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What's the difference?
The Jeep Wrangler is a very capable 4WD with real bush cred, but the all-out glory is usually reserved for the hard-core Wrangler variant, the Rubicon.
The Overland is often disparagingly referred to as the city Wrangler. But is that really the case? After all, it’s 'Trail Rated', as well.
We tested the four-door Overland over a seven-day period to see how it’d perform on-road, but most of our focus was on its comfort and capability in an off-road environment.
Read on.
The Toyota RAV4 has long been one of the most popular medium SUVs on the Aussie market. In recent years, however, it has faced increasingly intense competition from its rivals.
And as car buyers move towards alternative energy sources and lower emissions, the hybrid realm has swiftly become a hotly contested section of the market.
The all-wheel drive RAV4 has impressed me, but how about the 2WD version? And in top spec to boot?
Read on.
The Overland is (surprisingly) not atrocious on-road and (not surprisingly) very capable off-road. It costs a lot but, geez, it's a barrel of laughs.
If your heart is set on a four-door mid-size 4WD that's a whole lot of fun to drive, but rather impractical for daily life, then it’s difficult to over-look the Overland.
If you’re really gung-ho about hard-core off-roading – rock-crawling etc – then perhaps you should focus on the Rubicon, but for everything else the Overland, even on standard tyres, is more than capable.
The Toyota RAV4, particularly in Cruiser Hybrid spec, is a sensible, comfortable family 2WD wagon with plenty of standard features onboard.
It's nice enough to drive on-road without ever being over-the-top dynamic and offers a sensible amount of practicality and functionality for the price.
It feels a tad underdone, especially as rivals in this section of the market are improving all the time, but if you're patient enough to wait for Toyota's supply to catch up with customer demand, the RAV4 Cruiser 2WD Hybrid might just be spot-on for you.
The Wrangler's appearance has been tweaked throughout the years without ever sacrificing any of the ol’ Wrangler spirit.
It has stuck to its traditional roots and, as such, retains its old-school chunkiness, which is good, but the Overland is less of a hardcore-looking 4WD and more of a lifestyle-suited off-roader than its Rubicon stablemate.
Though the Overland version has a certain blocky appeal, I reckon the Rubicon is better for having fully embraced the all-out off-road look and feel, tyres and all.
Beyond its distinctive RAV4 grille, 18-inch black gloss alloys and that rather striking Saturn Blue paint, this medium-sized SUV remains inoffensive enough.
For those of you who love measurements, the Toyota RAV4 Cruiser 2WD Hybrid is 4615mm long (with a 2690mm wheelbase), 1865mm wide, and 1690mm high. It has a listed kerb weight of 1700kg.
What can you say about a vehicle that has a “wash-out interior with drain plugs” listed in its specs?
This is a purpose-built off-roader and the Overland’s five-seat cabin is a basic but functional space, in which it’s easy to immediately feel comfortable.
All dials, knobs and switches are easy to locate and chunky enough to operate while skipping over corrugations or climbing up steep rock steps.
There's leather everywhere – seats, steering wheel, shifter knob – but durable outdoors-tough surfaces also abound.
What always strikes me about the Wrangler interior is the fact that it’s abundantly clear Jeep designers regularly experience – or at least are familiar with – the type of life that Wranglers are aimed at: fun, dirty, rough-and-tumble adventures in the great outdoors.
There isn’t a lot of storage space inside but there are a few small, deep, and textured receptacles – ideal for keeping your bits and pieces in the same spot while you bounce around off-road – as well as grab handles, including a big sturdy one in front of the front-seat passenger.
There are also tensioned net pockets on the doors so you can throw stuff in there, but beyond those there aren't a lot of storage options.
There are air vents, two USB-C ports, and a 230V inverter in the centre console.
Rear cargo space is listed at 898 litres; with the rear seat stowed away, there is a claimed 2050 litres of room.
It's a clean and comfortable cabin with a solid attempt at a premium look and feel, but it all feels a bit dated and under-done, even with leather accented interior trim and plenty of soft-touch surfaces.
There's the usual amount of RAV4 storage, which is more than adequate and, for charging your devices, there are three USB ports up front and two for the rear seat passengers.
