C-HR stands for "Coupe High Riding" – not sure about you guys, but there isn't much coupe or much high riding about the 2020 Toyota C-HR! Anyway, I wanted to get behind the wheel to see what Toyota's pint-sized SUV would be like to drive and whether it means value for money. To see if the Toyota C-HR is a good small SUV, watch Paul Maric's review and let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
Read the full review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-reviews/2020-toyota-c-hr-review/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=review&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=single-car-review
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 00:53
Interior: 03:02
Infotainment: 04:18
Features: 05:30
Practicality: 06:08
On the Road: 10:00
Verdict: 14:05
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Read the full review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-reviews/2020-toyota-c-hr-review/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=review&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=single-car-review
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 00:53
Interior: 03:02
Infotainment: 04:18
Features: 05:30
Practicality: 06:08
On the Road: 10:00
Verdict: 14:05
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
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Paul Maric:
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Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#toyota #review #chr @TOYOTAglobal @toyotaaustralia
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. You know what the CHR in Toyota CHR stands for?
00:04 Coupé High Riding.
00:06 Last time I checked, a coupé was two doors and high riding wasn't that.
00:11 That has ground clearance of 137mm, and you compare that to something like a Subaru Forester
00:16 which has almost double that at 220mm.
00:19 Anyway, it is the kind of look Toyota's going for at the moment,
00:22 and it's because people are buying these cars. They want an SUV or something that looks like an SUV.
00:28 The CHR starts in Australia at just under $30,000,
00:32 and it competes with cars like the Hyundai Kona, the Mazda CX-30,
00:36 and even kind of competes with the Nissan Qashqai.
00:38 If you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review, you can use the time codes on screen,
00:42 or if you're on YouTube, you can use the chapters down below.
00:45 And if you haven't done so already, I'd love it if you could hit subscribe and press the bell icon as well,
00:49 so you can see every time we drive a coupé that's not a coupé.
00:52 Let's talk exterior styling.
00:55 So, CHR has just received a minor facelift, so you'll notice a different headlight cluster here.
01:00 This is now full LED headlights with LED daytime running lights.
01:04 They're across the range.
01:05 You can pick from nine different colours in the CHR, and all but the base white is an extra $500.
01:11 I kind of like the styling here.
01:13 It looks nice and aggressive, despite the fact it has a tiny little engine under the bonnet there.
01:18 You can get this as a hybrid as well, but at the entry level, it is just a small turbocharged engine.
01:22 And you can see here little holes that it sucks air in from, and it is just a very fun and happy looking car,
01:28 and I think that kind of works for the demographic here.
01:30 Front parking sensors as well, and let me show you around the side.
01:33 LED fog lights down there.
01:35 17-inch alloy wheels and fairly chubby tyres here as well.
01:39 They're a 60 profile tyre, so you can see they take up a fair bit of space above the alloy wheel.
01:44 That should mean that this car rides really well.
01:47 This shares a platform with the Toyota Prius.
01:49 It's called the TNGA platform, and the Prius is a really nice riding car, so hopefully it translates here.
01:55 Look at that, just in case you forget that it's got a turbo, a turbo badge.
01:59 Come on, I'll show you the back of the car as well.
02:01 It's got that nice proportion along the side.
02:03 Look at this design line that kicks up along the side there too.
02:06 They've really focused on style with this car to make sure that you know it is a stylish young person's car.
02:11 Look at this as well.
02:12 This is the door handle to enter the back.
02:14 Now when they call it a coupe, it's kind of because they hide that and it looks like a two-door.
02:18 Except you can kind of see that with the different colour on the roofline.
02:22 That theme continues around the back here with this nicely sculpted taillight, but it's not an LED taillight unfortunately.
02:27 Have a look at this.
02:28 I've noticed this on my Supra as well.
02:30 They've kind of got it on the wing mirror and they've continued that trend here.
02:34 I think it's some kind of an aero thing.
02:35 Let me know in the comments below if you know the hidden reason behind this.
02:38 Down the back here you have rear parking sensors, and then a really high back on it with an inbuilt spoiler on that boot lid.
02:45 It's kind of an interesting rear, but it looks SUV-like.
02:49 It's just under 4.4 metres long, which makes it almost exactly the same size as a Nissan Qashqai.
02:54 Despite the fact this doesn't look anywhere near as big as a Nissan Qashqai.
02:57 And then they round off the rear with this spoiler here.
03:00 Kind of gives it that sporty intention.
