Polarising looks? Check.
Ordinary hatch back that looks a bit off-roady and utilitarian but has no practical value on any actual off-road surface? Check.
Piddling 1.2 litre engine? Check.
Appalling rear visibility owing to the coupe body shape? Check and check.
Welcome, then, to the Toyota Coupe High Rider, known as C-HR to its friends.
These are all the things that seemingly make modern car city car buyers happy. I honestly don’t know why, but I do have a pretty good theory on why consumers opt for this type of vehicle. Modern car consumers don’t really mind about actual practicality when it comes to off-road driving because they don’t usually go off road. They spend most of their time in the city and suburbs and those who do prefer a spot of off-roading would most likely go for something that is a bit more serious, like a Toyota Fortuner or a Ford Everest or any of their pick-up counter parts, so we can conclude that there really isn’t a need to buy a C-HR or any car like it because it doesn’t do anything better than an ordinary hatchback nor does it come close to the capabilities of any of the serious off-roaders. It seems, then, that the C-HR is a pointless misfit… Or is it?
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Yes, yes it is.
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I really wouldn’t be able to explain why I like the C-HR but I do, I really, really do. To my eye it is the most striking design ever bestowed on any Toyota product in history. There is more character in the design of the car’s rear doors than there has ever been in Toyota’s entire line-up over the years. I said what I said and I stick by my statement. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that Toyota has never built good cars, I’m not saying that at all. Toyota has always been at the forefront of good, well-built, well-engineered and efficient cars, I may even go so far as to say that some of the cars offered by the company in the past have been exciting and cool and if you are a petrol head, most probably the supra came to mind, but they had always played it safe in terms of styling.
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The C-HR doesn’t play it safe. It has crazy styling and it is hopelessly impractical, therefore it goes against all the core values of the Toyota motor company and believe me, that is a good thing indeed.
The car is not your typical, run-on-the-mill Toyota, this Toyota has style and drama and, dare I say, pizazz. The pizazz isn’t just limited to the exterior styling. It has diamond motifs that exist throughout the interior and can be seen in the form of patterns on the ceiling and the shapes of the buttons on the steering wheel and on the centre console, which is immensely cool. Speaking of the centre console, it’s raised and that gives the car a luxurious feel from the driver’s seat and on it there’s a button for a feature directly taken from the Lexus brand which is the brake hold function which keeps the brakes applied after stopping so you don’t have to do the menial and bothersome task of keeping the brakes applied yourself – how opulent is that?
The car has more relation to its twin within the Lexus brand because it shares some of the underpinnings of the Lexus UX model and also shares the same engine when opting for the 2.0l option, however in South Africa we only have the 1.2l turbo petrol engine which, by the way, is not as bad as I thought it would be.
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As a concept, I am, or rather, was against fitting a tiny engine into a car with substantial mass, it honestly seemed like an idiotic idea and to an extent it still seems like somewhat of a daft idea. I’m a firm believer in the age old motoring adage; “There is no replacement for displacement.” As much as it pains me to admit, this maxim is wrong because there is a replacement for displacement and it’s called a turbo, which the C-HR has. Unfortunately though with this turbocharged car with a tiny engine, the driver does get healthy doses of awful turbo-lag right up the 2 500rpm point but from there on the car does give the driver a sense of urgency right up until it gets to the 6 000rpm mark where the turbo runs out of steam and everyone in the car is violently jolted forwards. This may seem like a bad thing but I say it adds a bit of character to the car. The car also produces 85 kilowatts of power (115 bhp) which is really not too bad.
I once took the car on a long distance trip and I really felt like it could handle its own and it gave me enough confidence to attempt a few bold overtakes, which made me happy.
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So to sum up, the car is a misfit and it is impractical and you would not be able to reasonably justify why you have one but it is striking to look at, it feels premium and it is not woefully slow even though it has a small engine.
It has modern day creature comforts like satellite navigation and a cool infotainment system which I, admittedly dot mind much about. It is more than capable both in the city and is extraordinarily comfortable on long distance drives. I give it the thumbs up.