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00:00G'day, I'm Paul. You know what the CH-R in Toyota CH-R stands for? Coupe High Riding.
00:06Last time I checked, a coupe was two doors and high riding wasn't that. That has ground clearance of
00:12137 millimeters and you compare that to something like a Subaru Forester, which has almost double that at 220 millimeters.
00:19Anyway, it is the kind of look Toyota's going for at the moment and it's because people are buying these cars.
00:24They want an SUV or something that looks like an SUV. The CH-R starts in Australia at just under
00:31$30,000 and it competes with cars like the Hyundai Kona, the Mazda CX-30 and even kind of competes with the Nissan Qashqai.
00:38If you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review,
00:40you can use the time codes on screen or if you're on YouTube, you can use the chapters down below.
00:45And if you haven't done so already, I'd love it
00:47if you could hit subscribe and press the bell icon as well, so you can see every time we drive a coupe that's not a coupe.
00:53Let's talk exterior styling. So CH-R has just received a minor facelift. So you'll notice different headlight cluster here.
01:00This is now full LED headlights with LED daytime running lights. They're across the range.
01:05You can pick from nine different colors in the CH-R and all but the base white is an extra $500.
01:11I kind of like the styling here. It looks nice and aggressive despite the fact
01:15it has a tiny little engine under the bonnet there. You can get this as a hybrid as well,
01:19but at the entry level, it is just a small turbocharged engine.
01:22And you can see here little holes that it sucks air in from and it is just a very fun and happy looking car.
01:28And I think that kind of works for the demographic here. Front parking sensors as well.
01:32And let me show you around the side. LED fog lights down there.
01:3617-inch alloy wheels and fairly chubby tires here as well.
01:40There are 60 profile tires, so you can see they take up a fair bit of space above the alloy wheel.
01:45That should mean that this car rides really well.
01:47This shares a platform with the Toyota Prius. It's called the TNGA platform and the Prius is a really nice riding car.
01:54So hopefully it translates here. Look at that!
01:56Just in case you forget that it's got a turbo, a turbo badge. Come and I'll show you the back of the car as well.
02:01It's got a nice proportion along the side. Look at this design line that kicks up along the side there too.
02:07They've really focused on style with this car to make sure that you know, it is a stylish young person's car.
02:11Look at this as well. This is the door handle to enter the back. Now when they call it a coupe,
02:15it's kind of because they hide that and it looks like a two-door.
02:19Except you can kind of see that with the different color on the roofline.
02:22That theme continues around the back here with this nicely sculpted taillight, but it's not an LED taillight, unfortunately.
02:28Have a look at this. I've noticed this on my Supra as well.
02:31They've kind of got it on the wing mirror and they've continued that trend here.
02:34I think it's some kind of an aero thing.
02:35Let me know in the comments below if you know the hidden reason behind this.
02:39Down the back here, you have rear parking sensors and then a really high back on it with an inbuilt spoiler on that boot lid.
02:45It's kind of an interesting rear, but it looks SUV like. It's just under 4.4 metres long,
02:51which makes it almost exactly the same size as a Nissan Qashqai.
02:54Despite the fact this doesn't look anywhere near as big as a Nissan Qashqai.
02:57And then they round off the rear with this spoiler here. Kind of gives it that sporty intention.
03:02Let's talk interior and in keeping with the funky styling outside, it looks really nice in here as well.
03:08They've gone with this wavy design along the dashboard and split the black up with piano black, this
03:15reflective grey material, I don't know what it is, and this soft-touch dashboard. And have a look on these doors.
03:21You've got that...
03:23I'm terrible at design. Whatever that is on the door, that material, it feels nice on my fingers.
03:29Okay, so only motoring journalists talk about soft-touch dashboards,
03:33but we have a tool to measure how soft-touch the soft-touch dashboard is.
03:37This is a durometer. It measures from 0 to 100, whereas 0 is soft and a 100 is hard.
