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Toyota RAV4 Prime hybrid SUV now selling for 48% over MSRP

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Re: Toyota RAV4 Prime hybrid SUV now selling for 48% over MSRP

#81
post #39
post #9

I bought one last Fall for sticker price and as the commute to my daughters school is 50 miles rt we fill the tank once a month or so. Basically a great gateway drug to fully electric, which is what I want when I can get an F150 which is not taking orders atm.

The pricing on the RAV4 is nuts. For that commute, you could sell it and buy a used low-range EV, like a 2018 BMW i3: https://driverbase.com/research/vehicles/bmw/i3/2018 and end up with ~$42K in pocket. (It is particularly inexpensive because they significantly improved the range in 2019. However, the 2018 would easily do your commute.) We ended up buying one in lieu of trading in an ICE pickup truck for a backorder…

I assume that when anything goes wrong with a BMW, and I assume it will relatively quickly, the repair costs will quickly close the gap on any initial savings.

Re: Toyota RAV4 Prime hybrid SUV now selling for 48% over MSRP

#82
RAV4 Prime looks good.

I probably should plug its competitors: Hyundai Tucson PHEV and Ford Escape PHEV. They're cheaper and roughly the same size. They don't have the insane acceleration of the RAV4 prime, but they accomplish the goal of going from A-to-B with 40ish miles of all electric range + gasoline backup.

If you're willing to sacrifice the acceleration, the Hyundai Tucson PHEV should be competitive. Ford Escape PHEV is FWD only and also slower, but its the cheapest of all 3 options.

Re: Toyota RAV4 Prime hybrid SUV now selling for 48% over MSRP

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better that excess demand is captured by the manufacturer, which can be reinvested into manufacturing, than the dealer. I far prefer the transparent pricing of Tesla, and its now the only manufacturer I'd consider buying from in the USA.

>I far prefer the transparent pricing of Tesla An interesting comment considering this is above a story of Tesla cutting functionality via a software update for a customer years after purchase and demanding thousands to undo it. That sort of stuff, their lackluster QC and the erratic behavior of the CEO has me pretty skeptical of them as a company.

If you read the story or the comments the car had a 60kwh battery replaced under warranty but only a 90kwh was available. Procedure was to set the battery firmware to 60 kwh but for whatever reason that didn't happen. The car was then sold twice until someone found the discrepancy and fixed it. Nobody received anything less than they paid for from Tesla.

The current owner may have been deceived by one of the previous sellers but that's not something your can really blame on Tesla

Re: Toyota RAV4 Prime hybrid SUV now selling for 48% over MSRP

#84
As a side note, from a European perspective, Japanese cars seem to be so far behind in terms of technology that the only reason to even consider them is their reliability.

For the price of Toyota RAV4 one could get either a 7-seater Škoda Kodiaq[1], or a fully electric Škoda Enyaq[2], both of which are more practical and more premium inside.

[1] https://www.carwow.co.uk/skoda/kodiaq

[2] https://www.carwow.co.uk/skoda/enyaq

Re: Toyota RAV4 Prime hybrid SUV now selling for 48% over MSRP

#85
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t speak for the quoted, but the dealerships are not creating the value that makes the cars desirable. They simply are in the right place at the right time and none of the extra money they get is going to improve the car in the future.

like a real estate agent?

You aren't required to use a real estate agent though (at least in my jurisdiction).

Re: Toyota RAV4 Prime hybrid SUV now selling for 48% over MSRP

#86
post #72

Wild. Reminds me of the lines for 2nd gen Toyota Priuses in the early 2000s, and also the early Highlander hybrids. What's so great about the RAV4? Subaru Outbacks are basically SUV sized these days, with arguably superior AWD to the RAV4. That's what I ended up with when I was buying a few years ago. It's not hybrid, but $30-50k buys a lot of gas, and we don't do many miles. If you did a bunch of miles (commuting?),…

> What's so great about the RAV4?

It has 42 miles of electric range. Prius Prime only has 25. So you can have an SUV, have electric, and have a gas engine for long trips.

Re: Toyota RAV4 Prime hybrid SUV now selling for 48% over MSRP

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likewise. Toyota Auris 2011 owner here. Does what I need it to do. Not even sure what I’d replace it with, but there’s nothing I’m looking at that comes close to justifying it’s cost versus just keeping this running.

I agree - it's definitely not the right time to be getting a new car if you can help it. I said to myself I'd drive this car for at least 10 years...what's another year or two to let prices come back to earth.

In few years when petrol and disel cars get banned in 1st world countries -> gonna buy my dream car for peanuts.

My country does not care about the climate (Poland).

Thats just reality. One man’s trash is anothers man’s treasure.

Re: Toyota RAV4 Prime hybrid SUV now selling for 48% over MSRP

#88
post #80
post #73

Unrelated to price it's great to see PHEVs getting better and better on larger cars and drawing demand. I've got a first-gen Volvo XC90 T8 PHEV which only gets like 17miles (ok more like 14 if the heat or A/C is on which is basically always) on electric but it makes a huge difference in overall mpg since I use the ICE on the highway and switch to electric in-town. My one concern is that there's a huge question mark a…

Small battery like that won't be terrible to replace. I know for the 1st gen Insight, you can pick up those batteries for about $2000-2500. And usually when the car has a dead battery, the price of them is around... $2000-2500 cheaper than one with a good battery. Lots of people just drive them with bad batteries and still end up getting over 50mpgs.

I sure hope so. MSRP on the battery is over $10k right now from Volvo[1] although poking around some dealers have them as low as $8k. Maybe there will be aftermarket options in the future?

Sort of silly to hope for but if I'm lucky the battery will prematurely degrade within the 8-year hybrid warranty and they'll replace it for free.

[1] https://usparts.volvocars.com/p/Volvo_2017_XC90-20l-4-cylind...

Re: Toyota RAV4 Prime hybrid SUV now selling for 48% over MSRP

#90

For those looking for an alternative, I highly recommend the Ford Escape PHEV. It’s about 12K cheaper with the federal incentives. You lose out on some stuff like AWD and one recall, but overall the compromises were worth the 12K difference. The car handles very well and remote app is free. With the electric range and my habits, I would need to get gas every 6 months. I get over 40 mpg if I run on gas (in the summer)…

> I get over 40 mpg if I run on gas (in the summer).

I don't think that's a fair number. It seems cost/mile or carbon/mile would make more since, since that number assumes electricity is free.

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