Toyota C-HR review: concept gets more funky with much improved upgrades

Once upon a time, the idea of a funky Toyota was about as realistic as Iggy Pop lining out with a jazz combo, but such a thing did indeed come to pass in 2016 when the Japanese giant shrugged off its bland design legacy and unveiled the C-HR.

Not only was it the nattiest production Toyota we had ever seen, it also had – as has become commonplace with the naming policies of Asian car makers – a very unusual name.

The C-HR soubriquet stands for ‘Coupe – High Rider’ and while that might sound a little bizarre, it actually figuratively correct because what the designers set out to produce was, well, a high riding coupe-shaped automobile.

But this was not a normal ‘three box’ design of the type we would normally see from Toyota City; it was very angular, yet swoopy at the same time and while built on the same platform as the Corolla, was very different from anything the company had made before.

Design cues like the sloping rear roofline, the rear door handles mounted high in the window frames, the tea-tray rear spoiler, the slashing but faux front and rear air ducts which were there more for decoration than anything else, characterised the car and stood it out from the pack.

The real surprise was that it was a good drive too; sure, the early generation Hybrid motor was a very screechy affair, but once you got over that, the C-HR was good to drive and handled well. All in all, it was a surprisingly good package from Toyota.

All of that being so, coming up with a new one was always going to be a challenge, but it is one which Toyota stepped up to. The new car, if anything, is actually funkier now than the old one was when we first saw it.

The new one had a tough design brief as it was Toyota’s stated aim to build something that looked like a concept car (which usually have wild design cues which never make it to production) but one which was road ready. Believe me, they’ve pulled that trick off.

On first sight, the new C-HR leaps out at you; the C-shaped lights parse down into a somewhat bulbous nose which incorporates a trapezoidal grille, but as you look at it head-on, past the wide wheelarches, it looks fresh and different.

The bonnet lines carry on to embrace the undulating side profile and then meld into a rear end which is dramatic, to say the least, with a huge amount going on visually, from the sharply angled rear windscreen, the complex spoiler design and the full width rear lighting arrangement.

Look at it from any angle and you will see interesting shapes and forms. Even the side view is a complex arrangement of body pressings which make the car look like it’s in motion, even when it’s standing still.

All four passenger doors now have normal handles, except they are of the pop-out variety which adds a little frisson of excitement every time you unlock it. These are much better than the fingernail snappers that were the old rear door ones.

The interior too has some nice design tweaks – check those front seats and their natty headrests – but if you’ve been in something like a Yaris Cross recently, it looks like standard Toyota fare at this moment in time.

That’s not to say it’s uninteresting, just that there’s nothing really that stands it out as being a specific C-HR design. There are chrome elements running through the grey plastic-ness of the dash which brighten it up, but even if it is a little dull to live with everything is well laid out and easy to assimilate.

Twin screens, one an excellent 12.3” touchscreen for the connectivity and infotainment and the other for the instrumentation. Both are very driver-friendly and the amount of information on offer is impressive as much as informative.

The original C-HR did not have a lot of room in the back seats and, because of the minimised windows, sitting back there was like being in a coffin with a porthole. The new one is not much better from a roominess point of view, but the visibility is much better for the rear passengers.

However, the severe slant on the rear window means, from the driver’s point of view, looking in the rearview mirror is akin to peering through a letterbox. Some will find this a downside, but the view from the door mirrors is excellent.

Our tester this week was the lesser of the two petrol hybrids on offer – the 1.8 litre version. There is also a 190 bhp two-litre, but the 140 bhp one we had (in ‘Sol’ specification) didn’t miss much by way of performance or economy and is considerably cheaper too, which will make it the bigger seller.

The 9.9 second 0-100 km/h time is not eyebrow-raising by any standards, but, in truth, the car actually felt quicker than that and even though the current fifth-generation hybrid engines Toyota make are a lot more refined than ever, they can still be high decibel unit if you’re too anxious to make progress.

Truly, the best approach here is the ‘softly, softly catchee monkey’ one and a light right foot is actually the more rewarding way to drive the C-HR. That said, once you get it to where you want it to speed-wise the cornering and grip levels are almost Velcro-esque.

Keen driving aside, what will interest a majority of punters is the economy this thing offers; Toyota claims a 4.8 l/100km consumption rate (58.3 mpg) and my best efforts to disprove that only resulted in a return of 5.5 l/100km (50.9 mpg) which is pretty damn impressive by anyone’s standards.

The ‘Sol’ spec is generous too and aside from standard stuff like the front and rear parking sensors, adaptive cruise control, smartphone charging mat and puddle lamps, you get 19” alloys, am electric rear door, automatic high-beam lights and an electric driver’s seat.

You would have to say that, in fairness, Toyota has addressed the main failings of the original C-HR and, if anything, has made the car even funkier-looking than it ever was and that stands it out from an increasingly crowded playing field.

That is very good territory for Toyota to be in as it slowly shakes off its long standing dull-as-ditchwater design cred. Why, hell, even The Ig – rock ‘n’ roll’s wildest Wildman, has tried his hand at jazz.

If he can do it…