 What is up, you guys? Welcome back to another one. If you're new to the channel, I am Gold Penny at the new car truck SUV reviews on YouTube and today, we are in the brand new 2023 Toyota RAV4 courtesy of Younger Toyota in Hagerstown, Maryland for more information on their inventory. Please feel free to check out the link in the description box below. And so there are some big changes for the 2023 Toyota RAV4. Not only that, of course, you get the legendary reliability. This one is going to be competing with other SUVs like the Honda CR-V, Mazda CX-50, just to name a couple there. And right now, this is the number one selling SUV in America. So they got pretty much tested all right there. So ultimately in this video, we will be testing out and going over everything about this one from acceleration of braking, steering for a ride quality, sound system exhaust club, all that fun stuff. So having said all of that, what do you guys say? Let's just go ahead and jump right into it. And as always, let's start with pricing. And so there are several different trim levels for the 2023 RAV4. First one being the LE, which actually is the trim we are in today, starting at $27,575, XLE for $29,085, XLE Premium for $31,975, Adventure for $33,770, TRD Off-Road for $37,195, and lastly the Limited starting at $35,880. And so the Adventure and TRD Off-Road, that's going to come standard with all-wheel drive. All of the other trim levels come standard with front-wheel drive. But having said that, you can add all-wheel drive to any of those other trims if you wanted to do that. Simply add $1,400 to any of those prices. We do have the LE all-wheel drive to be specific with us here today. But regardless of trim level that you go with, the power plant on the RAV4 is going to be the same. Powering the Beast is a 2.5-liter naturally aspirated inline-four cylinder, 203 horsepower at 6,600 RPM, 184 pound-feet of torque coming in at 5,000 RPM. Power sent to front wheels or all-wheels through an eight-speed automatic, zero-to-60 time, coming in at approximately 8.4 seconds. With MPG numbers then coming in at 27 in the city, 35 on the highway for the front-wheel drive, 27 city, 34 then on the highway for the all-wheel drive, taking regular on-leaded fuel. So then before we do any kind of fun acceleration test here in the RAV4, I did want to mention to you guys the drive modes because there's actually a ton of them. So there's going to be drive-mode buttons located just to the left of the shifter. They're going to include Eco, Normal and Sport for the on-road drive modes. Then you actually also get off-road drive modes, which you wouldn't expect and you definitely wouldn't expect on a base model of an SUV. So they're going to include snow, mud and sand and rock and dirt, and that's for the all-wheel drive only. So if you get the front-wheel drive, you're not going to get those off-road drive modes, but ultimately they will adjust things like the shift points, the throttle response, the steering sensitivity and the all-wheel drive system engagement then as well. And so now having got all of that out of the way, what do you guys say? Let's go ahead and find it straight away. Let's put the RAV4 here to the test and let's see how quickly we can get our new 2023 Toyota RAV4 here up to speed. All right, let's go ahead and put it in sport driving mode here. The gauge has changed to red. That's pretty cool. And three, two, one, go baby. All right, all right. Actually not bad. That's really not bad, honestly. You're definitely not going to have any issues in merging onto the highway. Honestly, zero to 60 time is not the best on paper, but if you put it in sport driving mode, honestly, that was pretty darn quick and the coolest thing is the RAV4 still is not turbocharged. You're not going to have any of that crappy turbo lag at the beginning of any acceleration. I like that. That's also going to keep the engine a lot more reliable as well. So I do like that it's still naturally aspirated for those reasons because honestly, that was a decent acceleration for the RAV4. I personally wouldn't have any issues myself with that acceleration. But anyways, to go along with that as always, braking is equally important. So upfront, you will find 12 inch ventilated front discs in the back, 11.1 inch ventilated rear discs. As far as that six easier stopping distance goes on paper, it comes in at 126 feet. So let's go ahead and just hit the brakes. I like it. That's actually not bad. It feels perfect. It's kind of leaning on the firmer side of things. It's not as soft of a braking feel as I would have expected as I typically find on SUVs. So I don't mind the braking feel. That actually feels quite nice here in the RAV4. The touching on suspension and handling, upfront, you're going to get an independent McPherson strut front suspension. In the back, independent multi-link rear suspension, front and rear stabilizer bars. As far as ride quality goes, in my short little test drive here, on some very nice Hagerstown roads, I'll say that, it's been pretty decent. I don't mind it. Ride quality is definitely on point. I don't have any issues there. As far as steering feel goes, you can notice the difference when you put it in that sport driving mode. When you put it in the sport driving mode, it is a noticeably heavier feel to the steering. Better point you in the direction that you want to go. But then if you take it out of that and just put it in eco, instantly loosens up the steering feel. So much more loosey-goosey. So I do like that the steering