The good folks over at The Fast Lane Car channel on YouTube have brought an electrified family crossover to brawl with a retired V8 police vehicle, and the results are pretty surprising, frankly.
According to the sales results from the first half of the year, the data revealed significant delivery growth across almost every segment of the automotive market in the United States. However, the leader's performance – compact crossovers – was still quite astonishing, as it jumped 15%. Even full-size pickup trucks couldn't keep up with that, as the latter surged 11% for second position at quite the sales distance.
As such, is anyone surprised that TFL's Andre Smirnov says Toyota sold a whopping 40k units of the RAV4 compact crossover SUV in August alone? Not at all, even though some of its versions aren't that cheap. In fact, none of them are anymore, as the base MSRP for a 2023 model year kicks off at $28,275, followed by the RAV4 Hybrid from $31,225 and the Prime plug-in hybrid versions starting at more than $43k.
Still, the success of the iconic Toyota RAV4, the originator of the compact crossover SUV segment, is undeniable even if the fifth generation (XA50) is growing a bit long in the tooth as it was first unveiled at the 2018 edition of the New York International Auto Show in March 2018. Anyway, Andre probably thought the Toyota RAV4 Prime with 302 electrified ponies has enough aces up its family hauler sleeve to put a few rivals to the test. But why on earth did they think it could outrun a police vehicle?
Well, maybe simply because they have a series titled "Are you faster than a cop car?" that bodes well for one of their latest acquisitions – a retired 2019 Dodge Charger pursuit vehicle. By the way, the latter comes equipped with the legendary Hemi V8 and some 370 horsepower, plus AWD, so that it might have the performance upper hand compared to the 302-hp RAV4 Prime. However, their 'test track' is quite unprepped (complete with grass coming out between the slabs of concrete), and that will surely put a strain on the drivetrains.
I don't think you want us to spoil the outcome of the drag and roll races plus the brake test, but here it goes. To put it plain and straightforward – Toyota's boring-looking yet oh-so-successful RAV4 Prime "kicked the b*tt" of the menacing cop car across all tests. It smoked the Dodge on the quarter mile with 15.7s versus 16.2s ETs and then also let it bite the dust during the roll race. Plus, in the end, it also out-braked it with an impressive 98 to 103-feet result. So, are you just as surprised as we are?
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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