The 10.5-inch touchscreen multimedia system and driver display are bright, clear and generally easy to use, although the media unit's operating system can at times be a bit of a labyrinth to work through.
Buttons, dials and grippy textured controls are easy to locate and operate.
All seats are okay without being great, but up front they are power-adjustable every which way, so there's that.
The rear seat is roomy enough in all directions for even those whose nickname is 'Stretch', 'Big Unit' or simply 'Tall Bastard'. The fold-down armrest has cupholders.
For kids, that seat row has three top-tether points and ISOFIX anchors in the outboard positions.
In terms of packability, the rear cargo area has a listed 580 litres of space, but with that rear seat stowed away there's a listed 1690 litres.
That area has a cargo blind, four tie-down points, a 12V socket and a removeable floor liner.
If you’re keen on one of these Jeeps you’ll have to be ready to sell one of your organs – and I don’t mean your church keyboard.
This five-seat vehicle as tested has a manufacturer suggested retail price of $86,950, excluding on-road costs.
The list of standard features is extensive, as it should be at this price, and includes an 8.4-inch multimedia touchscreen unit, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a nine-speaker Alpine premium audio system (with subwoofer), as well as premium touches like heating for the steering wheel and front seats, black leather trimmed seats (with ‘Overland’ logo), leather-wrapped gear-shifter knob and parking brake handle, 18-inch alloy wheels and more.
Exterior paint includes 'Bright White' (on our test vehicle) and black (both standard), and optional colours such as 'Silver Zynith', 'Sting Grey', 'Firecracker Red', 'Punk’n' (orange), 'Earl' (blue-ish grey), 'Hydro Blue' and 'High Velocity' (yellow).
If you opt for the 'Sky-One-Touch Premium Package' (which includes the 'Sky-One-Touch Power Top', and body colour fender flares) that’s an extra $6450.
The front-wheel drive, five-seat Toyota RAV4 Cruiser 2WD Hybrid has a MSRP of $51,410 (excluding on-road costs).
Standard features include a 10.5-inch multimedia touchscreen system (with sat nav, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto), a nine-speaker JBL stereo set-up (with digital radio), a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, a surround-view camera, plus 10-way power driver's seat incl. memory, eight-way power passenger seat, heated and ventilated front seats, leather accented interior, dual-zone auto climate control, a power tailgate, tilt/slide sunroof, and 18-inch gloss black alloy wheels.
Exterior colour choices include 'Glacier White', 'Silver Sky', 'Frosted White', 'Graphite', 'Eclipse Black', 'Atomic Rush', 'Mineral Blue' and 'Saturn Blue' (the latter on our test vehicle).
This Jeep has a 3.6-litre 'Pentastar' V6 engine – producing 209kW at 6400rpm and 347Nm at 4100rpm – and an eight-speed automatic transmission.
It's an effective engine-and-auto pairing for driving on sealed surfaces and well suited to high- and low-range 4WDing.
The Toyota RAV4 Cruiser 2WD hybrid has a 2.5-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine and electric motor set-up with a 1.6kWh (6.5Ah) nickel-metal hydride battery system.
Combined system output for power is 160kW and the torque output (combustion engine figure only) is 221Nm at 3600rpm.
This RAV4 has a continuously variable transmission (CVT) and it's pretty cluey when it comes to always being in the revs and ratios sweet spot.
It also has an EV mode for driving only on battery power to reduce fuel consumption and emissions, and several driving modes including 'Eco', 'Normal' and 'Sport'.
The drive settings are designed to produce optimal ride and handling via maximised engine performance and tuning, steering and throttle response, best suited to the terrain and conditions.
Official fuel consumption is listed as 9.7L/100km on a combined cycle.
Actual fuel consumption on this test, from pump to pump, was 13.6L/100km, largely attributable to the fact I did a lot of low-range four-wheel driving on this test, as always.
The Wrangler Overland Unlimited has an 81-litre tank so, going by that fuel figure above, you could reasonably expect a driving range of about 595km from a full tank.
