Consumer Reports - No Gas For Toyota RAV4 Prime Over 800 Miles In Testing
In an extended test, one Consumer Reports tester explained why he never had to add gas to the RAV4 Prime Plug-in hybrid over many weeks and 800 miles.
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In its latest “Talking Cars” episode, the staff from Consumer Reports (SR) provides three opinions and many observations on the new Toyota RAV4 Prime plug-in hybrid-electric vehicle (PHEV). CR’s Director of Auto Testing, Jake Fisher, provided the most details. Jake has over two decades of vehicle testing under his belt. Due to the recent unusual circumstances, the RAV4 Prime was with him for an extended period. During the long test stretch, he put 800 miles on the vehicle and never added gasoline.
Consumer Reports also noted that the $65,000 Model Y, like the one they own (Tesla has raised the price of FSD since they purchased it) falls down in some surprising areas. The group points out that there is no head-up display, the Blind Spot Monitoring is a failure, and the group finds FSD requires “hypervigilance” on the part of the driver. Even the conventional Autopilot is unimpressive to this group who has tested many systems that are better from other automakers. One Consumer Reports tester also feels that the ride quality of the Model Y is just too stiff. A trade-off for its sports-car-like handling. Finally, the group finds it ridiculous to have to peck through a menu tree in order to enable a wiper sweep of the windshield or to adjust an AC vent.
Consumer Reports Expert Opinion
Our go-to source for many topics is Consumer Reports. When it comes to vehicle owner satisfaction and reliability, our opinion is that Jake Fisher, Consumer Reports Director of Auto Testing, is a top expert. Mr. Fisher has spent two decades involved with vehicle testing and participates in the CR reliability survey data collection and reporting. He has also been a development engineer for automakers. Our request for comment evolved into a conversation and Mr. Fisher helped us understand Toyota’s reliability reputation more clearly.
Mr. Fisher feels that Toyota’s legacy will not be tarnished by these two problems and he backed that up with some history and some insight. First, he explained that the two issues are not related. From his point of view, and CR’s, reliability and quality are separate things. Fisher told us that CR makes a concerted effort to separate the two topics. Quality is more subjective. It can be a fit and finish observation,