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I was looking at the new Rav 4 as a replacement to my Hyundai Tuscon.
It's a Marmite looking car but some of the packaging is really lacking - the luggage space is better than the Hyundai but at the expense of a noticeably smaller passenger space.
The biggest surprise was the infotainment system though, it is significantly behind some of the other SUVs that I have been looking at.
The screen appears to be much lower resolution and it is not compatible with either Apple Car or Android Auto which I would have thought would be standard on a £30k car!?
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Add to your list of complaints the keyless entry that has been much reported as being very vulnerable to relay theft. How can a manufacturer like Toyota so good in so many ways be so behind the curve in others.
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Kia/Hyundai were one of the leaders on ACP/AA. I was very pleasantly surprised back in 2017 when they updated my 2016 Sorento to enable it.
Amazingly, BMW have said they don't ever intend to support Android Auto.
I find AA very helpful, and am loathe to change to another car without it. So my next car may be an Audi, rather than a BMW. But for now I'll stick with my Kia.
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What disappoints me the most about Toyota's infotainment system is that it uses an underpowered processor and/or inefficient programming which results in very slow responses. Often when I touch something on the touch screen there is no indication that the touch has been accepted, so I touch it again, but then it suddenly actions both touches and selects something I didn't want. This then needs further touches to go back and try again,very distracting when you should be concentrating on driving.
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Toyota have been behind the curve when it comes to Android Auto. I hired a new Camry in Perth Aus in May. I was the very first to hire it. No Android Auto. And that car was more expensive than the Rav4. It's not coming to some models until 2020. That said go test the new Vitara.. The 1.4 Boosterjet is a peach..
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Going by what i read, Japanese cars in general have infotainment systems well behind those fitted to German cars. Considering how long Japan led the world in terms of technology (and almost certainly still do in some fields), it seems odd that they are so poor in this particular area.
I'm very much a luddite with in car tech, so, at the moment anyway, it is of little concern to me. Our Jazz has a touchscreen and while i believe it has AA (my youngest can play the tunes on his phone through it), my wife, who has an iphone, can't.
But i just listen to the radio!.
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The proper Japanese makers like Mr T are very conservative in outlook and i for one am very glad of it, yes they can come up with fantastic and complicated things which really work and prove durable, ie Toyotas Hybrid system, but they are slow in adopting the gimmicky stuff often adopted instantly by other makers, so don't put these things in their cars until its proved to be very very reliable.
I too am not bothered about such things as linking my phone to the car for music playing either, my 14 year old car's multi CD player still works perfectly well with good deep sound as does the multi system touch screen controller, though happily the most used audio buttons are below the touch screen and easy to locate without looking, i'd much rather have the basics right than the latest electronic fad which i wouldn't use and might well be obsolete with no back up five minutes later.
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I understand many of the sentiments expressed re tried and tested technology and I am broadly pleased with my current Tuscon, it has had one major fault that was fixed eventually.
The lease is up for renewal and it's time to replace it and new leases for the same model are considerably more expensive (falling value of the £ I guess).
So I was looking at the new Rav 4 as there are some introductory leasing offers.
Reliability is important as is technology because I rely on the satnav to get me around the country to my clients and the Tuscon system is very good with TOMTOM traffic built in that uses real time congestion data to re-route. I estimate that it saves me a good 3-4 hours a week - which over a year adds up.
The tech needs to be intuitive to use and quick to respond, I don't want to be looking at a screen wondering if my input has been accepted.
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The last Toyota satnav i used was on my 2007 Hilux, same one as on my 2005 Landcruiser give or take, to be fair they work well once programmed, but are the most frustrating piece of junk i've ever had the misfortune to try and program, so if the new ones haven't improved much i can fully understand you being reluctant, especially as you make such good use of it.
At work i have a company supplied permanently wired professional large screen Garmin, digi-traffic is pretty good on it (but not as fast or local as Google Traffic), almost never use it as a satnav because been on the road that long i know me way round most of the country, but when i have used it for directions the ones in my Toyotas might as well have come out of The Ark by comparison.
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I was a passenger in a Toyota Avensis & the built in sat nav insisted we where driving in a field when in fact we where in the road.
It was an old road that looked like it had been there a very long time so I suspect the map data Toyota where using at the time wasnt the best quality.
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I was a passenger in a Toyota Avensis & the built in sat nav insisted we where driving in a field when in fact we where in the road.
It was an old road that looked like it had been there a very long time so I suspect the map data Toyota where using at the time wasnt the best quality.
