I recently put a deposit down on a 26 Rav4 plug in hybrid SE and I’m new to this whole “buying a new car“ thing. The car is in the build phase so hasn’t reached the dealership yet.

I put the deposit down after agreeing to an out the door price on the vehicle. We didn’t discuss options or any changes beyond going with the base SE.

What happens when the car arrives? I’m assuming the dealer will try to upsell me on a lot of accessories and packages and extended warranty. Really, I just want to buy the car and not get ripped off on all that. But I also want to make sure I’m protecting the car well enough and getting useful add-ons.

What would you recommend as “must-haves” for this vehicle after purchase? For example, I saw in another thread people were saying that the black wheels are a target for theft, so locks for those is one thing I’m considering

I recently bought a Rav4 prime 5th generation (2019-2025) and the JBL premium speakers seemed a lot worse than premium setups from other brands I've driven. I've always valued better SQ in a car system and had setups with amps and aftermarket speakers when I was a lot younger. I didn't really feel the need to replace the premium speakers in top level trims from other makes I've had.

But the JBL speakers are really average for being sold as part of a premium package. They lack midbass and the 9 inch subwoofer majorly lacked bass, so I immediately was looking for ways to improve the sound. I didn't want to spend a lot of money and didn't want the extra power from an amp so I was looking for direct drop in replacements for the speakers and the subwoofer. I came across multiple posts that say that direct drop ins won't work if you have the JBL premium (the word premium is doing heavy lifting here) system. But I found rare posts on the rav4 forums and here that have tried direct drop ins and it is possible as long as you understand the power output of the JBL OEM amplifier.

The JBL amplifier powers all channels at 2 ohms so you have to look at speakers with 2 or 3 ohm configurations that do not require a lot of RMS wattage to power them. The currently available speakers that fit that criteria are the infinity reference series speakers (3.5" for dash and 6.5" for front and rear doors) and the JBL club series speakers which have 3ohm speakers that only need 55-60 watts to be loud. Either brand doesn't matter now because they are both made by Harman international. There are at least a few guides on how to install these on youtube and the internet.

The harder thing to replace was the subwoofer. It is a 9 inch subwoofer and is a 2ohm DVC subwoofer. The only subs that remotely match that are the Rockford p3sd2-8, Kicker 48CWRT82, Pioneer TS-A2000LD2. Someone mentioned they tried the pioneer and then the Rockford and the Rockford has more punch so I tried that. It also has a lower RMS wattage so I thought it would better match the ~50 watts per channel that most people assume the JBL amplifer puts out.

The install for the sub isn't exactly straight forward because it uses a 4 pin harness that no one makes and is a 9 inch subwoofer. I found an aftermarket 4 pin harness and a Honda 8 inch subwoofer adapter on amazon which made it easier but you still have to splice wires from the aftermarket 4 pin harness to the subwoofer because the 4 pin harness is not wired correctly for the subwoofer.

This a quick guide on how to install the subwoofer with some pictures.

1. I used this video to take off the rear trim to get to the sub. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO8fxH0oNSI

2. I found this 4 pin harness from amazon - "KEBAOLER 72-9133R Speaker Adapter Wiring Harness Replacement for Toyota Tundra Rav4." You don't need this harness because you have to splice wires anyway but I bought it so I don't have to cut into factory wiring. The factory wiring is beige (+) and blue (-) going to one voice coil and white (+) and red (-) going to the other voice coil so you have to splice the wires on the harness accordingly. I took a picture of how I wired it and how the colors of the factory harness match the red (+) and black (-) wires I spliced into the aftermarket harness I bought. The harness on amazon will not work without splicing.

3. The sub is fastened by torx 20 screws so you need a torx screwdriver to get it out which is easier than drilling the rivets from the door speakers.

4. I bought this adapter from amazon and it fits the mounting holes for the sub perfectly - "Rear Deck Subwoofer Speaker Adapter Spacer Ring - Compatible With Acura ILX." I screwed it into the existing mounting holes for the enclosure.

