Road trips are great, but they are made even better with a vehicle that gets great fuel economy. One of our readers recently gave us a challenge – she wanted us to find her a family-oriented SUV that seated her family of four comfortably, while delivering great fuel economy. Furthermore, she wanted a vehicle that could bring about a good resale value a few years down the road. 

The vehicle will be used to drive her to work during the weekdays, while her husband would be taking it to visit his parents in St. Catharines, Ontario – approximately 115 kilometers each way.

Based on her need for something that could stand time, we looked at what was recently redesigned. New to the market were the 2012 Honda CR-V, the 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe and the 2013 Toyota RAV4. Assuming she would be selling it in five years, we compared the resale value of all three of those vehicles from its 2008 model year using Auto Trader. The 2009 Toyota RAV4 had the highest resale value, so we gave it a closer look.

Testing the RAV4 Fuel Economy

So I decided to put the vehicle to the test. In the one week we had the vehicle, I did five short trips each day to simulate her eight kilometer drive from home to work. On the last day, I simulated a 115 kilometer drive from Toronto to St. Catharines as per the families’ general visit. To offset the family’s weight, I took 3 other people along for the ride to increase accuracy.

Most of this trip was done on the Queen Elizabeth Way, one of Ontario’s most used highways, at a speed of approximately 110 kilometers with virtually no traffic both ways.

Results

At the end of the trip, including the city and highway driving, we were able to get a fuel economy of 11.3 L/100 km (20.8 MPG). This was fairly average in this segment, and we weren’t expecting it to be much different from its competitors. Carrying over a similar 2.5-litre engine from its outgoing model, we assumed the fuel economy would be the same, but the new six-speed transmission provides more shifting activity than the outgoing four-speed – allowing for slightly better fuel economy.

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