03:02 Let's talk interior, and in keeping with the funky styling outside, it looks really nice in here as well.
03:08 They've gone with this wavy design along the dashboard and split the black up with piano black.
03:14 This reflective grey material, I don't know what it is, and this soft-touch dashboard.
03:20 And have a look on these doors.
03:22 You've got that, um, I'm terrible at design, whatever that is on the door, that material, it feels nice on the fingers.
03:29 Okay, so only motoring journalists talk about soft-touch dashboards, but we have a tool to measure how soft-touch the soft-touch dashboard is.
03:37 This is a durometer, it measures from 0 to 100, whereas 0 is soft and a 100 is hard.
03:44 Let's see what that dashboard is like.
03:47 I'm gonna push 55.5, all the fives.
03:52 And then this centre console, that one's a little softer.
03:58 So pretty impressive there, and it feels nice and premium.
04:01 If you compare this to something like a Hyundai Kona, this feels like it is worth a little bit more money.
04:07 Build quality is good, but, you know, there are a couple of things around here that aren't exactly super solid,
04:13 but for the most part, it all feels like it's going to still be here in about 15 years' time.
04:18 Okay, enough about that, let's talk infotainment.
04:21 This is an 8-inch infotainment screen, it's a touchscreen with shortcut buttons on the side.
04:26 If you want a detailed review of Toyota's infotainment system, you can click up here,
04:31 but today I'll give you a quick overview just so you know what is featured inside the system.
04:35 This is what the home screen looks like.
04:37 You click here to get to your maps, moves around fairly quickly.
04:40 You have the main menu where you access smartphone mirroring.
04:43 So Apple CarPlay and Android Auto is built into this screen, but unfortunately it's a wired system, it's not wireless,
04:50 and on top of that, there is only one USB port.
04:52 So if you do have your phone plugged in for smartphone mirroring, you can't charge any other devices,
04:57 but for the most part, it works really well and it fits nicely in that screen too.
05:01 Now, in terms of audio, you have AM, FM and Bluetooth streaming, but there's no digital radio, which is pretty disappointing.
05:08 And finally, you have the ability to connect Toyota's App Suite.
05:12 Don't bother, Toyota's apps are fairly useless, and you can see why if you go to your app store,
05:17 the ratings are fairly low, just use smartphone mirroring, it's built into there, there's no need to bother with anything else.
05:22 There's also a voice recognition system that's native to the operating system.
05:26 It doesn't really work that well, but you can use it to interact with your smartphone.
05:30 Let's talk other features.
05:31 So the base model CH-R comes with dual zone climate control, a six-speaker sound system,
05:36 you get radar cruise control, blind spot monitoring, automatic dimming rear vision mirror,
05:41 front and rear parking sensors.
05:43 Ahead of the driver is a 4.2-inch display for the trip computer and other visuals that you need to be aware of.
05:48 And finally, it's wrapped up with autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian detection.
05:52 What about the key?
05:53 Well, join me as we step back in time.
05:56 Look at this.
05:57 It is an actual key that you have to put into an actual hole to start the car, not a proximity sensing key.
06:02 So you've got to lock or unlock manually.
06:04 There's no boot release button either.
06:06 And then on the back there, you've got a little Toyota symbol.
06:08 Let's talk practicality and we'll kick off with storage.
06:10 So let me disconnect my phone.
06:13 Where are you going to put that?
06:14 So there's actually quite a few places to put your phone, including like a little storage tray up the front here
06:19 that is kind of redundant because it doesn't fit a phone and anything you put in there will just slide off.
06:26 So that is a weird one.
06:28 What about bottle storage?
06:30 Now there's a clever system in play here.
06:32 So it fits up the front there.
06:34 It also fits down there, but you'll notice that that disappears pretty easily.
06:37 So if you've got a coffee cup, that's going to be virtually pointless.
06:41 But look at this thing.
06:43 So printed on here, you've got small size cup with a little rotation symbol
06:47 and then medium size cup for a little rotation symbol.
06:50 So that is the large setting.
06:52 Then for the medium setting, you slide this in and you can see the bottle goes up to there.
06:57 And then for the small setting, you turn that around and slide it in.
07:02 And then your bottle sits even higher.
07:04 So you have three different settings for the cup holder, which is really cool.
07:08 And then in the door, you can store a bottle there plus some room on either side.
07:12 Center console, it is super deep.
07:15 Inside there, you have a 12-volt outlet.