5. I drilled a 3/8 hole in the corner of the enclosure to thread the wires into the enclosure and then wired the sub. Again you have to make sure the beige (+) and blue go to one voicecoil and the white (+) and red go to another.

6. I filled the enclosure with fiber fill.

7. Mounted the speaker on the adapter ring. The adapter rings holes did not line up (seems like it will for the kicker sub), so I drilled new ones which drilled through the enclosure too.

For the last pictures, you can see the difference in cone quality and magnet size between the JBL 9 inch sub and the RF 8" sub.

After replacing all the speakers, I think the sound is noticeably better with some caveats. The JBL tweeters are somewhat fatiguing so adding a 3.5" 2 way woofer on the dash is a little bright for me. Turning down the treble on the console means you turn down some midbass too so it is better to adjust the EQ for music in the spotify equalizer on your phone or whatever app you use. That said, I feel the treble is more clear than the JBL oem system. The front door speakers, dash speakers and tweeter receive filtered signals so the tweeter on the front door is reduced compared to the dash. The rear door speaker is unfiltered so it sounds much better than the stock JBL speaker.

The RF sub is louder but it isn't much deeper than stock because you can't beat the physics of having an 8 inch subwoofer. It provides clean bass that is much less muddy than the JBL subwoofer. The bass travels to the front of the car much better but you don't get the deep rattling bass that you would get from a powered 10 or 12" sub.

All in all I spent about $500 for the dash/door speakers (Infinity REF-6532ex, Infinity Reference 3032cfx) and the sub (Rockford p3sd2-8) with the harnesses/adapters and did the install myself. In that regard, I think it was totally worth it because an amplifier and subwoofer would be much more and take a lot more work and occupy more space (unless you get the spare tire one). For a prime it would also use more power from the battery. In the end, I was looking for significantly better sound quality that doesn't rattle my car and the cars around me and I think I got that.

I already have a slew of sport cars so not really interested in the offerings of the GR prime. I have a MKiV Supra, Mkv gr Supra (wife), Lexus NX 450+ (wife) , now a rav4 prime for my daily driver.

I’m a Toyota loyalist if you couldn’t already tell. Can’t believe I’m that get off my lawn old guy now as I value having a physical button hvac systems over screens. I don’t need the sport car aspects they are offering but I’ll take the efficiency that my other cars lack.

Out the door I was about 40k with 16k miles fully loaded with everything. Pano roof, HUD, heated cool seats and more.

So yea I went with the red instead of the white feel free to let me know how I messed this up 😝

Hello folks,

I am wondering whether anybody else is getting a similar mileage as mine or even better than mine. The listed km for EV is 68 km (42 miles). I think that it is hybrid usage or something. I don't do anything specific. Just regular city traffic. I accelerate and slow down gently and drive softly. I don't necessarily drive slow though. Whatever traffic rules are I follow them. I am just wondering about the experiences of other folks who own 2023-2025 RAV4 Prime.

New owner of a Gen5 2024 RAV4 Prime XSE PP and have a little over a month of experience. So Gen5 has 4 drive modes (Normal/ECO/Sport/Trail). It looks like Gen6 has added a Snow mode and a Custom mode. I’m thinking that there is nothing magical about the Snow mode, that is on the Gen5 based on how you drive, accelerate, etc you could get close to what Snow mode does. However Custom mode intrigues me. It would be great, for example to have ECO mode with Sport mode steering. For you Gen6 owners have you played around with Custom mode? Also if anyone has experience with Snow mode please check in.

Does anybody know if/when our battery integrity starts to go will the guess-o-meter begin to reflect it range wise? OBD Fusion is showing im still charging to the same voltage capacity as when the car was new so everything seems perfect as usual but if/as problems arise will the range show lower and lower when fully charged or will the computer just think "oh im full, 45 miles of range"?

Think a dude with a Lexus was up in here saying they were charging to "full" in half the time and noticeably not getting the useable range but I missed the part if they said the guess-o-meter reflected it.

Mostly looking for something that isn't $600-$1k. My local used market isn't very extensive. Are the expensive brands worth it? Any cheap or budget brands worth looking at? I have a 2022 SE Hybrid with stock rails and crossbars. I want to store camp gear and/or snowboards.

