Road Beat: 2020 Toyota Rav4 TRD Off-Road

No, this can’t be. It’s too interesting to be a Rav4. Over the waning ‘teens, Toyota has sought to seemingly reinvent itself as a carmaker of interest. Now, that begs an important question, though: did they have to? Even as the cars became more and more relentlessly boring, people still bought them to make for the single biggest car brand in the world.

Apart from the loyal Toyota off-road and truck enthusiast crowd, the mainstream and best-selling cars (Camry, Corolla, Rav4, Highlander, and…Prius), have been the car equivalent of beige; inoffensive, goes with anything, and boring. But beige is out. You know what’s in? Greige. Greige is edgy, it’s modern, yet still versatile in appeal. It’s a combination of that traditional beige but adding the cool trendiness of gray plus interesting undertones. It’s all the rage right now in interior design. Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter, for example.

Toyota has had to move the game on; they’ve been forced to play their hand after arousing and stringent competition from across the Sea of Japan in K-Town showed up, plus a ever invigorated Japanese rivals. As they’ve upped the ante in the style, tech, and dynamic wars, Toyota could no longer sit idly by. Just transportation wasn’t good enough anymore for Mr. Toyoda (actually the right spelling). So, in 2018, the world got a Camry that would scare away the old Camry if trick or treating. Gone was the soft, round, and ambiguous look of potato and in its stead, daring lines cut sharply this way or that as if by a shogun. I like the look, a lot, especially in SE trim. An optional two-tone paint, a 300HP V6, these all helped to wake up the automotive world that the Camry didn’t just get serious, it got playful. Add the vastly improved driving dynamics - a car that actually liked to be driven- and the Camry was a total win for Toyota.

Others have followed with this new character and eagerness, including the Rav4. Debuting just over a year ago, the Rav4 has cemented its status as the best selling SUV or car, in the United States. So the people like it, obviously, but is it any good? A short answer, yes, but to a degree.

This new model almost draws inspiration from a more cubist-era Picasso. There are hard, sharp lines everywhere; the front and rear ends both tapering to a point. You might even call it boxy. However, the Rav4 stands out. I don’t know if I personally could call it good looking, looks are subjective after all, but it is bold with respectful risks and, dare we say it…cool.

This Rav4 is the TRD Off-Road, the highest in the Rav hierarchy, and a first for the genus. TRD stands for Toyota Racing Development, and the Off-Road means, well, you can guess what that means. TRD Off-Roads have traditionally been reserved for the enthusiast trucks, specifically the Tundra, Tacoma, and 4Runner, each carrying robust chops to play in the mud and sand. Applying this holy name to something so civilian as a Rav4 is a gamble.

Doused in Lunar Rock paint with a contrasting roof, the Rav4 TRD looks the part. A matte black grille, black TRD wheels wrapped in aggressively knobby tires, black fender flares, and red interior pieces instill a sense of anger and purpose. This is a cool car, let’s get that straight out of the way. This is the Rav4 all other Rav4 owners will look at in admiration as they regret not forking over the extra few dollars in their monthly payment. However, the fun stops there, because in normal day to day driving, the Rav4 TRD Off-Road feels and drives about exactly identical to a non-TRD, but that’s no complaint either.

Steering is accurate with nice weighting, making the Rav4 tremendously easy to place on the road and drive. The wheel is comfortable in the hand as well, with the seats doing their job on your back and bottom well, too. On a winding back-road, the Rav4 TRD can be more than driven at a surprisingly rapid pace, with the suspension keeping it together and surprisingly tied down. The benefit can be attributed from a modified, shared architecture from the new Camry. What doesn’t work, though, is the ride. At more normal speeds, above 40 MPH, it’s fine. Slow down a bit, and the ride becomes too harsh, being able to pick out potholes and bumps it should probably mask. It could be a side effect of the off-road-tuned suspension.

Now for off-road use, I don’t see it being that different from a standard Rav4 with all-wheel drive. The radical tires for sure will make the single biggest impact. But the ride height and ground clearance is barely higher than the standard model. On paper, the specs of things like departure angles that mud and sand junkies geek-out over lag behind competitors like a Cherokee Trailhawk. The All-Wheel-Drive mode has selectable modes for dirt, mud, sand, and rocks, but the system can never send over 50 percent to the rear wheels, further hindering capabilities. The long overhangs wouldn’t do much in the way of favors, too. While it can venture into the relative abyss compared to past Rav4s, this TRD Off-Road is not a game-changer that can follow a Tacoma or 4Runner with the same finesse or down the same paths. And I can’t help but think that an XSE or XLE AWD with the same tires would perform identically.

The 2.5L 203 HP inline-four and eight-speed automatic are unchanged from other Rav4s. Fuel economy is excellent, averaging over 27MPG in my commute from Cameron Park to Placerville and back, and can expect the low to mid-30s on the steady level freeway. However, the four-cylinder is, well, a four-cylinder, and a rather gruff and industrial-sounding one at that. At certain throttles and RPMs, the engine is too loud and intrusive. Performance is spectacularly ordinary, needing 8.26 seconds to reach 60 and 4.74 in 50-70 passing tests. On the contrary, while the transmission shifts smoothly if lazily at times, but that’s fine for this type of vehicle.

I found the infotainment easy to navigate, though the look of the screen itself is very last-decade, with unsightly large bezels surrounding the touchscreen. The instrument cluster is wildly busy and information overload. My eyes were often distracted, struggling to locate the info I was searching for. I like information, but too much at the same time is largely unnecessary. The Highlander, for example, has a much more streamlined and useful gauge cluster.

Interior space is incredible, with rear passengers not having any complaints. Materials used in the cabin and fit and finish are also improved compared to the outgoing Rav4, but still lags behind the near-luxury that accompanies the newest Mazdas. While soft, some of the padding on the doors felt a bit rubbery, too. Overall road and wind noise on the freeway, though, is relaxingly quiet. Standard equipment is luckily tremendous, with the Toyota Safety Sense 2.0 that includes radar cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, and collision warning, as included among other things.

But this is where things get complicated. The Rav4 TRD Off-Road here stickers for $42,507. Over 40 large, for what was once considered a compact economy car. That just seems like too much money for a car that has no standout qualities. It’s good at many things, but there’s nothing particularly great that you remember after disembarking. To me, the most memorable is the Lunar Rock two-tone paint, which is only remembered when you do leave it. Let it be said, the new Rav4 is a fine car. It no longer drives like the boring office drone of predecessors past and has newly edgy if divisive looks.

The TRD Off-Road is hard to recommend given the high price and the lack of real off-road chops, but what it does possess, is an unexpected level of want and desire as the top dog in the Rav4 food chain. Put it this way, if you’re walking through the Rav4 section at the dealer and you see and come across the TRD, you’re gonna want the TRD, it’s as simple as that. And in that case, a desirable Rav4 is a winner for Toyota.

+ Newfound driving eagerness, great fuel economy, edgy new looks
- Expensive. TRD package more appearance than legit off-road machine, noisy engine.

Rating 3.5/5