2019 Toyota RAV4 vs Volvo XC40

What's the difference?

This new RAV4 has converted me. I didn't like any of the previous ones, with varying levels of displeasure. None of them were bad, they were just dull transport wrapped in what Toyota thought was fun.

The fifth-generation RAV4 joins the C-HR and new Corolla as genuinely likeable cars. Toyotas have always been 'good cars' - solid, dependable and could take a pounding few others would even contemplate. But that's not enough anymore and the TNGA platform is delivering cars that aren't just good transport but really very good cars.

The only problems with the Edge are that it costs too much and isn't a hybrid. Both of those things will probably have you saving a few bucks and buying the Cruiser hybrid.

The XC40 Inscription T4 is beautifully designed while also being spacious and practical – yep almost perfect form and function. Then there’s the exceptional safety systems, but a lack of standard adaptive cruise control or auto parking is odd. That also affects the driving experience, which while good isn’t as refined as its stylish design may suggest.

I do feel a bit sorry for Toyota's designers. We moan about dull cars - the previous RAV4 was mostly pretty dull - and say, "Be more interesting." Then they pop out the new RAV4 and people like me say, "No, not like that."

While the overall look is pleasingly chunky and blocky, some of the details are less so. That weird black strip that joins the rear quarter window to the tailgate looks unaligned with anything else on the car. The Tiguan rear lights look a bit stolen.

The Edge looks like a ruggedised RAV4. It has its own bumper and grille treatment and chunky, unpainted wheelarches, along with its own exclusive colour palette.

The new cabin is a pleasing step up from the old car's. Here in the Edge there are some fun splashes of what looks like McLaren's Papaya Orange and even more splashes of rubber.

Some of the switchgear and grab handles are finished in rubber, harking back to the idea of a hose-out interiors of early Land Cruisers (do not hose out your RAV4).

That's about it for adventure, though, but that's okay. It's an interior that will take a family and its stuff without fuss.

Nearly everything about the design of the Volvo XC40 is interesting: from the way the bonnet sits flat and high, then leads to that sub nose with its modern grille, to the way the back door panel kicks up sharply to meet the rear pillar that’s hugged by long, angular tail-lights flanking a cleanly designed tailgate. It’s Volvo’s cool, minimalist design in a little SUV package.

And the exterior dimensions show just how little the XC40 is at 4.4m long, about 1.6m tall and 2.0m wide (with the mirrors out). How does that affect space inside? We’ll get to that below in the practicality section.

As far as the design inside goes Volvo minimalism is present throughout the cabin. This cockpit has a stylish simplicity, with a high-quality feel to the materials and excellent fit and finish.

The Inscription comes with pale ‘Drift Wood’ in-lays on the dash and doors – it’s a light coloured, rough feeling wood, see the interior images for yourself. There’s a 'crystal' gear knob, plush carpet trim on the doors, charcoal leather seats and a leather-trimmed steering wheel, too.

You can spot an Inscription from the outside by its 19-inch 'Double Spoke Black Diamond Cut' alloy wheels – again, check these out in the exterior images. While the R-Design grade above it has a two-tone colour scheme with a black roof, the Inscription comes standard as all one colour.

The hue of my test car was 'Luminous Sand Metallic' which is the most stunning shade from a limited choice of colours that includes 'Pine Grey Metallic', 'Denim Blue Metallic', 'Maple Brown Metallic', 'Bright Silver Metallic' and 'Crystal White Pearl'.

Compared to rivals such as the BMW X2, Audi Q2 and Jaguar E-Pace I think the XC40 is arguably the best looking of the bunch.

I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I’m giving the XC40 a perfect 10 because as far as small SUVs go right now, they don’t get better looking or as bravely unique as this inside and out.

The orange bits in the Edge highlight a couple of very handy storage ideas. The dash shelf that I've often praised in the Kluger as being exceptionally useful is here, as well as a Qi wireless charging pad in the same vivid colour.

Both are rubberised so stuff doesn't slide and clatter about. There are USB ports everywhere, too - one for the media system, two in the central console and two for rear seat passengers.

Boot space is better than before at 580 litres with the seats up, an improvement of 33 litres. As is Toyota's wont, we don't have a seats down figure.

Given its likely use as a family car, the RAV's rear seat space is top notch. I had tons of room behind my driving position (I'm just under six feet) and number one son who is well north of six foot tall also had enough room for his knees and giant headphones.

The front seats are fantastic, which is becoming a trend for Toyota and the segment.

There are four cupholders and bottle holders, two up front and two in the back.

The XC40 is small at just 4.4m long and 2.0m wide, but space inside is outstanding for storage and people room.

Up front there’s plenty of room for me at 191cm tall to sit under the steering wheel with stacks of space in the footwell and great head-, shoulder- and elbow room.