Note: Drop 30km to 50km from your total calculated fuel-range figure for a better idea of your vehicle’s safe touring range – so that figure above would be 565km.
Also, remember that numerous other factors affect your fuel consumption and so impact your touring range, including how much extra weight you have onboard (passengers, camping gear etc), whether your vehicle is fitted with any aftermarket equipment (bullbar, spare-wheel carrier, etc), whether you are towing (a camper-trailer, caravan, or boat etc), your vehicle's tyre pressures and the conditions.
The Toyota RAV4 Cruiser 2WD Hybrid has listed fuel consumption of 4.7L/100km (on a combined cycle).
I recorded 5.9L/100km on our test, but, as a mate so kindly pointed out, I drive like an old gentleman.
The RAV4 has a 55-litre fuel tank, so going by that on-test fuel-consumption figure, you could reasonably expect to get a driving range of about 930km out of a full tank.
The Wrangler Overland is a fun, go-kart style drive and yields a real driver-direct experience you get from few other contemporary vehicles on the blacktop and the dirt.
But while it’s nowhere near as atrocious as you might expect on sealed surfaces its planted, squared-off stance gives it a definite composure on bitumen. It’s certainly no sports car in terms of ride and handling.
It’s quite soft on-road, soaking up most imperfections with ease, but it also takes quite a lot of effort and concentration to keep this Jeep in line on the open road because it tends to float around on the blacktop if not constantly reined in.
Also, its steering has a lightness about it that can sometimes be a bit disconcerting.
The V6 is a gutsy unit, capable of punching the Overland along at a fair clip, all while the eight-speed auto handles clever and nicely controlled shifts.
Because it’s so blocky, straight up and down, with big wing mirrors and the like, the Overland is rather noisy on sealed surfaces.
But it remains one of the few modern vehicles that deserves to be driven with the windows down, because it offers that kind of visceral driving experience – as the LC70 Series, or Suzuki Jimny do.
So, how does the Overland perform off-road? Bloody glad you asked.
Spoiler alert: The Overland is not as good an off-roader as the Rubicon because it does not have that variant’s BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain tyres, 'Rock-Trac' active on-demand 4x4 system (with 4:1 transfer case*, and 77.2:1 crawl ratio), front and rear locking differentials, or the Rubicon’s very handy electronic front sway bar disconnect. (* The Overland has 2.72:1.)
But, having said that, the Overland is still an extremely capable off-roader.
To be honest, I wasn't expecting any strife because it retains all the traditional goodness of the Wrangler with very few compromises. It’s a genuine 4WD with a dual-range transfer case, a ladder chassis, solid axles and well-proven 4WD heritage.
In terms of size, the Overland is 4882mm long (with a 3008mm wheelbase), 1894mm wide, 1838mm high. It has a listed kerb weight of 1900kg.
Steering has a nice weight to it at lower speeds, giving the driver a great sense of sustained control through even the most severe obstacles, but the Overland’s turning circle is a listed 12.44m, so this off-roader can sometimes feel like a mini-bus to steer through tight turns.
However, this is a purpose-built off-roader with a wide wheel track and low centre of gravity, so it feels planted no matter how rough and bumpy the terrain gets.
On the gravel track to our off-road testing site, there are numerous steering-wheel-jolting corrugations but overall the Overland – with a coil spring at each corner – soaked them up.
Our 4WD loop included the aforementioned gravel tracks, light to medium corrugations, undulating mud tracks and mud holes, and some very challenging low-range 4WD sections (in particular, a steep rocky hill), and a few other set-pieces to see if the Overland was able to do everything safely and comfortably.
As a true 4WD worth its weight in gold, the Wrangler is immediately more at home taking on low-speed 4WDing than it is negotiating suburban traffic.
Again, the V6 engine comes into its own, delivering smooth, even torque when needed, but not ever over-working to achieve that.
Considered driving is necessary as is slow and steady throttle, but that's easily achieved in the Wrangler as its go pedal is none too sensitive to a bouncing boot.
It’s refreshing to note that switching to 4WD High or 4WD Low range is still done via a stubby stick to the left of the auto shifter, rather than the push of a button, or the turn of a dial.
