How did you determine this? Did you divide the amount of miles driven over the amount of gallons filled? Or are you only guessing on the digital display? City? Hwy? Instead of worrying about it now, reset the digital display, fill it back up with fuel, reset your Trip A or B, then the next time you fill up note how many gallons you used then divide that under your Trip A or B.

miles / gallons filled = average mpg

Apparently you did not test drive your Rav4 to determine all of these "issues". If you wanted a CR-V, then you should've gotten one. Trade in your Rav4 and get a CR-V if that is what you really want.

 

Wife wanted a dependable and reliable car before winter. She knows nothing about cars, always been unhappy with any vehicle in the last 30 years. I did all the research and calling.
Watched You Tube video, various forums, Car Fax, Kelly Blue Book , Edmunds, and other reviews from August to mid October. Been reading that 2018 and/or 2017 were the best RAV4's ever produced. The 2018 was tad better cause of the newer Safety features. Live too far away and not enough time to actually Test Drive a RAV4. There more rave and positives about Toyota RAV4. I was also looking at Mazda, Nissan, Honda and Hyundai.
Dropped Hyundai and Nissan as wouldn't last beyond 5 years noted for many problems, then Honda had transmission issues and not sure why but Honda was known not the have corrosion issues but in recent years Honda does rust faster these days.
Mazda been having problems the last few years and their cars don't hold value - depreciate really fast.
So it led me to Toyota with great history.
Needed AWD for Winter driving. Knowing Mfrs. making a lot of cars with 4 cylinder engines that they all lack power. Most Mfrs.no longer have V6 as an option and stopped making them.
Push for 4 bangers with or without Turbo then 8 and 10 speed transmissions making problems worse instead of better.
Yeah! did not get to test drive the RAV4 as it was about 320 miles away from where we live. Nearest Toyota Dealership is 125 miles away.
Had the 2018 RAV4 transported to us for $386 with Mercury Auto Transport service. The delivery guy had a large Pickup with a multiple car trailer (carries 5 autos).

RAV4 had full tank gas. you have Empty, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and Full mark on the Fuel gauge.
Only have driven 130 miles and sits just above the 1/4 mark.
The digital readout screen from middle the instrument panel shows 13.2 mpg
Have a 15.9 gallon tank divide that by 4 is roughly 4 gallons per Quarter Mark on analog Fuel gauge.
So we are close to 1/4 mark or used 3 x 4gal = 12 gallons of gas to drive 130 miles.
So rounding down to 50 miles per quarter mark times 4 is 200 miles per full tank.
if the tank holds almost 16 gallons divide that into 200 miles you get 12.5 mpg not far from the 13.2gallon the computer gives.

To trade in the RAV4, would be a loss of maybe $5,000 for the 3 weeks we have had it. Got a 10 year/ 100K (minus 3 Basic Warranty) which give us really 7 years Toyota Vehicle Service Agreement.
Had call the nearest Toyota dealer and was told just to diagnose or test it was $115 as VSA doesn't cover such problems unless bad fuel pump or modular assembly went bad.
Mechanic said if no Engine Check Light or other Indicators come on then everything is good. He said to drive the RAV4 for a long distance trip of 800 to 900 miles and see what kind of gas mileage you get. How stupid can one get !!!!

Tell ya what, I'll sell you my wife's 2018 RAV4 Limited AWD for $26,488 what I paid. Add Sales tax of $2,100 and another $2,100 for Toyota Platinum Extra Care Warranty for grand total of $30,688.
It has mud/ splash guards, rear bumper applique, tonneau cover, body side molding, door edge guards, all weather liner (rubber floor mats and cargo mat) and special color Ruby Flare Pearl.

Toyota appear to have many problems beginning with 2019, 2020 and now new 2021 releases. The Corolla, Camry, RAV4 and Highlander and all Hybrid models have been flops ..loaded with problems.
Honda been in a snag too.
Is this the return of American Mfrs. names such as Ford and Dodge to capture the auto market.

 

Fill it back up and restart and see what happens, or trade it in for Ford and Dodge since I guess they are better.

 

A 2018 with 18k miles on it is still under the factory warranty. 36 months or 36k miles. The powertrain is covered for 60 months/60k. You shouldn’t have to pay for anything. Getting 12 MPG is abnormal. Take it to a different dealer, as yours apparently sucks!