Room in the back is also great – I can sit behind my driving position with more than a 20mm of space between my knees and the seatback, while headroom is plentiful, too.

Sitting back there I’m also happy to report that vision isn’t obstructed by the ‘kick-up’ in the door panel as it occurs just behind the back-seat passenger’s shoulder. I also had my four-year old son sitting in the back in his child seat and his visibility wasn’t affected.

Cabin storage is clever and makes use of the available space in the XC40 well.

There are giant bottle holders in the front doors and smaller ones in the rears,  there also four cupholders – two in the cockpit and another in the fold down armrest in the back.

The centre console bin is big and even has a small net for business cards or coins, then there’s the little trap door hidey hole in front of it and the giant area under the dash which also houses the wireless charging pad, 12-volt outlet and USB port. There’s a drawer under the driver’s seat, too.

Rear passengers have seat back net pockets, a USB charging port and directional air vents.

How big is the XC40’s boot? The cargo capacity is 460 litres which is big for an SUV that’s only 4.4m long.

There are three grades in the Volvo XC40 line-up – at the top is the R-Design, at the bottom is the Momentum and in the middle is our test car, the Inscription, for $50,990 before on-road costs, except it had $6410 worth of options.

We’ll get to those options, but first, the standard features. The Inscription comes with a 9.0-inch vertical touchscreen, sat nav, wireless phone charger, digital radio and Bluetooth connectivity, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, leather upholstery, crystal gear knob, dual-zone climate control, power adjustable driver’s seat, proximity key, roof rails, 19-inch alloy wheels and 'Hammer of Thor' LED headlights.

The options fitted to our test car include the $2500 'Technology Pack' which adds adaptive cruise control, 360 degree camera and auto parking. There were heated seats ($550), alarm ($480), tinted rear glass ($700), power folding rear backrest ($250), heated rear seats ($350), lockable glove box ($30), heated steering wheel ($350) and the Harman Kardon stereo ($1200).

Is it good value? It’s about what you’d pay for an BMW X2 or a Jaguar E-Pace in a similar specification. Is it as prestige an offering as a Bimmer or Jag? Definitely.

Is it good value for a small SUV in general? Nope. Mazda, Toyota, Hyundai, Kia and even Volkswagen offer better value for money… so you’re paying a prestige premium with the Volvo. But you know this, right?

Under the Edge's high, flat bonnet is Toyota's 2.5-litre (A25A-FKS) four-cylinder, delivering 152kW/243Nm to all four wheels. An eight-speed automatic transmission gets the power out.

No turbos, no obvious trickery, just a classic Toyota machine, but this time it has a bit more power than previous cars. Irritatingly, you can't get the 163kW hybrid powertrain here at the top of the range.

The all-wheel drive system keeps the power up front for the most part, but can send up to fifty per cent to the rear.

The rear axle also has some clever torque vectoring tech. It won't have you out mixing it with a Land Rover Defender, but the system should make the RAV4 pretty handy in the rough stuff.

There is a terrain select dial where you can choose three different modes (mud and sand, rock and dirt, and snow).

The XC40 Inscription has what Volvo calls its 'T4' turbo-petrol engine with all-wheel drive (AWD).

That’s your only choice for this grade. If you’d prefer a front-wheel drive (FWD) version you’ll need to step down to the Momentum grade which has the same 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine with identical outputs of 140kW/300Nm.

You’ll use more fuel with AWD, and to find out how much more skip to the section below on economy.

The T4 is smooth, quiet and had enough grunt to get up and move quickly when I needed to overtake or merge. There's a small amount of turbo lag, but that’s not a deal breaker.

'Dynamic' mode (the sport setting) sharpens the throttle response and gear shifts.

The eight-speed automatic transmission is smooth, but a little slow in the normal setting and a lack of paddle shifters is disappointing.

The sticker on the windscreen will draw fuel from the 55 litre tank at a rate of 6.1L/100km, which would be nice if it happened. My week with the RAV4 cost fuel at a rate of 10.2L/100km.

About that fuel economy – by choosing the Inscription T4 with its AWD you won’t use much more fuel than the FWD with the same engine.

Volvo officially says the XC40 Inscription T4's mileage over a combination of open and urban roads is 7.4L/100km (the T4 with FWD is 7.2L/100km).

After 175km of peak hour traffic and my test route through country roads I’d used 21.24 litres, which works out to be 12.14L/100km. Motorway kays would bring that number down a stack further.

I came in to the RAV4 expecting good things. Underneath the chunky body is Toyota's Next Generation Architecture (TNGA) which is also under every good Toyota I've driven in the last couple of years - Corolla, C-HR and Camry.

The RAV is quite different to all of those cars. It rides higher and Camry excepted, is heavier. I also had reservations - the new RAV4 is chunkier than the old car by a fair margin and that rarely brings good news.