03:45Let's see what that dashboard is like.
03:48Push...
03:5055.5. All the fives. And then this center console,
03:56that one's a little softer.
03:58So pretty impressive there, and it feels nice and premium. If you compare this to something like a Hyundai Kona,
04:04this feels like it is worth a little bit more money. Build quality is good,
04:08but you know, there are a couple of things around here that aren't exactly super solid,
04:13but for the most part, it all feels like it's going to still be here in about 15 years time. Okay, enough about that.
04:19Let's talk infotainment. This is an 8-inch infotainment screen.
04:23It's a touchscreen with shortcut buttons on the side. If you want a detailed review of Toyota's infotainment system,
04:29you can click up here, but today I'll give you a quick overview just so you know what is featured inside the system.
04:35This is what the home screen looks like. You click here to get to your maps, moves around fairly quickly.
04:39You have the main menu where you access smartphone mirroring. So Apple CarPlay and Android Auto is built into this screen,
04:46but unfortunately, it's a wired system. It's not wireless, and on top of that, there is only one USB port.
04:52So if you do have your phone plugged in for smartphone mirroring, you can't charge any other devices,
04:56but for the most part, it works really well, and it fits nicely in that screen too. Now in terms of audio,
05:02you have AM, FM and Bluetooth streaming, but there's no digital radio, which is pretty disappointing.
05:07And finally, you have the ability to connect Toyota's app suite.
05:12Don't bother. Toyota's apps are fairly useless, and you can see why if you go to your app store,
05:17the ratings are fairly low. Just use smartphone mirroring. It's built into there.
05:20There's no need to bother with anything else. There's also a voice recognition system that's native to the operating system.
05:26It doesn't really work that well, but you can use it to interact with your smartphone. Let's talk other features.
05:31So the base model CH-R comes with dual zone climate control, a six-speaker sound system, you get radar cruise control, blind spot monitoring,
05:40automatic dimming rear vision mirror, front and rear parking sensors. Ahead of the driver is a 4.2 inch display for the trip computer and
05:46other visuals that you need to be aware of. And finally,
05:49it's wrapped up with autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian detection. What about the key?
05:53Well, join me as we step back in time. Look at this.
05:56It is an actual key that you have to put into an actual hole to start the car, not a proximity sensing key.
06:02So you've got to lock or unlock manually.
06:04There's no boot release button either. And then on the back there, you've got a little Toyota symbol.
06:08Let's talk practicality and we'll kick off with storage. So let me disconnect my phone. Where are you going to put that?
06:14So it's actually quite a few places to put your phone,
06:17including like a little storage tray up the front here that is kind of redundant because it doesn't fit a phone and
06:23anything you put in there will just slide off. So that is a weird one. What about bottle storage?
06:30Now, there's a clever system in play here. So it fits up the front there.
06:34It also fits down there, but you'll notice that that disappears pretty easily.
06:37So if you've got a coffee cup, that's going to be virtually pointless. But look at this thing. So printed on here,
06:43you've got small size cup with a little rotation symbol and then medium size cup for a little rotation symbol.
06:49So that is the large setting. Then for the medium setting, you slide this in
06:55and you can see the bottle goes up to there. And then for the small setting, you turn that around and slide it in.
07:02And then your bottle sits even higher. So you have three different settings for the cup holder, which is really cool.
07:08And then in the door, you can store a bottle there, plus some room on either side.
07:13Center console, it is super deep. Inside there,
07:15you have a 12-volt outlet and then the glove box is hidden away down here with this weird push-button system.
07:22And it's kind of pointless because it is now full of manual and you can't really fit anything else in there.
07:28What about comfort? Yeah, these seats are really nice.
07:31Yes, they are cloth seats, but I reckon they have a cool design on them.
07:34So you're not going to be too fussed about it being cloth and not leather.
07:39Seat is comfy. The steering wheel sits nicely in the hand. Yeah, this works.
