The 2026 Toyota RAV4 is an attractive machine in many ways, from its angular, sporty bodywork to the remarkable speed of the GR Sport variant, and dealers are taking advantage, adding thousands of dollars worth of markups to the crossover. Carscoops reports that several dealers are guilty of being greedy, and this is nothing new. The updated RAV4 began arriving at U.S. dealers in December last year, and as two-month-old threads on Reddit show, dealers wasted no time tacking on their so-called “market adjustments,” something that popular Toyotas have always attracted. Let’s take a look at some of the worst offenders.
Dealers Are Inflating RAV4 Pricing by Thousands of Dollars
Toyota
One of the biggest markups was at Stevens Creek Toyota in San Jose, California, where a 2026 RAV4 Limited has been listed for $52,857, with $4,700 of that price attributed to a dealer markup. Still in California, Magnussen’s Toyota of Palo Alto has reportedly added $3,999 in markups to all of its 2026 RAV4 stock, pushing a RAV4 XSE ($46,444) past the $50k mark to $50,443 and a RAV4 Limited ($48,083) to $52,082. California isn’t alone in these markups, with Molle Toyota of Kansas City also pushing prices up, though not as heavily. Here, the RAV4 Limited has been marked up from $47,404 to $48,508, an increase of $1,104. Even if we ignore the stated markups, each of these prices is higher than those you’ll find on the Toyota USA website. There, the LE starts at $31,900, the SE starts at $34,700, and the XLE Premium has a base MSRP of $36,100. The Woodland starts at $39,900 and the XSE at $41,300, while the top Limited trim (the GR Sport hasn’t appeared on Toyota’s site yet) is listed at $43,300.
2026 Toyota RAV4 Variants
For the new model year, the RAV4 is available in several grades. “Core” models get either a 2.5-liter hybrid powertrain feeding 226 horsepower to the front wheels, or they can be had with all-wheel drive, getting an output bump to 236 hp. “Sport” models (SE and XSE) can be had as plug-in hybrids with a combined 324 hp, and the more rugged Woodland variant gets access to both of these powertrains, too. The latter, more powerful setup is what the top-tier GR Sport variant is powered by. With an ad scheduled for Sunday’s Super Bowl LX, the 2026 RAV4 is going to have even more eyes on it, and more dealers are likely to inflate pricing. Hopefully, enough buyers push back against these markups to discourage dealers from sticking with them, but Toyotas are always in demand, and dealers are always looking for ways to separate their customers from as many of their hard-earned dollars as possible.
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