07:17 And then the glove box is hidden away down here with this weird push-button system.
07:22 And it's kind of pointless because it is now full of manual and you can't really fit anything else in there.
07:28 What about comfort?
07:29 Yeah, these seats are really nice.
07:31 They are cloth seats, but I reckon they have a cool design on them.
07:34 So you're not going to be too fussed about it being cloth and not leather.
07:39 Seat is comfy.
07:40 The steering wheel sits nicely in the hand.
07:43 Yeah, this works.
07:45 Let's talk back seat.
07:47 As you can imagine, there isn't a huge amount of legroom back here, but it's okay.
07:52 I can just fit my fingers there in between my knees and the seat.
07:56 The shin room isn't amazing.
07:57 Toe room is good though, and I feel like I have enough room to be comfortable.
08:02 But there's a problem, and I'm not exactly the shortest person in the world.
08:06 I've got plenty of headroom, but this is so claustrophobic.
08:10 I feel like I can't see out of the car properly.
08:12 It kind of feels weird, and I suspect when we go for a drive, this is going to be a big blind spot.
08:17 But even as a passenger, it just doesn't feel very...
08:20 I don't know.
08:21 There's just not enough light coming in here.
08:22 But I did notice from back here, the little divots cut out of the roof up the front of the car.
08:28 They're just there for styling, not really to add any room or anything extra.
08:31 But I kind of like those highlights.
08:33 It really shows that they've put a little bit of effort into this car.
08:36 They haven't put much effort into this door though.
08:38 It's got those ridgy design things over there, but the rest is very hard plastic and quite scratchy throughout.
08:45 There's no center armrest, so there is one bottle holder here, but no door pockets or anything like that.
08:51 No map pockets either, no air vents, no USB charging, no 12-volt outlet.
08:55 Here's a pretty barren place back here.
08:58 But you do get top tether on each of those three seats and ISOFIX anchorage points as well.
09:04 So does an SUV shape mean that there is a stack of boot room?
09:08 Not quite.
09:09 You've got 317 litres of cargo space available, and then under the boot floor here, you have a space saver spare tyre.
09:17 It's quite a high boot lip and then also a really high floor as well, so you don't really get that much storage space.
09:23 You do have hooks on the side though to tie things down.
09:26 Now, the space does expand to just over 1,000 or just over 1,100 litres rather, if you get this out of the way.
09:34 That just sits on the floor there.
09:35 There's nowhere else to really store it.
09:37 You can drop these seats down.
09:39 That makes it virtually a flat floor.
09:41 I'll show you what it looks like with our luggage in there.
09:43 If I just move that out of the way for a sec.
09:48 And then this bag in here.
09:51 There you go.
09:52 That takes up pretty much your entire boot space.
09:54 There's also no proximity sensing lock on this side.
09:57 That's on the top spec model only.
10:01 So we've hit the road in the C-HR.
10:03 It's a really curious engine that is under the bonnet of this car.
10:06 It's a 1.2 litre.
10:09 What a small little engine that is.
10:11 Four cylinder turbocharged petrol.
10:13 Makes 85 kilowatts of power and 185 newton metres of torque.
10:18 It's what they call an auto cycle engine.
10:20 So it makes a lot of its peak torque nice and early.
10:23 A bit like a diesel engine.
10:24 And that means that you can rely on it for a bit of pick up and go when you need it.
10:28 The engine's mated to a continuously variable transmission.
10:32 So they kind of do step changes.
10:34 So if you go to the manual mode, it will give you seven different gear ratios.
10:38 But in drive it is infinite gear ratios, which is the way a CVT works.
10:42 And that means that you're simply not feeling any changes between the gears as the car accelerates.
10:47 That small engine makes for a pretty efficient fuel economy of 6.4 litres per 100 kilometres.
10:52 But if we're realistic, we're at 7.6 litres per 100 kilometres.
10:56 That includes a lot of hilly driving, a little bit of highway driving as well.
10:59 So it is reasonably efficient.
11:01 Keep in mind though that it requires 95 RON premium unleaded petrol.
11:05 That's always more expensive.
11:07 So that means it's going to set you back a little bit more to fuel this in the long run.
11:10 So what does all that feel like behind the wheel?
11:12 While we're cruising along here, I'm going to punch it.
11:15 Look, it's not terrible.
11:17 It gets up and goes.
11:18 It isn't going to pin you back in the seat and have you gasping for air.
11:22 But it is quick enough.
