Toyota Secretly Makes Sports Car-Slaughtering Beige Crossovers: COTD

Toyota is famous for crafting reliable, usually beige transportation for the masses. Placing the word “fast” next to Toyota tends to get you thinking about the Toyota 86 or the Supra. But Toyota’s real sleeper is the RAV4.

Today, Thomas wrote about how a V6-equipped RAV4 could dust a Volkswagen GTI in a straight line. Yes, the boring-looking crossover on your screen is secretly quick! Angrycat Meowmeow confirms:

Spicy Rav 4’s are still available. The Prime is quicker than a 2.0 Supra. It runs a 14.0 in the quarter, which is solidly spicy. It’s just about as fast as a Giulia.

Back when I had my Giulia, I unknowingly lined up next to a Rav 4 Prime at one of those red lights where a few hundred feet after the intersection the lanes merge into one. Dude driving had to be deep into his 60’s. I was in the merge lane. I figured “I’ll give it half-beans to get ahead of this geezer on his way back from bingo, don’t wanna be stuck doing 10 under for the next 5 miles”. He was having absolutely none of that and took me straight to Gapplebee’s, then proceeded to do 60 in a 35 for the rest of the time I was behind him. The blood red Italian sports sedan with it’s fancy red calipers and sexy 19″ wheels with summer tires was thoroughly embarrassed by the old man in his Toyota CUV. The Giulia has a notoriously slow throttle. By the time the engine responded and it started building boost Grandpa was already a car length ahead of me, probably grinning ear to ear.

Thomas also wrote about how the 2025 BMW M235 is doing some funny business by having “M2” in large letters and “35” in what’s basically a subscript. BMW fans aren’t happy. But wait a moment, did Thomas forget to picture a BMW? From MikeInTheWoods

I was enjoying the M = Marketing article, but was then greatly confused at the last two photos of a KN Forte?

Today’s COTD features three articles from Thomas. Our final stop is the cute Pontiac Sunfire that sold on Bring a Trailer. While the BAT of today is known for its endless Porsches and other vehicles that cost all of your arms and legs, the real gems are the weirdos that aren’t that stuff, and ChefCJ agrees:

Cars like this are the only reason I ever look at Bring a Trailer. Who cares about some super rare blah blah blah that I’ve seen a zillion pictures of and cost ten times what I paid for my house? Bring me the regular ass cars that someone loved despite the fact they made boatloads of them

Have a great evening, everyone!