sensitivity is adjustable based on the drive mode, because if you didn't want that looser steering feel, like typically with me, that's the case, you do have that sport driving mode to firm it up a little bit. So I am a big fan of that. As far as cabin noise goes, and we'll see, you do get a little bit of road noise. We're going 55 miles per hour right now. So I'll let you guys be the judge off of my road mic here, if you like it or not. But there's a little bit of road noise. The wind noise isn't bad. I will say that. The wind noise doesn't bother me whatsoever, but the road noise, it does get at higher speeds at least. You can hear it a little bit more. Touching of visibility, I can see perfectly fine out the back, typically with a shape like the RAV4, you're definitely not going to have any issues with rear visibility at least, but it did what I also mentioned for the XLE trim leveling up, touching up for visibility, you do get rain-sensing windshield wipers as well. So that's pretty cool. Obviously we don't have them today, but essentially what that means is whenever the RAV4 detects any kind of mist or rainfall, it's going to automatically turn on those windshield wipers where it's just kind of like automatic headlights. Just one less thing you got to worry about. It's kind of a convenience feature there. So I'm a big fan of that actually as well, but that pretty much rounds out the performance segment of this review, guys. Let's now go ahead and take a look at the exterior of our beautiful Black 2023 Toyota RAV4. All right, so here she is, you guys. The new 2023 Toyota RAV4 finished in midnight black metallic as it begins to rain here in Hagerstown, Maryland. But anyways, let's go ahead and start where this one is actually made. The VIN number actually is going to start with a two, meaning the Toyota RAV4 here is made in Canada, is built in Canada, so that is pretty cool. But anyways, as always, let's go ahead and start up front. Projector LED headlights now come standard on every single trim level across the board. I put it that way because for the 2022 model year, you actually still got halogens up front for the LE trim level at least. So I am glad that we got the LE trim level with us here today because last year, when I reviewed the LE, it did not have these projector LED headlights. Big fan of that, LED day-term running lights, of course, coming standard, automatic feature as well, meaning when it starts to get dark at night, those headlights will turn on automatically for you there. Automatic high beams also coming standard. So if you have your high beams on at night and it senses a vehicle coming in the opposite direction, it's going to automatically dim them back to low beams. And when that vehicle is gone, it's going to automatically bounce it back up to high beams then. LED fog lights coming with the XLE premium trim level end up, so we don't have those with us here today. That front grille, of course, is going to differ amongst the trim levels. You're going to have different looks dependent upon which trim level that you go with. So also the ground clearance is going to differ slightly amongst the trim levels as well. So I did want to touch on that real quick. The LE is going to give you 8.4 inches. That's going to be the same for the XLE trim level as well. But the XLE premium trim level and up is going to bump that up slightly to 8.6 inches up front. So I did want to mention that, but that pretty much rounds out the front and here of the RAV4. Let's now go ahead and make our way to the side. Our incident about making our way to the side of the 23 RAV4 roof rails are going to come standard on the XLE trim level end up. Again, that's why we don't have them with us here today. You're going to get a floating roof line towards the back. And so we actually get a little closer for this one because somebody put in the comments the other day, they didn't know what a floating roof line was. It's essentially where a piece kind of separates on the C pillar. So this little horizontal piece right here separates the roof from the bottom portion of the body there. So although we have a black exterior and the floating roof line is always going to be black, you can't really tell all that much of a difference on this particular setup, but if we were to have a silver or white, there is going to be that little black floating roof line on the C pillar there. So I did want to mention that for your privacy glass does come standard across the board as well. Then take a look at the side mirrors, body color, power adjustable side mirrors coming standard, heated side mirrors then coming with the XLE trim level end up. You will get LED integrated turd signals again for the XLE trim level end up, gloss black side mirrors for the TRD off-road and then puddle lights coming with the limited. So so you don't step on any puddles here since it's raining, but anyways, let's take a look at the wheel configurations. Again, differing amongst the trim levels, 17 inch steel wheels with covers coming with our LE trim level that we have with us here, 17 inch gray metallic alloy wheels coming with the XLE 19 inch chrome alloys for the XLE premium and limited trim levels, 19 inch matte gray alloys for the adventure. And lastly, 18 inch matte black TRD flow formed alloys for the TRD off-road trim level. So pretty much rounds out the side profile here. Let's now go ahead and make our way to the back. All right, so now since we are around to the back of the RAV4 here, body colors, shark fin antenna found all the way to the top