There was a time when Toyota had a small SUV aimed at the young-at-heart – a sporty three-door with a touch of off-road capability. That car, the original RAV4, has since become a more conventional vehicle, one suitable for families rather than hip, young singles. Nissan's Juke is essentially the same concept as the first RAV4, but with bizarro-world styling. Ironically, Toyota is now back in the market with its C-HR – which has the Juke in its gunsights.
Bad news everyone… around the time millennials start collecting an old-age pension (assuming they live that long), they'll be driving down to the bowls club in a car very much like the Toyota C-HR.
For a start, the C-HR’s hip point is ideal for the oldies, plus it's roomy inside, comfortable, quiet and offers surprisingly lively performance around town. Now imagine an autonomous, electric-driven C-HR and there you have it… ta-da! … the future.
In the here and now, our long-term Toyota C-HR came as a pleasant surprise. Usually any car which has garnered a swag of praise turns out to be a disappointment in reality, but the C-HR's praise is generally well deserved.
While it has a Hyundai Veloster-like quality to its design – and that may not be to everyone's taste – at the very least owners will stand out from the pack.
Practical and appealing inside
Overall the C-HR’s interior presentation is attractive and practical, although the infotainment touch screen is a bit tiny and really best left to those with dainty fingers. Buttons for the climate control and front-seat heating were self-explanatory and it took little time to nut out the various functions of the switchgear on the steering wheel.
Complaints have been levelled against the C-HR for its over-generous cupholders, but, as colleague Tim Britten pointed out, at least one of the cupholders is ideal for a 750ml bottle of plonk – not that one would be necking said bottle while seated in the Toyota. Still, it beats having your favourite cab sav rolling around unrestrained in the boot.
The driving position is commendable. Controls are placed where they should be and the instruments are easily legible, although the redline on the tacho (at just 5500rpm) is a fine arc around the periphery of the dial and doesn't show up well for a quick check. With its rising hipline and low roof, the C-HR's field of vision to the ¾-rear is compromised, making drivers much more dependent on the car's reversing camera and mirrors. Even those don't always help if you're in a slip lane peering behind in order to pull in front of priority traffic.
As mentioned, the C-HR is easy to enter and leave, and the seats are quite comfortable and enveloping, lacking only some length in the base. Access to the rear seat is compromised by the low roofline, which could result in an upsurge in the elderly reporting to casualty departments with concussion, but the C-HR will accommodate adults at least. Those beyond 180cm tall will find it a little cosy back there, and any car over $30,000 arguably should have adjustable rear vents, but on balance there are worse places to endure a half-hour trip than the rear of a Toyota C-HR.
Our long-term test vehicle is a front-wheel drive model, but the boot floor is raised to clear rear-wheel drive mechanicals in other variants. Underneath there's a space-saver spare. Despite the high floor, the boot is a useful size and shape, and the rear seats fold flat for added luggage space. The tailgate is moderately heavy to lift, which could be a deal breaker for some buyers.
Assured touring comfort
On the road, the C-HR proved to be very refined. At 100km/h the engine is ticking over at about 1700rpm, and is almost inaudible at that speed. The CVT does whine under high loads, but that's not as prevalent as in some Subarus we've tested in the past. However, the Toyota CVT is not as quiet as its counterpart in the Juke. Nor is the C-HR's transmission as clever as the Juke's, although its cruising ability promises significantly better fuel consumption and quiet touring.
There's very little wind noise heard from within the C-HR, but road noise is conspicuously present and, on some rougher surfaces, it's a higher-pitched sound than usual from tyres making contact with the road. The only other noise or vibration noticed during the week was a slight creaking as the rear brakes released at the moment the car began to move forward.
Over the course of the week, in a mix of bumper-to-bumper traffic and cold starts/short trips, the C-HR used fuel at the rate of 8.7L/100km. The throttle wasn't spared, and in fact, the C-HR's power delivery and responsiveness encouraged some heavy use of the right foot…and not because the Toyota was a slug.
Turbo lag was essentially non-existent and, unlike some cars with CVTs, the C-HR was getting its power to the ground in no time flat. There was enough power and torque from the engine to spin a drive wheel on a couple of occasions. The low redline was confounding, but the C-HR was producing torque all the way through from 2000rpm. On start-up, the engine reaches idle with little discernible compression-bump harshness. In this one respect particularly, the C-HR is laudable, matching or bettering much more expensive cars. But as admirable as the engine is, given its size and its output, it's not pleasing to the ear when operating higher near the redline with the accelerator buried in the carpet.
The engine and the CVT make a fairly good partnership. There's a sequential-shifting facility available via the gear- lever, but even in manual mode the transmission will shift up automatically to the next step when it reaches the redline. It does so in a slow, slurring way, however. The transmission shifts down readily, but there's not the same level of engine braking to be had as in the case of a conventional automatic, let alone a dual-clutch or manual transmission.
While the steering was light and precise, feedback seemed to fade out as cornering speeds rose. Turn-in was slower than I recall for the Juke Ti-S a couple of years ago. Yet, it corners with much the same level of grip and can be coerced into a neutral stance by lifting off the accelerator.
So the C-HR is not as hard-core as the Juke, dynamically; it's more like a Toyota in that respect. Which is yet more evidence for the C-HR being the Corolla of the future.
Don't believe it? Check out VFACTS sales figures which already show a decline in sales of light, micro and small passenger cars in favour of similarly-sized SUVs. Once every car is an SUV, the best-selling model will no doubt be an SUV that's roughly Corolla-sized…
Long-Term Tests
motoring.com.au aims to make your vehicle buying decisions easier. Our Editorial section does this via our mix of news, international and local new model launch reviews, as well as our seven-day tests.
From time to time, we also take the opportunity to spend even longer with a vehicle.
These longer-term tests can be as short as a couple of weeks, but more recently we’ve settled on a three-month period as indicative of ‘normal’ ownership.
Long-term tests give our staff writers and contributors a chance to get to know a car as an owner would. While the car is with us, we pay for fuel, the servicing, and generally use and live with the car as a new owner would.
We believe long-term tests give car buyers a deeper insight into the vehicle on test, but also the qualities behind the brand and nameplate. The extended period also allows us to touch base with the dealer networks in question.
It comes as no surprise that manufacturers tend to have a love-hate relationship with long-term tests. Three months is long enough to fall out of love with the latest and greatest, and start to nit-pick — just like real owners do.
2017 Toyota C-HR Koba (2WD) pricing and specifications:
Price: $33,290 (plus on-road costs) / $34,190 (as tested)
Engine: 1.2-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 85kW/185Nm
Transmission: Continuously variable
Fuel: 6.4L/100km (ADR Combined) / 6.7L/100km (as tested)
CO2: 144g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety Rating: Five-star ANCAP
Related reading:
>> Toyota C-HR 2017 Long-term Test Introduction
>> Toyota C-HR 2017 Long-term Test Update #1
>> Toyota C-HR 2017 Long-term Test Update #2
>> Toyota C-HR v Holden Trax Comparison
Also consider:
>> Honda HR-V (from $24,990 plus ORCs)
>> Hyundai Kona (due September 2017)
>> Mazda CX-3 (from $19,990 plus ORCs)