pFiled under: a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/garage/" rel="tag"In the Autoblog Garage/a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/suvs/" rel="tag"SUVs/a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/crossovers-cuvs/" rel="tag"Crossovers/CUVs/a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/toyota/" rel="tag"Toyota/a/pa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/2009-toyota-rav4-sport/2013274/"img vspace="4" hspace="4" border="1" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2009/05/rav4sport_001-(39)_1280_opt.jpg" alt="" //abr /div style="text-align: center;"emstrongsmall2009 Toyota RAV4 Sport - Click above for high-res image gallery/small/strong/embr //divbr /The small crossover segment, where the neo-sorta-trucks live, is one of the hottest battlegrounds for consumer dollars. Small skirmishes go on in the border regions; confused vehicles don't know whether to be mud-slingers with brash attitudes or optioned-up urban sophisticates. Toyota's RAV4 certainly brings sophistication, and though it can venture off road a bit, it's not a jumbled, mixed-up mess. The RAV's classification-straddling lets it serve the whims of a broad array of potential buyers. br /br /Wanting to cover all the bases, the RAV4 can be had in a variety of configurations, from a basic front-driver with four-cylinder power up to a leather-lined, four-wheel-drive Limited with a silly-powerful V6. A Sport version seeds right in between the base and Limited, carrying a satisfying level of equipment. There's an allure to the big horsepower delivered by the six - especially when it costs as little on EPA ratings as the RAV's 3.5-liter - but these days, "adequate" is riding a wave of newfound popularity as Americans struggle to pinch more pennies. In keeping with that spirit, when it came time to test a RAV4, we decided to try life with a four-cylinder 4WD Sport. br /br /br /div class="postgallery"pstrongGallery: a href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/2009-toyota-rav4-sport/"2009 Toyota RAV4 Sport/a/strong/pa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/2009-toyota-rav4-sport/2013266/"img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2009/05/rav4sport_001-(1)_1280_thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" //aa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/2009-toyota-rav4-sport/2013274/"img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2009/05/rav4sport_001-(39)_1280_thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" //aa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/2009-toyota-rav4-sport/2013270/"img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2009/05/rav4sport_001-(5)_1280_thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" //aa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/2009-toyota-rav4-sport/2013288/"img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2009/05/rav4sport_001-(4)_1280_thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" //aa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/2009-toyota-rav4-sport/2013273/"img src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2009/05/rav4sport_001-(15)_1280_thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" //a/divbr /emstrongsmallPhotos Copyright (C)2009 Dan Roth / Weblogs, Inc./small/strong/empa href="http://www.autoblog.com/2009/05/14/review-2009-toyota-rav4-sport/" rel="bookmark"Continue reading emReview: 2009 Toyota RAV4 Sport strikes an agreeable balance/em/a/pp style="padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2009/05/14/review-2009-toyota-rav4-sport/"Review: 2009 Toyota RAV4 Sport strikes an agreeable balance/a originally appeared on a href="http://www.autoblog.com"Autoblog/a on Thu, 14 May 2009 11:58:00 EST. 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