When is a sports jacket a blazer, a tuxedo a dinner jacket, a pair of pumps a pair of trainers, a ten pound note a plastic pollutant? Questions of definition are meat and drink to argumentative souls in micro brewery bar rooms. When it comes to cars there’s no end to controversy. The highway of disputation stretches far beyond the vanishing point on the horizon of lost logic.
So here’s a poser. Define an SUV. Done it? Now take a look at the mould-breaking Toyota CH-R. Compare its credentials with your definition. Is the C-HR truly an SUV or does it represent a bold shattering of preconceptions: something so radical, so new that it deserves a category all of its own?
That I leave for others to judge. My job is simply to furnish a modest appraisal of the car in question. Does it deliver the goods? Does it do what the label says? Indeed labels come and go and may be thought fundamentally insignificant. What counts is what you get. And what exactly do you get with the revised, coupe-styled Toyota C-HR that has had talking heads buzzing and connoisseurs of classifications spinning on the tips of their pointers.
Because, make no mistake, this car is making a stir. As someone on the bridge of the USS Enterprise might put it: “It’s an SUV my old gym mate – but not as we know it!”
For starters, take a look at its frankly uncompromising appearance. It has a predatory demeanour; wolf-like in its sinuous repose. A far cry indeed from the usual ‘jelly-mould-on-steroids’ appearance of a typically pumped-up SUV. The second generation C-HR sits low and looks ready to pounce. And although comparatively speaking this isn’t Thrust Mk.10, it does leap smoothly off the mark and grips on tight with flexing rubber talons to the tarmac. So much so that it’s not a misnomer to call the car lively and inspiring. The C-HR has motorway fast lane credentials written all over it too. And yes – before you ‘Twitter’, we know, we really do, that there’s no such thing as a fast lane. But as far as a fast moving and dynamic SUV goes – well, that’s another story.
It’s a story that had to wait until the appearance of this sensational automobile and its compelling narrative of adventure. But first let us be patient and look at the details. Buyers have options. You can choose from two regular hybrid petrol versions – a 138bhp 1.8 or a 193bhp 2.0., or a plug-in hybrid which combines the 2.0 with a bigger battery. Prices start at £35.045. Tested here is the regular FWD 138bhp hybrid. 1.8 that has enough performance to take you to around 106mph – all very smoothly thanks to the excellent CVT transmission. Somehow – alternating between petrol power and electric power as the computer decides – it seems to run on fresh air. On one gentle run I got over 80mpg.
It comes fully loaded with modern safety features and gets a five star rating. It is truly a confidence inspiring machine with that renowned underlying Toyota reliability. You can even have a ten year warranty if you get it serviced annually by a Toyota dealer. That’s confidence for you.
For drivers and passengers who sit on seats trimmed in fabric made from 100% plastic bottles, it feels as secure as Fort Knox while at the same time displaying constitutional consideration for other road users whether on foot, behind a wheel or busy stretching Lycra leggings. And should a deer leap into your path – well, it’s a wise deer that chooses this car to cross. A case of “Calm down deer!” If ever there was. Autonomous emergency braking will kick in before you can say ‘Monarch Of The Glen’ in Pidgin Mandarin. The ride is smooth and compliant and the car feels well balanced and responsive.
You know what? My fragile ego was boosted no end simply by taking to the road in the C-HR. It made me feel not like a family driver on the way to a cut price Ikea, but a dashing rogue about to ‘rip it up’ at The Roxy. Cleverly the designers have banished concepts of grey utilitarianism from the label ‘utility’ and replaced it with an invigorating suggestion of style, promise and performance. And all without sacrificing the essential practicalities that underpin SUVs appeal to increasing numbers of motorists.
Disconcertingly at first when setting off, there’s a ‘clunk’ as if someone has bumped into the car – but fear not…it’s only the door handles returning to the ‘flush’ position as you get underway. All in the interest of slippery aerodynamics you understand. You soon get used to it.
The ultimate test is this: ask anyone if they fancy a ride in this Toyota. For every refusal promise to donate one hundred pounds to the local rest home for abandoned goldfish. Those poor goldfish will get nothing but de-ionised water. Your lucky passengers will acquire wide grins.
Politicians toda bang on about ‘change’, but quite frankly where this C-HR hybrid is concerned, I wouldn’t change a thing.
