Toyota C-HR premier contender in crossover market

Declan Colley says this car is one of the more interesting contenders in the crossover segment and Toyota has done much to consolidate the C-HR’s position as a premier contender

Toyota's C-HR has got a minor facelift which implemented a few nips and tucks to the look. 

Toyota C-HR
Rating	★★★☆☆
Price	€30,620 - €35,550 as tested in Sol trim
Engine	The 1.8 is not the best choice available
The Spec	Decent enough even from entry level
Verdict	Get the two-litre version

The Coupe High Rider — I jest not — was truly the first thing from Toyota in many moons that was not the automotive equivalent of household white goods. It was also the first car from the Japanese automotive behemoth that followed through on the promise by company boss, 64-year-old Akio Toyoda, that there would be ‘no more boring cars’ from the brand.

That promise was a complete sea-change for an outfit which made its name by making completely nondescript and boring cars — but with a caveat. That prerequisite was that those cars rarely, if ever, gave any problems to the people who bought them. They were, in a word, bombproof.

Even in the hybrid era where Toyota began making nondescript and bombproof cars — but with truly green credentials — there was little excitement to be had from owning or driving one of them.

With one fell swoop Toyota changed that and with the C-HR the company introduced a whole new and vibrant element to their line-up. They have followed that up with the revised and revitalised Corolla and RAV4, while the new Yaris will be with us soon and many, many more innovations are promised coming down the line.

At the original launch of the C-HR, the chief engineer on the project, Hiroyuki Koba, emphasised that the car was not a ‘me-too’ product and was aimed at finding new customers to the brand whose buying choices were based on what was ‘cool’ rather than anything else. On this basis, he maintained, it would be a ‘game-changer’ for Toyota.

Koba-san was not incorrect in his assertions and C-HR broke many moulds for the company, not least of which was consumer perception of the brand.

In truth however, while the C-HR looked amazing, its hybrid powerplant wasn’t much cop really and while the car’s design rightly won many plaudits, the driving experience did nothing for anyone, apart from those poor souls who know no better.

Now, however, its got a minor facelift which implemented a few nips and tucks to the look. It also got a new two-litre hybrid engine which outputs a decent 182 bhp and a couple of tecchie upgrades.

We recently tried this new engine in the GR Corolla and it really is a fine thing to drive — quiet, purposeful and actually quite desirable. I’m sure it would be an excellent choice in the C-HR too. But sadly it was not the engine we got to test.

Rather, we got the older (but slightly modified) 1.8 litre 122 bhp unit which has had the mildest of mild revamps, none of which have done much to make it any better than the engine it replaced. That engine was notable for its excessive whininess and an almost complete absence of refinement.

Ironically, the engineering team had actually created a car which was an excellent proposition on many fronts — ride, handling, grip and so forth. It had stuff like a very low centre of gravity, a chassis which was near to best-in-class in stiffness and a double wishbone rear suspensions set-up, all of which contributed to excellent driving characteristics.

The C-HR has a very good interior, even though the colours utilised are uniformly dull, the design of the dash and the door panels and inserts is clever and modern. It is also very well built.

Unfortunately, the only alternative to Hybrid power on offer was a diminutive 1.2 litre petrol turbo unit and that was not a big draw for many new customers, a large number of whom were actually attracted by the C-HR’s design and its green hybrid credentials.

Lovely looking and all as it was — not to mention a decent on-road performer — the engine turned out to be the car’s achilles heel in many ways. I know many C-HR drivers who love their car and all about it, apart from that engine.

The naked figures tell you a lot about this particular C-HR. As I’ve said, it outputs just 122 bhp, but its performance figures don’t induce much excitement. The 0-100 kph time here is a less than impressive 11 seconds, while the top speed is 170 kph. Slightly more eye-catching is the fuel consumption at 4.8 l/100 km (58.3 mpg).

It seemed to me that Toyota had refined the CVT gearbox a little and that did appear to tone down that notorious whine from under the hood, but it may just have been that work refining the car’s overall NVH (noise, vibration, harshness) characteristics was the thing paying dividends in this area.

The C-HR presents something of a conundrum because while it is a good machine to drive and one which can provide a certain amount of enjoyment, it is not a nice car to drive simply because the engine does not make the most of the excellent chassis.

And if you are heavy in the right foot department, you will find the hybrid system to be loud and intrusive. Certainly a lot of people will not drive that way and those people will be rewarded — especially in the urban environment — by largely silent progress. If you get it out of that world and try and ascertain if it has any hair on its chest, then the opposite applies.

One thing worth mentioning is the interior, which is a good illustration of how far the Japanese have come in a short period of time. Even though the colours utilised are uniformly dull, the design of the dash and the door panels and inserts is clever and modern. It is also very well built.

There is a lot of tech on offer and it is easily accessed and utilised. Apple Car Play and Android Auto are also now part of the standard package.

One little area of complaint with regard to the interior is the manner in which the small rear windows and thick pillars restrict light for back seat passengers, but that’s something that has been part of the C-HR experience from the beginning.

On top of that the rear seats are a touch tight on the legroom front and the boot is not the biggest you’ll ever come across. But if style trumps practicality on your want/need list, then this is the one for you.

Without doubt, this car is one of the more interesting contenders in the crossover segment and Toyota — on the evidence we saw this week — has done much to consolidate the C-HR’s position as a premier contender.

The one piece of advice, however, is to go for the bigger two-litre engine rather than the 1.8 we tried. The bigger engine is considerably more refined and more powerful and a lot more pleasing to drive and live with. Stretch the budget if you can.