One of the most popular crossovers for sale, the Toyota RAV4 is spacious, fuel-efficient, and a surprise dragstrip hero when powered by its current 3.5-liter V-6 engine option. But it’s also old, having staved off newer competition since its 2007 introduction. It’s in need of a replacement. Badly.
And that’s exactly what it’s getting. Bowing at the 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show at the end of this month, the 2013 Toyota RAV4 looks to implement a sleeker aesthetic, judging by the teaser video of it released today. It will carry the design language introduced on the 2012 Toyota Camry and tweaked on the 2013 Avalon, with a nose similar to that of the current-gen Toyota Corolla. But the RAV4 looks to be mostly evolution rather than revolution.
In case you think you’ve seen it before, you have. In August, we showed you a partially revealed front end of the 2013 Toyota RAV4 spotted in the Middle East. If the interior carries over intact from what we saw then, expect it to look similar to those introduced in the Camry and Prius C, which is to say not too shabby.
Since the 2013 RAV4 will share at least part of its underpinnings with the 2013 Corolla that’s expected to debut–at least in concept form–at January’s North American International Auto Show, rumor has it that the next RAV4 could use a continuously variable automatic transmission that’s expected to see light in the Corolla, or it could use the six-speed automatic transmission and 2.5-liter four-cylinder used in the Camry. Further, there’s a possibility that Toyota will be dropping the V-6 engine used in the current RAV4 in favor of an all four-cylinder lineup, sans the RAV4 EV that will use the current body style for its three-year run.
Around this time begins the slow leak of information regarding the all-new products to be revealed for the auto show season. We’ll likely see more of the 2013 Toyota RAV4 before it heads to the Los Angeles Convention Center November 28.
Source: Toyota
