TOYOTA AIMS TO ATTRACT MILLENNIALS WITH C-HR
The Compact High Rider has bold, upscale style and offers decent fuel consumption
With Toyota’s youth-seeking Scion brand now history, the Japanese automaker needs a car other than the pragmatic Corolla or unassuming Yaris to entice younger, trendier customers.
The company hopes to attract a new batch of millennial “creative instigators” with the 2018 C-HR. This all-new compact SUV was, after all, slated for release under the Scion banner in North America when the concept was originally shown at the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show.
Its swoopy silhouette reveals its Scion upbringing. Bold, almost brash styling is clearly aimed at hip Gen-Y youth. The compact SUV looks more like a tall hot hatch, which may explain the name behind its call letters: Compact – High Rider. Toyota is intent on attracting younger drivers, even using somewhat offbeat language in an official press presentation, declaring that the C-HR has “kick-ass styling.”
The interior features several upscale touches, like soft-touch surfaces, a leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob, heated seats, dual-zone climate control, and a seven-inch infotainment touch screen. One significant oversight, however, is that neither Apple CarPlay nor Android Auto are available, though you can connect your smartphone via Bluetooth or USB. And millennials presumably prefer using their smartphones to get around, because there’s no integrated navigation system available.
The C-HR has a distinctive fascia that is more aggressive than anything else in Toyota’s lineup, with a rear-sloping roofline that drops toward bulging, hip-like fenders. The rear doors cleverly blend into the body, with high mounted, Veloster-like door handles. Unfortunately, narrow rear windows and a wide C-pillar provide a limited rear view from inside, though a standard rearview camera does help when backing into a tight parking spot, with a small monitor located within the rear-view mirror.
A 2.0-litre, 144-horsepower four-cylinder engine produces 139 pound-feet of torque, and it powers only the front wheels (no AWD option) via a continuously variable transmission (CVT), which shifts through seven ratios so it feels more like a conventional automatic. The lack of an AWD model, according to Toyota Canada’s Stephen Beatty, was driven primarily by the lack of interest in the AWD Matrix when it was available, which was targeting the same market segment.
With a curb weight of 1,497 kilograms, the vehicle’s engine works hard when passing at highway speeds and it does so with a fair amount of noise. But when it settles down into a cruise speed, the cabin is refreshingly quiet, with wind and tire noise comfortably subdued. The benefit of this modest performance is decent fuel consumption, which Toyota claims averages 8.2 L/100 km.
Stepping into the C-HR is easy up front, and the accommodations are roomy. Seats offer ample comfort for long trips, with deep side bolsters providing additional support. The cockpit is neatly laid out, with large analog gauges for the speedometer and tachometer, and a central 4.2-inch configurable colour monitor offering peripheral information.
The infotainment screen is a bit cumbersome, located high on the dash, and there are just a few buttons in the centre stack that operate the climate control system, all within easy reach. The centre console contains a nicely sized storage compartment, as well as a proper gearshift knob instead of a dial or an array of buttons.
It’s a bit more of a squeeze to get through the rear doors for rear-seat access, but once you’re in there’s ample headroom and legroom for a six-footer like me, even with the front seats adjusted for someone who’s equally as tall. This rear space is a welcome surprise, considering that the C-HR is about five centimetres narrower and 25 cm shorter than Toyota’s RAV4. There are 538 L of cargo room behind the rear seats; it’s not class leading but it’s more than the Mazda CX3.
The ride is firm yet well composed, with a taut chassis that barely leans when cornering, and light, yet mostly communicative, steering. This surprisingly nimble, car-like handling lends some credence to Toyota’s claim that C-HR testing and chassis development took place at Nürburgring.
The CVT is somewhat sluggish when gassing it out of corners or mashing the pedal to complete a pass, taking a moment before responding to foot commands. For me a CVT is a buzz killer; a manual gearbox would be greatly appreciated by this tester, but alas, millennials seem to shun that third pedal.
The 2018 Toyota C-HR will go on sale in May and will be available in only two trims: the $24,690 XLE, and the $26,690 XLE Premium. That’s a bit more expensive than some of its competitors, and that price excludes some of the available colour schemes, which can add up to $795 to the price. You can get a similarly equipped Kia Soul EX for about $21,500. Or for about the price of the C-HR you can equip a Nissan Juke with allwheel drive.
Where the Toyota has the edge on the competition — even on the similarly priced Honda HR-V EX — is in its high level of standard features and its standard driver aids, which include pre-collision alert with pedestrian detection, lane-departure alert and assist, full-range adaptive cruise control and auto high beams. The XLE Premium adds blind-spot alert, rear cross-traffic alert, automatic folding and heated mirrors, a smart-key system with pushbutton start, and 18-inch wheels (17-inchers on the XLE). And, if you’re into such frivolities, it has puddle lamps that project the C-HR logo on the ground.
Only time will tell if millennials go for the Toyota C-HR. I think it’s good enough — especially with its emphasis on safety — that it will appeal to a much larger segment of the population.