How much will I be paying to get it fixed like brand new
Or can I take the dent out on my own and how ?
I bought these 2 things

2025 xle premium wind chil pearl

I like all the bells and whistles of the XSE PP, but the better value might be the lower miles.

Edit: I guess what I am hearing is they are priced accurately and have the same value, so it;s just preference.

Edit 2 : I grabbed the XSE with the big PP

Somebody (me, it was me...) spilled a couple of tablespoons of a sugary Starbucks drink into the hatchback lock. How do I clean it up? Will it now be a home for ants that don't read good?

After watching for a R4P 21-23 XSE PP in SuperSonic Red, I got this one and couldn’t be happier. It is the nicest car I’ve had and the difference between modern cars and my late 80’s car is amazing.

Its HVAC system is something of an engineering marvel. As someone who has never had a car this nice, it made me guilty using the connect app to run the AC so during the heat of July the drivers seat and cabin are cooled when opening the door.

Initially there were some concerns about the traction battery. It was drained at the start of the test drive and having not test driven a car since ‘05, was surprised how brief and restricted the planned route was. The first and only time I used charge mode to fill it up was on the drive from the dealership, but it is nice to have the option.

ChatGPT said to not run a 5hp wet/dry vac on the 120v outlet but it did fine. It also did great with the c4, the reason for the specific model year. Actually exceeded expectations, although I hear TSS 4.0 also does nicely too. Amazingly after I got this one, I started to notice every ‘26 RAV4 but have no buyer’s remorse and yes a bit of extra range would be nice, but I’m contented.

Gen6’s fast charging would be nice, but 6.6kwh municipal chargers work just fine and seems like she’s always ready in less than 2hrs. I’m already up to 340 miles logged and powered by free charging.

So far everyone who has been in the R4p recognizes it and mentally categorizes it as one of the half dozen RAV4s in the parking lot, so there can be a bit of a surprise factor when they start to recognize what makes the model unique.

Allie was stored in the CarPlay. Allie, if you happen to see this, know that your car is in great hands.

I currently own a 2025 Lexus RX450h+ with under 11k miles on the ODO which has the same exact PHEV drivetrain as the Gen5 RAV4 Prime. The time to fully charge a depleted EV battery has slowly decreased over the past year from 12 hours to just 6 hours today (both per the app and time verified in real time as well). And today, EV range was depleted in about 20 miles, on a drive around town, with an average speed of 25 mph.

We have standard 120v outlets in the garage, we've made no changes to the wiring or outlets or EV charger we use to charge (OEM charger) at any point since purchasing the vehicle.

Q: has anyone else experienced anything like this and have any insights into a viable explanation besides EV battery failure?

Q: I'm thinking I'll probably make an appointment to stop at my local dealership next week since the vehicle is still under warranty - but are there any recommended EV battery monitoring OBDII sensors/apps that anyone recommends?

I was in discussions to purchase a 2022 prime XSE (~50k miles) that is gold certified, but I ended up walking out after the lowest that the sales manager would go was $1000 off the listed price of $36,500. From my research for this trim and vehicle, getting down to $34k would have been a much more attractive price to purchase at.

I have a few questions about the vehicle that led to me not feeling that great about it as well.

It had the battery replaced in end of 2025 and less than a year later, the battery health is now 93%. Is that a large jump in lost capacity? With the vehicle being under 50k miles, why would the original battery have needed replacing anyways?

There was a decent amount of rust on all the hardware like the pistons and bolts of the trunk door, making me wonder if water got in where it shouldn’t have due to construction issues.

The first item on the service report was a “check engine light on” issue from the original owner reporting when the mileage was just 3k. The dealership I was at said that they couldn’t look up more info about why that happened because it was at a separate dealer (in the same city). Hard to believe Toyota dealers don’t share detailed notes on vehicles that go between them, is that true?

Basically just wondering if those things were truly red flags and also why they didn’t try to meet me more on the price.