Low-range gearing is very good and the Overland has a well-calibrated off-road traction control that seamlessly launches into action when required, and wasted wheelspin is kept to an absolute minimum.
This Wrangler has 242mm ground clearance and a standard wading depth of 760mm, and was never troubled on climbing steep rock steps, traversing deep ruts or punching through mudholes.
It’s supremely sure-footed during low-range work but visibility can be an issue: over-bonnet visibility has improved slightly over previous generations but the driver’s view to the front and side is still a bit squeezed, making it at times difficult to visually pick correct wheel-placement, especially when driving steep terrain at sharp angles.
It can go hardcore, no worries, but it simply requires a bit more thought and you know what? That’s fine with me because it makes the off-roading experience an even more engaging one.
The Overland has approach, departure and breakover angles of 35.8, 31.2 and 20.4 degrees, respectively.
With live axles front and rear, the Overland has plenty of wheel travel to keep moving and under control through truly off-grid country.
The only real compromises in the Overland’s 4x4 set-up are its standard Bridgestone Dueler (255/70R18) highway tyres and, even on those, the Overland walked up and over our toughest off-road challenges.
Though the Overland is not historically regarded as a towing platform, it’s handy for you to know that it has listed towing capacities of 750kg (unbraked trailer) and 2495kg (braked).
The RAV4 is very quiet* and generally rather nice to drive. So, as a daily driver, it's on the right side of impressive.
* Except when it's not, keep reading.
It has smooth acceleration and quickly settles into an easy groove at higher speeds.
Steering retains a welcome precision, visibility is good all around, and the RAV4 always feels settled on any surface.
It does ride and handle well on the blacktop and it's not too shabby on gravel and dirt surfaces, though it skips around on rougher, more irregular sections, due to its firm suspension and road-biased tyres.
The CVT is smooth and efficient in terms of being the optimal auto. It's not dynamic but it's certainly reliably consistent.
This hybrid switches between the engine and electric motor seamlessly and battery charge is easily regenerated through the vehicle's forward motion when little to no throttle is being used to maintain momentum (as in downhills or while otherwise coasting), or the vehicle is slowing to a stop.
NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) levels are mostly subdued except when you give the RAV4 some heavy right boot to spur it into immediate action. There's also some mild wind-rush noise around the big wing mirrors when you hit the open road.
As I've said before, the owners of city-focussed SUVs would be surprised by just how capable their vehicles are when driven sensibly, even the 2WDs.
You can undertake your own scaleable adventure in a 2WD vehicle but, of course, any trip off of a sealed surface in a 2WD will have to be very light-duty off-roading. So, nothing more difficult than a well-maintained dirt or gravel track surface in dry weather.
Towing capacity is 480kg – unbraked and braked – so you won't see a RAV4 skull-dragging a horse float any time soon.
The Wrangler Overland Unlimited has the maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating from testing in 2019.
Standard safety gear onboard includes four airbags (driver and front-seat passenger only), AEB, adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, forward collision warning, rear-view camera, and front and rear parking sensors.
The Toyota RAV4 Cruiser 2WD Hybrid has the maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating from testing in 2019.
Safety gear onboard includes AEB with pedestrian/daytime cyclist detection, intersection turn assist, adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, lane departure warning, lane tracing assist, rear cross-traffic alert, front and rear parking sensors, traffic sign recognition, trailer sway control, hill-start assist, a 360-degree surround-view camera and more.
It has seven airbags including front, front side, full length curtain and driver's knee airbag.
The Overland Unlimited is covered by a five-year/unlimited km warranty.
Servicing is set at 12 month or 12,000km intervals at a total cost of $1995 over five years, with servicing capped at a maximum $399 per appointment.
Lifetime roadside assist is available to Overland owners when they service through Jeep.
The Toyota RAV4 Cruiser 2WD Hybrid has a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty. Get all your work done at a certified Toyota mechanic and you're in line of powertrain coverage under warranty for seven years.
Servicing is set at 12 month/15,000km intervals and capped price servicing keeps costs to $260 a pop for the first five years or 75,000km.