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Honda and Toyota have been battling for the hearts of American families for decades now
at first with Camry versus Accord
But now with rav4 versus CRV the two best-selling vehicles outside of the big three pickups
Rav4 was just fully redesigned last year
But now for 2020 things are heating up with the CRV getting an extensive refresh to fight even harder against Toyota
So which of these crossovers is the best bet for you and your family? Let's go ahead and find out
So to get things established here let's quickly talk about the pricing and option levels of these to as
Close competitors. The pricing structures are closely aligned. So starting out with the crv
We have selected probably the most popular trim the EXL all-wheel drive
As many of you know honda doesn't really do options
So adding just the destination charge will bring us to a total of thirty two thousand six hundred and forty five dollars
Keeping things equivalent
We have the rav4 XLE premium all-wheel drive which itself starts at thirty one thousand two hundred and fifty dollars
Toyota offers a ton of options for this trim, but in order to keep things, even we have only the
$425 paint and the mandatory destination charge
bringing its total price to thirty two thousand seven hundred ninety five dollars that
Makes the two prices basically identical so with that in mind, let's see how they stack up
So starting off here with the exterior x' we have two designs that honestly couldn't get any more different
the rav4 has gone for a more rugged and
Sculpted front look and while the CRV is new fascia for 2020 does look a lot more aggressive
it still has the more conservative design as
Far as lighting is concerned the CRV has halogen headlights for the low and high beams
compared to fully LED lights on the Toyota
However, this year Honda has changed the fog lights to LED while it's Toyota that has the halogens
Around back both have premium looking designs with partially LED taillights and up to 1500 pounds of towing capacity
The only real difference here is the rav4 having dual chrome exhaust outlets
Moving to some of the other features like the wheels you'll find 18 inch contrast alloys on the Honda but 19 inch chrome
finished alloys on the Toyota
And as far as the mirrors, they both have heating and power adjustment as well as blind spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert
Now of course for family vehicles you'll want to have more than just BSM
So you'll be happy to know that both crossovers have very comprehensive safety suites
both suites include full adaptive cruise control
Lane Keeping Assist board emergency braking with pedestrian detection and auto high beam headlights
However, the rav4 even throws in a few additional ones
bicyclists detection and Lane tracing assist and
Then the last thing on the outside is that they share three year
36,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty and a 5 year
60,000 mile power train warranties what Toyota does give you two years of complimentary maintenance, which Honda does not?
But anyways, that's it for the outside so now let's get to the much more important cabins before we take them out on the road
So heading up to these two both crossovers have smart entry with nice key fobs
However, only the CRV includes remote start on the key fob without a subscription
Once we open up the doors, you'll see interiors that are both practical and surprisingly upscale
Our Honda has the gray in black color scheme and our Toyota is just straight black
Checking out the seats themselves
The rav4 gives you 8 ways of power adjustment while the Honda goes for an impressive 12 ways with four-way lumbar
Additionally, you'll find real leather seats on the Honda compared to the Toyota soft X faux leather and
Furthermore the seats are heated on the CRV and not on the rav4 unless you get the weather package
Now once inside the cabins we can check out the material quality
Starting with the CRV it gives you all soft touch materials even on the upper portions
There is also some stitching as well as some faux wood accent
Switching to the Toyota
It also has softened materials across the entire dashboard with stitching but where it falls behind the CRV is at the door trim
Its door trim is mostly hard touch plastic while Honda has extensive use of stitched leather
soft touch plastic and the faux wood accents
Both crossovers have push-button start
And then looking at the gauges Honda gives customers the premium 7-inch digital set up on all trims
Whereas Toyota uses the smaller 4.2 inch screen until you get to the limited trim
Coming back to the steering wheels both are leather-wrapped manual tilt and telescoping and neither have heating at this price point
Now moving on to one of the most important interior aspects. Let's talk store it
Honda always does something cool with the center consoles and this is no exception
With a new sliding and folding tray that allows for the center console stores to be at least twice as big as in the rav4
Up in the front both of them have another generously sized bin but the Toyota fights back by giving you a large storage shelf
Which the Honda doesn't
So with all that stuff considered I'd say they're roughly equivalent
Moving on both have traditional shifters though. The Honda's has a non-traditional placement
When you go into reverse both will have multi angle backup cameras with
Trajectory as well as electronic parking brakes and brake hold functions
Next up we have the dual zone automatic climate control systems
There's not a great deal of differences between them
But the rav4 is is the more ergonomically sound setup since in the CRV
You have to use the touchscreen to get to some of your functionalities like the zones
As far as audio systems both have the standard options which could be characterized as decent and
Now, let's quickly check out the infotainment systems
both Toyota and Honda give you 7 inch displays at this price point and
Both have apple carplay and android auto as standard equipment
But no integrated navigation
Both models also have auto dimming rearview mirrors and as you'd expect both have regular-sized moonroof
Now heading to the rear quarters, both models are undisputedly spacious
But the CRV continues to be pretty much the best option in the class
it has forty point four inches of legroom and
38.3 inches of headroom