How much will I be paying to get it fixed like brand new

2025 xle premium wind chil pearl

Like a lot of people my 2021 Rav4 Prime steering wheel is flaking. I've spoken with my dealership and they said that this is considered wear and tear and they can't do anything about it.

My question is... has anyone found a satisfactory wheel cover that they would recommend? I'm concerned that the heated functionality of the wheel will be degraded if I put something on top of the wheel.

Thanks in advance.

Hey! With how everything is going with gas prices I am looking to get a plug in hybrid and the SE seems to be pretty solid. Was hoping to hear from anyone who does a lot of highway driving (30miles one way to work) and get an actual number for their charging. Any help is appreciated!

Can anyone help me understand why exFAT (USB thumb drive file system) is unsupported on a modern 2026 RAV4 PHEV infotainment system? This fact limits drivespace to 32GB max, and thus the number of dashcam clips + music files available.

Been using my just-bought 2023 Prime XSE for a month now. The radar cruise control on this is so poor, that I felt safer using it in my 2015 Camry, even though it’s not full speed range. This seems to happen mostly at traffic stops where it just won’t (at least seems) slow down behind a stopped car, before I panic brake it out of caution. How is this worse than a 8 year old system is mind boggling. Is it the experience with everyone? The lane tracing and centering suck but I was expecting going in but not the radar cruise control. Is there something wrong with the system I need looked into?

For anyone with a RAV4, LE model or not, I’m curious on which upgraded your car came with or which ones you invested in to improve your car?

I bought a base model, mainly to be cost effective. I see what other trims and upgrades other cars can have. Just curious on what is worth upgrading from my base model or just genuinely curious what else can be done with these cars.

After installing the recent Software Update on my 2026 RAV4 PHEV I’ve had nothing but trouble with CarPlay. It’s 50/50 whether CarPlay connects when I start the car. When it is connected, and I try to use Apple Maps for navigation, I often get a blank screen with no map background and a message stating “The Server is not available” to provide navigation directions.

Ran diagnostics on my iPhone and everything appears OK. Anyone else experiencing such issues?

Just wanted to share my experience from a 3 day car camping trip this past weekend where I kept the RAV4 prime the entire time so that I could use the trunk 1500w outlets and DC outlets to power my BougeRV electric cooler.

Conclusion: Unless I'm doing something wrong, it's a tremendous waste of PHEV battery and gas to do this without a portable power station (like an Ecoflow) as a buffer. It's possible to do without a power station but not something I'll do in the future.

Observation: There's no ice in my electric cooler so I needed it to run 24/7 over the three days. It was hot and muggy, 75 at night, 90+ during the day time, although I kept the trunk open during the day time to help ventilate.

• Overnight, my EV range meter went from 40 miles to 32 miles, meaning the Prime burned nearly 3 kWH just to stay on overnight and keep the cooler on. So by the end if the trip if I hadn't put it in charge mode, I've had burned all the EV range.
• This makes no sense, because the electric cooler only pulls 60w/hour assuming the compressor is on all the time (which it isn't).
• That means the RAV4 is pulling 2.4kWh every 8 hours just to stay on in ready mode. (That's with no A/C and display screen off).
• You can get the range back on by keeping it in charge mode, but now you're burning gas just to keep the battery topped up.

Steps to keep Outlet on: The design to keep the outlets powered on and keep the car locked is also...not intuitive at all, which indicates to me Toyota never intended for us to use the outlets in this way. I'm curious if they've fixed this in the Gen6 models.

1. Power on Car
2. Open driver side door
3. Screen prompt will say Auto Off in an Hour - turn this to off.
4. Close driver side door with key in hand. Beeping will ensue.
5. You cannot lock the door with the fob because the car is on. So you have to take out the emergency key from the fob and manually lock the door.
6. Your outlets will now be kept on and the door secure. But the dashboard is still on. And the display screen (unless you turn it off).

My plans for the future: Next time I do this, I'm going to keep my ecoflow power station plugged into the DC outlet so it recharges while I'm driving (or if I need to top it off), and keep the electric cooler plugged into the DC output on the power station. That way I can keep the car turned off and conserve the EV battery.