07:45Let's talk back seat. As you can imagine, there isn't a huge amount of legroom back here, but it's okay.
07:52I can just fit my fingers there in between my knees and the seat.
07:56The shin room isn't amazing. Toe room is good though, and I feel like I have enough room to be comfortable.
08:03There's a problem and I'm not exactly the shortest person in the world. I've got plenty of headroom, but this is so claustrophobic.
08:10I feel like I can't see out of the car properly.
08:13It kind of feels weird and I suspect when we go for a drive, this is going to be a big blind spot.
08:17But even as a passenger, it just doesn't feel very... I don't know.
08:21There's just not enough light coming in here.
08:23But I did notice from back here, the little divots cut out of the roof up the front of the car.
08:28They're just there for styling, not really to add any room or anything extra.
08:31But I kind of like those highlights. It really shows that they've put a little bit of effort into this car.
08:36They haven't put much effort into this door though.
08:38It's got those ridgy design things over there, but the rest is very hard plastic and quite scratchy throughout.
08:45There's no center armrest, so there is one bottle holder here, but no door pockets or anything like that.
08:51No map pockets either, no air vents, no USB charging, no 12-volt outlet.
08:55Here's a pretty barren place back here.
08:58But you do get top tether on each of those three seats and ISOFIX anchorage points as well.
09:03So does an SUV shape mean that there is a stack of boot room?
09:08Not quite.
09:09You've got 317 litres of cargo space available and then under the boot floor here, you have a space saver spare tyre.
09:17It's quite a high boot lip and then also a really high floor as well.
09:21So you don't really get that much storage space.
09:23You do have hooks on the side though to tie things down.
09:26Now the space does expand to just over 1,000 or just over 1,100 litres, rather, if you get this out of the way.
09:34That just sits on the floor there. There's nowhere else to really store it and drop these seats down.
09:40That makes it virtually a flat floor.
09:41I'll show you what it looks like with our luggage in there.
09:44If I just move that out of the way for a sec, pop that in there and then this bag in here.
09:51There you go. That takes up pretty much your entire boot space.
09:54There's also no proximity sensing lock on this side. That's on the top spec model only.
10:01So we've hit the road in the C-HR.
10:04It's a really curious engine that is under the bonnet of this car. It's a 1.2 litre.
10:09What a small little engine that is. Four-cylinder turbocharged petrol, makes 85 kilowatts of power and
10:16185 newton meters of torque. It's what they call an auto cycle engine.
10:20So it makes a lot of its peak torque nice and early, a bit like a diesel engine,
10:24and that means that you can rely on it for a bit of pick up and go when you need it.
10:28The engine's mated to a continuously variable transmission, so
10:32they kind of do step changes. So if you go to the manual mode, it will give you seven different gear ratios,
10:38but in drive it is infinite gear ratios,
10:40which is the way a CVT works, and that means that you're simply not feeling any changes between the gears as the car accelerates.
10:47That small engine makes for a pretty efficient fuel economy of 6.4 litres per 100 kilometres,
10:52but if we're realistic, we're at 7.6 litres per 100 kilometres. That includes a lot of hilly driving, a little bit of highway driving as well,
10:59so it is reasonably efficient. Keep in mind though that it requires 95 ron premium unleaded petrol.
11:05That's always more expensive, means it's going to set you back a little bit more to fuel this in the long run.
11:10So what does all that feel like behind the wheel? While we're cruising along here, I'm going to punch it.
11:14Look, it's not terrible. It gets up and goes. It isn't going to pin you back in the seat and have you gasping for air,
11:22but it is quick enough, and it's going to be perfectly fine for city driving and when you need to
11:27depend on the car to get you moving, and the CVT responds quickly enough as well.
11:32It's available as a two-wheel drive, but comically, it's also available as an all-wheel drive. Now, why is that comical?