11:24 And it's going to be perfectly fine for city driving and when you need to depend on the car to get you moving.
11:29 And the CVT responds quickly enough as well.
11:32 It's available as a two-wheel drive.
11:33 But comically, it's also available as an all-wheel drive.
11:36 Now why is that comical?
11:38 Let me show you.
11:39 We've come to a complete stop here on an incline, in the wet, and I'm going to flatten the throttle.
11:44 We had the tiniest bit of wheel slip you have ever felt.
11:53 I think if you bothered going the all-wheel drive version, which is more expensive,
11:56 it's going to weigh more, not ever slip its wheels because it doesn't have enough power or torque to do that.
12:02 And you're just going to be wasting your money.
12:04 And on top of that, it's also going to waste more fuel as well.
12:07 So don't bother going with the all-wheel drive.
12:09 The front-wheel drive is perfectly fine.
12:11 The ride is really the part that impresses me the most with this car.
12:16 This sits on what they call the TNGA platform.
12:18 I mentioned that earlier.
12:19 It's called the Toyota New Global Architecture.
12:22 And that means that Toyota has worked to develop a common platform that they use amongst most of their cars.
12:28 And then they fine-tune little bits and pieces.
12:30 It reduces development costs, but it means that they can put all of their effort into the one platform.
12:34 And that means it rides absolutely beautifully.
12:37 No matter what surface you throw at it, it is soaking it up perfectly.
12:41 It's good for country roads, it's good for highways, city driving, potholes, you name it.
12:46 And it also means that it's nice and sporty.
12:48 Yes, it isn't a sports car in the general sense of the term, but it feels nice and sporty.
12:53 It doesn't have a great deal of body roll, and it handles nicely for a compact SUV.
12:58 I haven't really noticed it on any other of the cars that sit on this TNGA platform,
13:03 but it is pretty noisy inside the cabin here on coarse-chip surfaces.
13:08 It's transmitting a lot of road noise into the car.
13:10 Like, it's not terrible, but it is pretty noticeable.
13:13 So if you're going on a long drive, a long highway drive, it's going to sort of get a bit droney and annoying inside the car.
13:18 So it's worth keeping in mind if you do long-distance driving, have a bit of a think about a test drive first.
13:23 In terms of visibility, it's excellent out the front and the sides.
13:27 The wing mirrors are pretty big as well, but visibility out the rear, it's pretty average.
13:32 The envelope is super small out the back window there, and if you've got your friends in the car,
13:36 it's going to block the ability to see out of the car even further.
13:40 But, you know, you do get your blind spot monitors, that helps with cars.
13:43 And I am finding that that C-pillar, visibility out of that is terrible.
13:47 So it isn't great in the back seat when you're sitting there, but it's even worse when you're trying to drive and you want to do a head check.
13:52 Let's talk turning circle. 10.4 metres, which means it's actually really nice and tight.
13:59 Yeah, that's really impressive. So 10.4 metres is an excellent turning circle, especially for something that is classified as an SUV.
14:06 So Toyota C-HR, it's a really, really nice car to drive. The ride is fantastic.
14:11 They've really sorted it out so you can throw it at speed humps, throw it at potholes, and you don't feel anything inside the car.
14:18 It can be nice and sharp through corners if you want it to be as well.
14:21 And in comparison to something like a Hyundai Kona, it just feels a bit more well-built and better resolved as well.
14:27 It feels a bit more premium for the price that you're paying.
14:29 It's not as punchy as a Kona, but the 1.2-litre engine in this gives you enough urge to get it up and moving.
14:35 And the CVT is far smoother than the dual-clutch gearbox in the turbocharged Kona.
14:40 So, downsides, though. Rear legroom, it is horrendously bad in there. Same with the visibility in the back.
14:46 So if you've got any friends, they're not going to like you very much if they have to go in the back seat.
14:50 But on the upside of that, it fits the purpose. It sits nice and high.
14:53 It makes you feel like you're in an SUV without having to be in an SUV.
14:57 And potentially for older people, this is going to be a good car if you need a downsize,
15:00 but find getting into hatchbacks and smaller cars a little trickier.
15:04 Let me know in the comments below if you've bought a C-HR.
15:06 What's it like to drive in the long term? What are you not liking about it? We'd love to hear from you.
15:11 And if you found this video useful, make sure you hit the Like button, and don't forget to subscribe to our channel,
15:15 and press the bell icon as well. It's going to tell you every single time we drive something new.
15:19 next time, drive safely.