The first bit of good news before I even got going was finding out that the 2.5-litre engine is paired with an eight-speed automatic.

Getting underway, it felt slushy but is still preferable to a CVT. It may also have felt a bit slow because the engine makes quite a racket, especially compared to other cars in the segment.

A Tucson of the same grade packs a quiet, smooth 1.6-litre turbo and you can have a 2.0-litre turbo-diesel unit. You have to rev the RAV to get it moving, which partially explains the gap between claimed and real-world fuel usage.

Enough of the complaints, because the RAV4 is good. Very good. Quiet once you hit the cruise and super comfortable front and back, this thing will destroy road trips. The stereo will drown out the road noise, too.

Around the suburbs the ride is firm on the big alloys and even on 55 section rubber, it's a bit jumpy on sharper bumps like expansion joints. The chassis handled bigger bumps and depressions quite happily.

I am very pleased to report that it's good fun to chuck around. Despite that high-riding weight, it changes direction really well and it takes a lot to get to the eventual gentle understeer when you're really pushing.

The old car was a wooden duffer, with no steering feel and a deeply ordinary set of numbers when it came to performance.

On top of all that, the tech works pretty well and the lane keep assist doesn't try and break your thumbs or pierce your eardrums to keep you in your lane.

The XC40 Inscription T4 feels good to drive. By that I mean, the steering is light, smooth and direct, with a quiet engine that has acceptable shove along with a comfortable and serene cabin.

These are the boxes that pretty much get ticked in every new Volvo I’ve driven in the past few years.

If you’re after a sportier XC40 then skip the Inscription and head straight to the R-Design with its more powerful 'T5' engine and paddle shifters.

The T4 in the Inscription is fine, but with 140kW its acceleration isn’t mind blowing (0-100km/h in 8.5s) and I found the turbo lag to be frustrating at times.

Built more for comfort than handling the XC40 is easy to pilot, but that soft suspension, short wheelbase (no doubt) and high centre of mass also means speed bumps and pot holes cause a bit of bounce and body wobble at slow speeds over Sydney’s horrendous roads. There were times the family was jiggled cocktail-shaker style.

I was hoping for a better driving experience from the XC40 Inscription T4. It’s a small and relatively affordable SUV (compared to other Volvos), but can’t match the on-road refinement of its bigger siblings.

Then there’s the portrait screen which looks good and removes many of the buttons from the dashboard, but I found it difficult and distracting to use while driving. It’s not intuitive, the layout is book-like and too wordy for quick selections.

There were times I needed to pull over just so that I could work out how to do what should be simple things – like how to turn the stop-start fuel saving system off. Tesla has nailed the large portrait screen – Volvo take note.

Also, adaptive cruise control isn’t a standard feature. Our test car had it optionally fitted but I couldn’t help but fume about that.

Volvo is at the forefront of driving tech like this and making people pay more seems to be at odds with the portrayed ethos of the company.

So, it’s not quite an eight out of 10 here – I feel the driving experience is good but not outstanding.

The Volvo XC40 scored the maximum five-star ANCAP rating when it was assessed in 2018 – but did you really expect anything less? Safety has been Volvo’s schtick for decades.

The standard safety equipment list is extensive. There’s AEB with pedestrian, large animal and cyclist detection; you’ve also got intersection collision and oncoming mitigation with brake and steering support.

There’s lane keeping assistance with collision mitigation, blind spot warning with cross traffic alert, plus front and rear collision warning with braking.

Now for the ‘what the heck?’ part. You need to option adaptive cruise control. You also need to option auto parking.

This seems ridiculous given the XC40 is armed to the hilt with tech and Volvo is a leader in pioneering autonomous driving. I mean, adaptive cruise and parking assistance is standard on a Volkswagen Golf.

The XC40 I tested had the $2500 'Technology Pack' fitted which gave it adaptive cruise and 'Park Assist Pilot'.

All that aside the Volvo still scores well for safety, of course.

For child seats you’ll find two ISOFIX points and three top tether anchor points in the second row. Installing my four-year old’s seat (top tether kind) was as easy as it gets.

Under the boot floor is a space saver spare tyre.

Toyota is close to leading the pack with warranty these days with a five year/unlimited kilometre warranty, and that can go up to seven years for the engine and transmission if you keep the car properly serviced.

If you return to a Toyota dealer every 12 months/15,000km, you'll pay $210 per service, which is absurdly reasonable.

The XC40 is covered by Volvo’s three-year/unlimited kilometre warranty.

Servicing is recommended every 15,000km or 12 months.

Two servicing plans are available for the XC40. The basic 'Smart Care' plan costs $2165 for three years/45,000km, $3320 for four years/60,000km or $4230 for five years/75,000km.