Compared to thirty seven point eight four legs and thirty seven point seven four heads in the wrap
After getting in you will notice that both provide air vents for the rear passengers as well as two smart charging USB ports
Walking to the back areas both have power tailgates and the kick to open function is reserved for the higher entrance only
Once the gates open up the CRV is also significantly more spacious here
Giving you thirty nine point two cubic feet with the second row in place and seventy five point eight cubic feet with it folded in
Comparison the rav4 has 37 and a half cubic feet which expands to sixty nine point eight cubic feet with the seats folded
And the last thing worth mentioning is that the CRV gives you a power passenger seat which the rav4 does not
All right, so heading out on the road with these two you'll find a surprising number of differences
Toyota goes with a more traditional set up a two and a half litre naturally aspirated
Four-cylinder engine making two hundred and three horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque
Honda goes a different route and gives you a smaller
turbocharged one and a half liter four-cylinder that makes less power at 190 horsepower and
179 pounds of torque that power difference can be felt out on the road
As far as acceleration it definitely handled coming up this Hill here with these
You know, I'm I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the power we were just on the Forester
Just a few days ago
And you know, I think this feels more powerful and and the rogue is when a death warrant. They are more powerful
As far as the actual acceleration itself
I would say it's not bad. It's you know it I would say it's the best in the class, of course, you know
Some of the rivals have up level engines. I'm not even not talking about that
But I would say it feels a little bit slower than for instance the rav4 but quite a bit faster than the rogue
Those are of course the things that people most often cross shop with this CRV
For the transmissions the same thing plays out
Toyota with a traditional 8-speed automatic while Honda chose a CVT
So even though Honda did an excellent job tuning the CVT
The average consumer is going to prefer the instant response and traditional feel of an 8-speed automatic
Now we haven't mentioned the transmission open to this point
So as you can probably tell is Kei continuously variable transmission that standard equipment on every single trim level
You know Honda
What they do basically is just make a really good CVT
But they don't bother with any of the tricks or anything so it doesn't simulate gear shifts
It's not going to make you think it's anything except a CVT
But like I said, they do a very good job at making its EBT kind of blend into the background
You know, so even when you're heavy on the throttle you avoid things like heavy droning and
It's just very responsive. You're not ever waiting on it to start making things happen and
I'd really say for the average driver of something in this class
I'd really say that you wouldn't notice the difference too much. Oh very regular transmission
Let's talk about the 8-speed automatic transmission
I've been driving in for a few minutes
I have to say really liked it
They do a great job
Place a a lot of the competition is going to have CVT so it's really nice the Toyota stuck with a traditional automatic
Now this
It really does a good job of keeping the vehicle in its power band as you probably noticed
It shifts around quite a bit
But that doesn't bother you because they've done such a good job at making it smooth that
It's just shifting up and down quite a bit and you're not even noticing when it when that happens or anything
Like we already discussed the engine and transmission combo in the rav4 does feel more
Responsive, but an important thing to point out is that the Honda is a lot quieter as it delivers its power
but like Mason saying
Honda delivers you that speed in a way that's much much quieter much more refined than the main rivals
It really does create a much more I don't know it feels the more upscale to me
When you don't when you push the accelerator who doesn't
You know kind of like the wrath for does
Now one thing I will mention is something we mentioned last year and in the Camry as well
This two and a half liter four-cylinder is a little bit on the noisy end of things
It but whatever reason it just
Seems to make a lot more noise when you're accelerating heavily
I mean, of course want you if you're just driving more casually and what you're cruising here. Now, everything is really quiet inside the cabin
But as far as it when you first takeoff and accelerate heavily
You will notice more noise than what most of the competition produces now as far as the other driving
Characteristics both have fantastic ride quality as well as surprisingly nimble handling
However, by the seat of my pants the rav4 has the sporty or setup. I
Know the last thing I just wanna talk about here is your steering and handling I have to say really really impressed by this
The switch to the new TNGA platform is like life-changing for the rav4
you know because it went from
frankly not real sport real sporty or real good handling or anything - now this is kind of
Towards the top end of the class. I can only think of a few things
Like Mazda cx-5 something tough like that that you know feel better out on the road
Like it really has a surprisingly agile feel you can take this like into this corner here
And it stays really flat
Feels really well-balanced the steering actually has a decent amount of heft and as you can see it responds immediately
this is really all that I could ever ask for in this class a vehicle like
You know, it just it just works. It works really well
Lastly in regards to fuel economy. The CRV does outdo the rav4 but not by more than our 5 percent margin to get a point
It gets a class-leading 29 combined with all-wheel drive versus the rav4 is still great 28 combined
Well there you have it the CRV edges out the rav4 edition
but as you can see both have distinct advantages and disadvantages over each other as
always we encourage you to check them out in person at a dealership and
All in although. There are definitely many reasons why these are the two best sellers
Anyways guys thanks for joining us on this car confections comparison and be sure to subscribe for more
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