Japan’s RAV4 Gets Its Mud Mode Back, for a Price

The sixth-generation Toyota RAV4 was due for its first update in Japan on November 2, adding Mud & Sand and Rock & Dirt drive modes and about ¥50,000 to the price of every grade.

The new modes replace the current car’s single Trail setting, so the list goes from Normal, Sport, Trail and Snow to Normal, Sport, Snow, Mud & Sand and Rock & Dirt. The change amounts to a return of Multi-Terrain Select, the system on the previous RAV4 that adjusts all-wheel drive, braking and drive force to the surface. Nothing else is said to change, with no new styling, colors or grades less than a year after the car went on sale in Japan in December 2025.

The details come from Creative Trend, a Japanese blog that follows Toyota and Lexus orders and dealer quotes, which published its grade-by-grade prices and a list of the mode changes ahead of the launch. Toyota has not confirmed them, and the figures do not come from a Toyota price list. Advance orders opened on October 2, according to the blog.

The prices below are for Japan, include the country’s 10% consumption tax and are all for E-Four all-wheel-drive models. The increases are the blog’s comparison with the current car.

Grade	Price	Increase
Hybrid Adventure	¥4,549,600	¥49,600
Hybrid Z	¥4,950,000	¥50,000
Plug-in hybrid Z	¥6,050,000	¥50,000
Plug-in hybrid GR SPORT	¥6,350,300	¥50,300

Hybrid production is scheduled to begin the same day, November 2, while plug-in hybrid production follows on January 6, 2027. Creative Trend says some dealers may discount the car by the amount of the increase, and that it is not yet clear whether owners of current cars will be able to add the modes through KINTO’s upgrade program.

Toyota has not said whether the new modes will reach the American RAV4, and the Japanese changes do not apply to US cars. In the US this year, the 2026 RAV4 missed the IIHS award list and has been outsold by the Camry.

The Toyota Report Take

Dropping Multi-Terrain Select from the new RAV4 was a strange decision for a model Toyota sells on its outdoorsy image, and putting it back within a year suggests somebody at Toyota agrees. Charging for it through an across-the-board price rise is less charming, since a Z owner who never leaves the pavement pays the same ¥50,000 as an Adventure owner who does.

If this is a software-led change, it belongs on the US Woodland next. That trim wears all-terrain tires and a rugged look, and a real mud setting would give the hardware a reason to exist.

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