 

You might want to read up on the issue with hybrid RAV4 fuel tanks that cannot be filled to stated capacity. Yours would be the first Limited with a similar issue. Anyway, you need to determine MPG the proper way by refilling tank to same level and dividing the miles driven by the gallons it took to refill. Not by using 3/4 of stated capacity based on gage reading...totally inaccurate.

Your Limited should have a dash indication of trip gas mileage, which you should compare with your assessment.

Finally, you don't say anything about type of driving (mostly city?, stop and go?, short trips?). Sounds from your comment about underpowered that the car is driven rather aggressively.

BTW, sorry to hear how disappointed you are. We have no issues with our 2017 RAV4 Limited except for paint durability due to restrictions on paint materials and process imposed in the US. Ditto for our son's 2017 XLE which came from Japan and has much better paint...

 

I have a 2016 LTD with about 31,000 miles and I get excellent mileage avg about 25-26 mpg. I love my RAV4! I feel it rides very smooth for a “truck”. I don’t have any of the issues you claim to have, but maybe you got a “lemon”. I would buy mine all over again.

 

My 2018 RAV4 has less than 19K miles, purchased Toyota Certified Used about 3 weeks ago in Oct. 2020.
Fuel tank capacity of 15.9 gallons.
Fuel gauge indicated Full tank when fueled.
I have driven 130 miles and now the fuel gauge sits just above 1/4 mark.
It appears I will get less than 200 miles on a Full tank.
This equates to approximately 12.5mpg
There are no fuel leaks or gas odor, no instrument cluster lights/ icons or anything suggesting there is a failure.
The Dash Board Digital Readout / computer shows 13.2mpg.
Yes! it is in ECO Mode.

So where is the fuel consumption going.
Toyota dealership wants $115 to visually look at the RAV4 and give brief diagnostic.
They want to have their own mechanics take the car on a daily drive of 300 miles to burn my money and fuel and add more wear and tear and more mileage on my RAV4.
I say there is a problem, but they prefer I pay them $115 plus tax to tell me there is a Fuel issue which I already know there is.

Anyone getting in as a Front Passenger, poor design as sits too high and dashboard protrudes preventing left leg/ knee while getting in also you have to duck your head or lean your head to get inside. Rear Passenger seats are hard like a wooden park bench. SofTex imitation leather fabric is okay, real leather is so much nicer. Most all Switches on door panel do not light up or mirror adjust. RAV4 is noisy on the road, has Engine WHINE, drive over uneven surface, unpaved stone road, any bumps, road ripple or waves, the RAV 4 picks up all of it as you Bounce and Sway. "Rock the Boat" 1970's song. 2.5L I-4 176HP Engine is underpowered since hard to pass anyone, lacks acceleration. Interior is full of cheap plastic molding. OEM tires are TOYO Open Country A20 ... a sub-par tire known to have problems on wet/snow surfaces.
RAV4 is said to be comparable to Honda CR-V. Do yourself a huge favor ..buy a Honda CR-V. Toyota is manufacturing junk.

Buy yourself some good tires, my 2017 has gotten 32 mpg on trips and usually gets no less than 25?

 

Hello KarlG,
You said buy yourself some good tires, but did not give any suggestions. Would you mind sharing your valuable knowledge on choosing good tires.

 

Bayan, I LOVE nokian entyre 2.0. great traction and low rolling resistant 80k mile warranty. i've used them on several cars.. i'm about to pick up the new version they came out with that are supposed to have better traction and be even lower rolling resistant "nokian one" tire. made in Dayton TN
hope this helps.

 

To the OP, I recently bought a 2018 RAV4 in December, although it is not AWD. My gas mileage is between 25 - 30. I usually don't drive with it in ECO mode because it feels like I'm dragging an anchor. Does it ride as nice as my Camry, no, but it isn't like riding in a covered wagon either. If I was looking for a really smooth ride I wouldn't have bought a compact crossover SUV.

My wife has a 2016 CRV (bought new), and we test drove both the RAV4s an CRVs. I personally liked the RAV4 a little better, but she got a deal on her CRV and loves it. I don't think her CRV and my RAV4 ride that much differently.

I'm really baffled how you would do so much research and fail to test drive a car you were considering buying, especially since it was a used car.

Not knowing when your car was bought new I can't say when the factory 3 yr/36K warranty runs out, but if it is still under factory warranty there should be no charge. You might want to go to another dealer if yours is being difficult.

Good luck, and please at least test drive the next vehicle before you buy.

 

My 2015 get 13mpg during winter (local drive). When the car warm up and idle alot, it kills the mpg.