u/carsdotcom

The RAV4 has basically become the default choice for a lot of buyers, but after spending time with the latest Camry, we started wondering if midsize sedans deserve a second look.

The new Camry quietly fixes a lot of the reasons people moved to crossovers in the first place: hybrid efficiency, AWD availability, usable back seats, modern tech, all while still being cheaper and noticeably better to drive in some ways.

Obviously the RAV4 still wins on cargo flexibility and ride height, but the gap between these two is a lot smaller than it used to be.

Curious where everyone lands on this: if you don’t actually need SUV cargo space, would you pick the Camry over the RAV4 today?

We drove each SUV back to back on the same drive loop to assess overall driving performance, comfort, usability, interior quality and more. TLDR: the 2026 Tiguan SEL R-Line Turbo took the top spot, performing the most consistently strong across every category.

A couple of caveats:

• It didn't win fuel economy, hybrids like the RAV4 and CR-V were better there.
• It didn't lead in cargo space either.

But overall, it won because it didn't really lose anywhere, which is rare in this segment.

Also interesting: a lot of comparisons we see (including on Reddit) focus on spec sheets, but after driving everything back-to-back, the differences in comfort, usability and day-to-day livability were way more noticeable than things like horsepower or 0–60.