there. Rear spoiler with an integrated brake light, of course, coming standard rear window wiper then as well. LED tail lights though, coming standard for every single trim level across the board. You don't always get that. So I do like that. You also get some trim level badging found on the right hand side of that rear tailgate there as well. Also, it's gonna tell you if the RAV4 that you're looking at is equipped with all wheel drive, then if you go all the way down to the bottom there, you will find dual exhaust outlets finished in chrome tips. Love this look. Love that they're not tucking into ways still like so many other manufacturers are doing right now. So having said that, I do believe you guys know what we have to do next is always here is that exhaust clip. All right, so now since we are around to the back of the RAV4, when it comes to opening that rear tailgate, it is gonna be a power tailgate for the XLE premium trim leveling up. Otherwise you're gonna get a manual tailgate. So anyways, I'm just gonna go ahead and open this one up. Once opened up, cargo capacity comes in at 37.6 cubic feet. If that was not enough space, there is a 6040 split, meaning the rear seats do fall down, bumping that up to 69.8 cubic feet then. There is a cargo cover back there for the XLE trim leveling up. It's gonna be available for the other trims. We do have that. So I was a big fan of that. There is some LED cargo lighting. You typically still find halogen bulbs in the cargo area. So I was surprised to see that we had LEDs back there. 12-volt power outlet is gonna be available for the XLE trim level and up. Then if you were to lift up underneath that cargo floor, you will find a spare tire, as opposed to the fix-a-flat. And there was some indented kind of a cargo box storage on the right-hand side of that cargo area and plenty of chrome-plated tie-down anchors back there as well. But instead of making our way up to the rear legroom, that is going to come in at 37.8 inches. So for reference, I mean even six feet tall. This is how much space I had back there. 12-volt power outlet is going to come standard for all trim levels across the board. Rear ventilation though, also coming standard for all trim levels across the board. Big fan of that. There is a rear center armrest with cup holders. Once again, all trim levels across the board. Gotta love that. Heated rear seats then coming with the limited trim level. But pretty much rounds out the rear seats. So let's go ahead and make our way up to the front seats here, manually adjustable cloth seating coming with our LE trim level. Power adjustable front seats with power lumbar for the XLE, soft-tex upholstery for the XLE premium trim. You are going to get some orange accents and some orange stitching for that adventure trim level then. You will find TRD stitching in the headrest for the TRD off-road trim. Then the limited trim is going to add to that heated front seats and an eight-way power adjustable passenger seat then as well. So overall, when it comes to my thoughts of the seat comfort, it honestly wasn't that bad. And really Toyota does a pretty darn good job with their seating. Toyota and Lexus, regardless of which trim level that you go with, it's usually pretty darn comfortable. And that's certainly the case. Obviously, if you go with the more adjustments, it's going to be a little bit more comfortable. But even for our LE trim level, I didn't have any issues personally. So no issues there. Then take a look at the steering wheel. Tilt and telescoping will come standard. It will be wrapped in a urethane if you go with the LE or XLE trim level but then leather wrapped for the XLE premium trim level and up. Then if you wanted a heated steering wheel, that is going to be optional on the XLE trim level and up. But it doesn't come standard on any particular trim level. So don't want to mention that. But anyways, let's go ahead and make our way to the startup here. Let me start by showing you guys the key here. Typical Toyota key. You got your Toyota logo on the one side. Then when you flip it over, lock and unlock. But I do want to mention it is keyless entry with the push button start if you go with the XLE trim level and up. Otherwise, you're going to get your traditional turn key start, which is what we have today. So in our case, all I'm going to do here is simply put my front of the break and turn the key. And so once started up here, gauges have changed a little bit compared to the 2022 model year. So I like this because before, you had a 4.2 inch digital screen in the center. But now you have a seven inch digital screen for every single trim level across the board. Unless you go with the limited and then you get a 12.3 inch digital gauge cluster. So the fact that a digital gauge cluster is now available on the RAV4, I love that. And every single other trim level is going to get the seven inch screen that you're currently looking at right now which is going to give you your driving modes. And of course, it's actually going to change the color up there dependent upon the drive mode that you put in it. So if you put it in eco, it's going to be green. If you put it in sports, going to be red. If you put it in normal, it's going to be gray. So I do like that. And there's a digital speedometer up there. Attackometer is going to be on your left, fuel information on your right. Gives you your outside temperature and how many miles you have left until you hit empty, trip A, trip B, actually a time of the day as well. So pretty much everything you could possibly