Don't know when this was but it is also very possible that the owner hadn't updated their maps ...
Toyota use (& have done for years) mapping from Here. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_(company)
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Reliability is important as is technology because I rely on the satnav to get me around the country to my clients and the Tuscon system is very good with TOMTOM traffic built in that uses real time congestion data to re-route.
Apple CarPlay is expected to be added very shortly (supposedly the facelifted C-HR coming very soon [dealer demos arriving late October] will ship "with MM19 "including Apple carplay, Android auto, OTA map updates, improved Nav functionality, e-call").
Existing Toyota Touch 2 systems have Tomtom realtime traffic messaging via internet (i.e your connected phone)
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When I was seriously looking at a Volvo V60 back in July, I was surprised to find that Apple Car Play and Android Auto are optional extras. I sometimes use Google maps on Android Auto when the onboard satnav in my Audi isn’t doing the job well enough. I have also used it to play Spotify playlists on long journeys. I could live without it, but it’s nice to have and I would have thought it would become standard equipment by now. The counter argument is that the manufacturer is saving you money by excluding extras that you may not want, but the decision as to what Mr Average does and doesn’t want is very subjective and no manufacturer is going to get it right for every buyer.
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Hopefully, new Rav4 will be my next car…..
Apparently, The 2019 Toyota RAV4 with the updated Entune v.3 allows you to use Apple Car Play.
One of the reason why Japanese are so slow on developing the infotainment system, is because, in Japan people rarely buy a factory fitted(manufacturers) infotainment system. 99% of buyers opts for the third party infotainment system. Likes of Panasonic/Pioneer etc.
As a result, many Japanese manufacturer including Toyota/Honda won’t spend their money developing one as there is no demand for it.
They are Japanese web site but you can see it if you scroll it down. It has a black plastic cover instead of infotainment system.
https://toyota.jp/rav4/index_a.html?padid=tjprav4top_a_from_rav4top_notype
https://www.honda.co.jp/Fit/webcatalog/interior/design/
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Hopefully, new Rav4 will be my next car…..
Apparently, The 2019 Toyota RAV4 with the updated Entune v.3 allows you to use Apple Car Play.
Entune 3 (Americas, Australasia) has had CarPlay for many months . European Toyotas don't use Entune though.
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Sorry, that information was for non-European market. I reckon you need to get retro upgraded the software at Toyota Dealer. It's definately available.....
https://www.apple.com/uk/ios/carplay/available-models/
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Not yet in European market Toyota cars (& this is an European based website/forum) with the exception of the Aygo (because PSA are responsible for the infotainment of the 3 shared platform city cars).
It's possible that the Proace etc. light commercials also may have it already because they are PSA based vehicles.
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Not all Japanese car makers are behind the curve. Suzuki have Apple and Android and have done so for a couple of years. My Vitara and Swift have them.
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Toyota website is now saying new Rav4 and other models will have Apple Carplay and Android Auto.
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Toyota announced in December that upgrade kits will be available for existing model Rav4's from May 2020. £50 fitted or free when done with a service.
Edited by Auristocrat on 12/01/2020 at 12:22
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I wouldn't worry too much about not having it. Our 2019 Honda CR-V has it, and I thought it would be useful. However, it doesn't seem to work very well - won't pick up my Anazon Music for example - and is difficult to use, so I've uninstalled it from my phone. Trouble is, the car insists on it being there when I plug the phone into the higher powered socket to charge it, so i have to use an in car charger rather than the USB sockets provided. There might be something in the car settings to disable it I guess. All in all, a waste of time IMHO. I just play the music and radio via bluetooth.
Edited by Mike H on 12/01/2020 at 10:49
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I wouldn't worry too much about not having it. Our 2019 Honda CR-V has it, and I thought it would be useful. However, it doesn't seem to work very well - won't pick up my Anazon Music for example - and is difficult to use, so I've uninstalled it from my phone. Trouble is, the car insists on it being there when I plug the phone into the higher powered socket to charge it, so i have to use an in car charger rather than the USB sockets provided. There might be something in the car settings to disable it I guess. All in all, a waste of time IMHO. I just play the music and radio via bluetooth.
Some car companies never used ACP or AA because of data loss fears as they are easily hacked,
but the Civic will allow charging from centre console without a problem but not that keen on the infotainment myself and only use the radio or Maps, but not a lover of Garmin(presume they still use Garmin) as it tells you the junctions where to go far too early and doesn't remind you when you get there, I use google maps as backup daft as it sounds but much more accurate imo
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