11:38Let me show you. We've come to a complete stop here on an incline,
11:41in the wet, and I'm going to flatten the throttle.
11:48We had the tiniest bit of wheel slip you have ever felt.
11:53I think if you bothered going the all-wheel drive version, which is more expensive, it's going to weigh more,
11:58not ever slip its wheels because it doesn't have enough power or torque to do that,
12:02and you're just going to be wasting your money, and on top of that,
12:05it's also going to waste more fuel as well. So don't bother going with the all-wheel drive.
12:09The front-wheel drive is perfectly fine.
12:12The ride is really the part that impresses me the most with this car. This sits on what they call the TNGA platform.
12:18I mentioned that earlier. It's called the Toyota New Global Architecture,
12:22and that means that Toyota has worked to develop a common platform that they use amongst most of their cars,
12:28and then they fine-tune little bits and pieces. It reduces development costs,
12:31but it means that they can put all of their effort into the one platform, and that means it rides absolutely beautifully.
12:37No matter what surface you throw at it, it is soaking it up perfectly. It's good for country roads,
12:42it's good for highways, city driving, potholes, you name it, and it also means that it's nice and sporty.
12:48Yes, it isn't a sports car in the general sense of the term, but it feels nice and sporty,
12:53it doesn't have a great deal of body roll, and it handles nicely for a compact SUV.
12:59I haven't really noticed it on any other of the cars that sit on this TNGA platform, but
13:04it is pretty noisy inside the cabin here on course chip surfaces.
13:08It's transmitting a lot of road noise into the car. Like, it's not terrible, but it is pretty noticeable,
13:13so if you're going on a long drive, a long highway drive,
13:15it's going to sort of get a bit droney and annoying inside the car,
13:18so it's worth keeping in mind if you do long distance driving, have a bit of a think about a test drive first.
13:23In terms of visibility, it's excellent out the front and the sides. The wing mirrors are pretty big as well,
13:28but visibility out the rear,
13:30it's pretty average. The envelope is super small out the back window there,
13:35and if you've got your friends in the car, it's going to block the ability to see out of the car even further.
13:40But, you know, you do get your blind spot monitors, that helps with cars,
13:43and I am finding that that C-pillar visibility out of that is terrible.
13:47So it isn't great in the back seat when you're sitting there,
13:49but it's even worse when you're trying to drive and you want to do a head check. Let's talk turning circle. 10.4 metres, which means
13:57it's actually really nice and tight.
13:59Yeah, that's really impressive. So 10.4 metres is an excellent turning circle, especially for something that is classified as an SUV.
14:06So Toyota C-HR, it's a really, really nice car to drive. The ride is fantastic.
14:11They've really sorted it out, so you can throw it at speed humps, throw it at potholes,
14:16and you don't feel anything inside the car.
14:17It can be nice and sharp through corners if you want it to be as well,
14:21and in comparison to something like a Hyundai Kona, it just feels a bit more well built
14:25and better resolved as well. It feels a bit more premium for the price that you're paying.
14:29It's not as punchy as a Kona,
14:31but the 1.2-litre engine in this gives you enough urge to get it up and moving,
14:35and the CVT is far smoother than the dual-clutch gearbox in the turbocharged Kona. So, downsides, though.
14:41Rear legroom, it is horrendously bad in there. Same with the visibility in the back.
14:45So if you've got any friends,
14:47they're not going to like you very much if they have to go in the back seat,
14:49but outside of that, it fits the purpose. It sits nice and high.
14:53It makes you feel like you're in an SUV without having to be in an SUV, and potentially for older people,
14:58this is going to be a good car if you need a downsize, but find getting into hatchbacks and smaller cars a little trickier.
15:03Let me know in the comments below if you've bought a C-HR. What's it like to drive in the long term?
15:08What are you not liking about it?
15:09We'd love to hear from you, and if you found this video useful,
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15:16It's going to tell you every single time we drive something new, but until next time, drive safely.