Did Toyota Capture The Camry's Magic In These Suvs?

Earning nan title of "The Camry of SUVs" is nary easy task, arsenic Toyota's midsize sedan comes pinch a agelong database of trading points that immoderate contender has to unrecorded up to. For starters, Toyota is simply a Japanese company, of course, but nan brand's midsize sedan is built successful nan United States and has been nan best-selling rider car present for 24 years successful a statement and counting. The Camry has earned plentifulness of captious acclaim arsenic well, pinch nan 2026 exemplary rated arsenic nan number-one car successful its conception by Consumer Reports. The Camry has been a hybrid-only exemplary since 2025, erstwhile nan all-new 2025 Toyota Camry debuted pinch sporty aspirations.

As a result, nan 2026 Camry shows disconnected an EPA statement of 52 mpg city/49 mpg highway/51 mpg combined. The Camry is simply a bully prime for rider protection, too: It was 1 of conscionable 2 midsize cars to gain a Top Safety Pick+ standing from nan IIHS successful its enhanced 2026 testing programme that now includes an study of a car's whiplash prevention. The different was nan Hyundai Sonata.

The Camry offers galore benefits that immoderate sport-utility aliases crossover would beryllium hard-pressed to match. Well, unless you're shopping astatine Toyota, that is. In this case, you person aggregate alternatives — made much applicable because nan aforesaid level underpinning nan Camry is recovered beneath Toyota SUVs for illustration nan 2 likeliest choices here, nan RAV4 and Highlander.

Among nan Camry's platform-mates are nan Toyota Crown and Crown Signia, but we're crossing those disconnected nan database because they're niche choices that don't lucifer nan Camry's income numbers. For that, we tin move to nan Toyota RAV4. The best-selling SUV successful nan U.S. for nan past 9 years, nan RAV4 outsold nan Ford F Series successful 2024 to go nan country's apical wide seller of that year. 

Not only is nan RAV4 a reliably bully seller. Like nan Camry, it's besides conscionable plain reliable. Consumer Reports, for one, gave some nan 2026 Camry and nan 2025 RAV4 — nan latest editions pinch afloat CR testing — fantabulous marks for predicted reliability.

There is an evident disparity successful size betwixt nan two, astatine slightest successful 2 important measures: The Camry is 193.5 inches agelong and nan RAV4 is 181 inches, but nan quality does constrictive considerably inside, wherever nan sedan serves up up to 99.9 cubic feet of rider volume, and nan RAV4 checks successful pinch 98.9. The SUV people leads nan measurement for cargo space, offering up to 37.8 cubic feet, compared to nan Camry's 15.1 cubic feet of trunk space.

The bottommost line: Despite differences successful exterior size and interior volume, nan 2026 RAV4 makes a beardown lawsuit arsenic nan Camry of Toyota's SUVs, which is backed up by comparatively akin pricing. Toyota sells nan Camry starting from $29,100 (plus $1,195 successful destination charges), and nan RAV4 opens astatine $31,900 pinch a $1,495 destination fee. It's conscionable excessively bad Toyota can't build RAV4s accelerated enough.

You whitethorn not deliberation truthful astatine first glance, but nan three-row Toyota Highlander tin besides make a beardown declare to being nan Camry of nan company's SUV lineup. That's particularly existent erstwhile you look backmost to its roots: The original 2001 Highlander was built connected nan Camry's level of nan time, dissimilar nan original RAV4, which blended platforms from nan Toyota Corolla and Carina mini cars. It's besides worthy mentioning that today's versions of nan Highlander and Camry are some considered "midsize" entries — contempt nan Highlander having a astir 4-inch advantage successful magnitude and immoderate 40 much cubic feet of rider measurement complete nan Camry.

Moreover, three-row midsize SUVs — specified arsenic nan Highlander — person developed a peculiarly beardown pursuing among U.S. families. It's a domiciled that, successful nan past, was often played by midsize sedans — for illustration nan Camry. Just support successful mind that nan Highlander is simply a spot down nan Camry successful position of content. For instance, nan Highlander still carries Safety Sense 2.5+ technology, and nan Camry has been upgraded to nan 3.0 system.  Finally, for illustration nan Camry, nan 2026 Highlander received fantabulous marks successful predicted reliability from Consumer Reports. 

True, overmuch will alteration for nan next-gen Highlander, since it goes all-electric for 2027 pinch 320 miles of scope from its EV powertrain. The bully news is that it plays correct into a 2024 study from AutoPacific indicating that "three-row fully-electric SUV/XSUVs specifically are forecast to astir quadruple from good nether 100,000 income successful 2024 to astir 400,000 income successful 2029."