksgiving.Yeah.That's episode 176.So we got a questionabout the Genesis,which is really relevantbecause I think one of the Mikesis out there buyinga Genesis right now.This is someone who'strying to buy a Genesis,Chris C. He saysmy wife and I areplanning on buying aGenesis G70 as soon as oneis available in our area.But we've heard thatwe won't be getting anyuntil the end of the year.Genesis advertisementsindicated a summer release,but local dealers won't eventake our money for an order.What's driving thisslow rollout of the G70Should we be worriedabout quality issueson delayed first units?\"So two questions there.What is drivingthe slow rollout?Why don't we have our G70 yet?So, yeah, it was supposedto be out in June.Then it got pushed to August.And now we're atthe end of October,and still no Genesisin our hands.What's happening isthat Hyundai keepschanging its mind aboutcreating a separate Genesisfranchise, versus allowingregular Hyundai dealersto sell Genesis models.So it's a slow process,and some dealersare in the midst of applyingfor a Genesis franchise.Here in Connecticut, thereare no G70s to be had.So we had to go--Elsewhere.The next-door stateand pick one up there.And that's where Mike isright now, picking it up.And as far asreliability is concerned,it sounds like it's notdelayed because there'ssomething wrong with the car.No, it doesn't seem that way.And actually, what'sinteresting about this vehicle,we've seen yearsand years of datashowing that Kias generally aremore reliable than Hyundais.So Hyundai, Kia, forthose who don't know,have similar corporate parents.Hyundai-Kia-Genesis now isthe way to think about it.And the reasonwe've seen that isbecause generally, firstHyundai gets the model,and then Kia gets it afterwards.Hyundai gets the newest stuff.And then when theywork out the bugs,now Kia has got a littlebit better reliability.In every car, whenthey first come out,they've got a certainamount of bugs.They certainly getbetter with age.This vehicle, in particular,is almost the first timewe've seen the opposite of this.This platform is actually verysimilar to the Kia Stinger,which we've already tested.Kia got it first,and now Genesiswill be employingthat same platform.If you look at itthat way, chancesare the reliabilitywill probably be better,because it's not all branding.So, Chris, basicallykeep an eye out.It's coming soon, andthe delays don't seemto be related to reliability.And in the meantime,make sure you check outthe first drive on our site.Another reliability question.This is a quick one from Gerry.\"My lease is ending onmy 2016 Subaru OutbackI'm changing jobs andwill be driving to work.I'm looking at the 2019 MazdaCX-9, 2019 Kia Sorrento,and 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe.I hear good thingsabout the CX-9,but the reliability inCR's survey isn't so great.Help?Do you have anyother suggestions?\"We've got somegood news for you.Reliability, it'sgood now, right?Well, so this is exactly likewe talk about everything.All vehicles, whenthey come out,sometimes there'sbugs to be worked out.The CX-9, on the firstyear of this redesign,we saw some problems with it.It appears that they'veironed out those kinks.So right now, we arerecommending the vehicle.The reliability looks good.Go for it.Cool.All right.That was quick.Next question is about plug-ins.And it's from DanM. \"I'm lookingto buy a Plug-in Hybrid EV.I drive about 20 miles aday and occasionally takea 150-mile round trip.I'm looking at used cars, likethe 2015 or newer Ford C-MAXEnergi, the 2016 or newer ChevyVolt, Hyundai Ioniq, or the KiaNiro.\"And those are newer cars.\"My budget is around$20,000, and I'llbe keeping the carfor five years.Should I open my wallet forthe newer Volt, Ioniq, or Niro,or go with the older C-MAX?What would you recommend?I would go withthe C-MAX actually.Because that car works verywell as a plug-in hybrid.It'll give you 20 milesof electric drive,even during hard acceleration,modestly hard acceleration,during traffic merges,climbing hills, and whatnot.And the car is a very solid,substantial, and enjoyableto drive.It's really versatile, too.The only thing is checkout the reliabilitybecause it tends to be spotty.Some years arebetter than others.Yeah, what do you think?Agreed.I've got the C-MAX, too.it's a great driving vehicle.I think the only reasonit hasn't sold moreis just kind of the looks of it.But really, whenyou come down to it,if you wanted to live withit, and drive it, it's roomy.It's fun to drive.It's a nice choice.Yeah, it kind of looks likea European delivery van.I think that'sreally what it is.Yeah, that's whyit looks like that.I have a totallydifferent idea for him.I did the math, and I found ifthat's how much you're driving,you can lease.On plug-in hybrids, leasedeals can be really,really, really good.Sometimes those taxbenefits, if they're there,they get factored in.So I would look into leasing.You're not going tokeep it for five years.But you're going tokeep it for three.You might be able toget an incredible dealwith a low down paymentand low monthly paymentson the new Ioniq or the Niro.So check out that as well.Total that out, and seehow much that would cost,and if it fits your budget.And then, it'll be underwarranty the whole time.Cool.So if you have any questionsabout really anything--reliability, new cars, etcetera, relationships--TalkingCars@icloud.com.You don't have to inviteus to Thanksgiving,but we'll be glad toanswer your questions.Thanks for watching.We'll see you soon.\n"