want on the digital portion of the gauges. So I am a fan of that. That was one of the changes for 2023 yet again. But then making our way to overall interior quality, there's a power moon roof coming with the XLE premium trim level and up. Overhead sunglass holders going to come standard across the board. LED interior lighting yet again for all trim levels across the board. Even in today, you don't get LED interior lighting typically standard on other manufacturers out there. This usually upper trim level kind of thing. And it's usually halogen bulb. So I do like that the LEDs are standard yet again. Homeland controls are going to be optional. Dual zoom climate control coming with the XLE trim level and up. Wireless phone charger again is going to be optional. One of the things that thought was pretty cool is you do get a little bit of storage just above the passenger side glove box. Although I do wish it would have been rubberized storage because it is just a plastic there. But still, I like that it's there. There is some plastic storage just in front of the shifter as well. USB charging port, 12-volt power outlet to go along with that. Electric mechanical parking brake just to the left of the shifter. Got you dual cup holders behind the shifter and within the center armrest. There's a decent amount of storage there. A couple phone charging ports within that as well. So overall interior quality is definitely finished on the basic side of things. Personally, I don't mind it, but yeah, it's definitely on the basic side. So I'll just put it that way. Now let's go ahead and make our way to the infotainment screen because again, this is new for 2023. Both screens actually are going to be new for 2023. So eight inch color touchscreen display is going to come standard on the LE, XLE, XLE premium and adventure trims. However, if you were to go with that TRD off-road or limited trim, you will get a 10.5 inch color touchscreen display. So it's going to be bigger than what you're currently looking at right now. But Bluetooth and audio streaming will come standard wireless, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. So big fan of that as well. You can check out your driving statistics up there if you wanted to, along with your radio information. And so when it comes to the sound systems, there's two of them. One is going to be a six speaker sound system. That's going to come standard for all trim levels, but the limited trim level is going to give you an 11 speaker JBL sound system with an external amp and a subwoofer as well. We do have the six speaker sound system with us here today. So what do you guys say? Let's go ahead and turn on the radio, see what we got playing today and let's test out the clarity of this one. It's actually not bad. I would say it's above average for a six speaker sound system. So typically six speaker sound systems just suck, but that one wasn't bad. Again, a little bit above average. So I don't think I would have any trouble with that. So anyways, JBL obviously is going to be better, but last thing I want to mention to you guys on the infotainment screen is when do you put the RAV4 in reverse? We'll find a rear view camera coming standard across the board, letting you know what is behind you, which is always is going to lead us into safety. And so let me first start by saying IIHS top safety pick, which is a very good start right there. Front side, side current airbags do come standard. Driver's knee airbag up front as well, but also a front passenger seat cushion airbag. That's one that typically doesn't come standard on other manufacturers. In the back, you're going to have latch, AKA lower anchors to tethers to children for the rear car seats, rear child door locks, tire pressure monitoring system, but also coming standard. This is new for 2023, by the way. Toyota Safety Sense 2.5. And so this is going to include a pre-collision system with pedestrian detection, dynamic radar cruise control, lane departure alert with steering assist, lane tracing assist and roadside recognition then as well. Then if you were to go with the XL e-trim level and up, it's going to add to that a blind spot monitoring system with rear cross traffic alert, then the limited is going to add to that front and rear parking sensors. And so when it comes to my final thoughts here of the 2023 RAV4, standard safety is pretty darn good. So definitely a big fan of that. I like the updated tech as well. And that includes the gauge cluster. I like that there's an available digital gauge cluster. I like the updated infotainment as well. You got of course, legendary reliability with the RAV4. That's probably partly the reason why this is the number one best selling SUV in America. After all, I love the updated headlights for the LE because again, I reviewed the LE last year and it didn't look like these headlights. So big fan of that as well. Starz are in for improvement guys. I guess since we have the LE trim level, the trade off is it is pretty darn basic interior quality but it's to be expected. I suppose that's the trade off. But anyways, let me know what you guys think of the RAV4 in the comments section below. Sorry about my voice throughout this video. My voice is slowly coming back from having the flu. That's what's going on here. But anyways, be sure to hit the subscribe and the bell notification button if you're into new car reviews. That is what we do here on this channel. After all, do appreciate you guys watching more than you know and I will see you guys all in the next video. Stay Gold.