2018 Toyota C-HR Model ReviewEdmunds
MARK TAKAHASHI: Sometimes we
get cars that roll through here that are really
easy to evaluate. Is this one of them? No. This one was tough. This one kept me up at night.
This is the 2018 Toyota CH-R,
originally designed as a Scion. So it's got a little
more of edginess, a little more youthful
spirit to it, and I like it. I don't love it, but I
like it, and here's why. It's got this nice wrap
around edge-to-edge, headlight-to-headlight
thing going on.
It's a little lower. It's a little more hatchback
sportiness, all sorts of that stuff going on. The bummer for me up
front, at least though, is this chin spoiler. It's really low, and it tends to
scrape on driveways and parking blocks.
For that reason don't think
of it as a subcompact SUV. Think of it as a
raised hatchback. On the side, this is where
things get really cool. It's really scooped out.
It's got all these
surface treatments here that thin it out and make it
look sportier and lighter. Unfortunately, and
we'll get to this later, there's no such thing
as speed with this. Another thing I really
like is the white roof. It really works with
this body style.
It's got a coupe look to it,
because these door handles are way up high and almost
hidden, really easy. You do have to dip your
head down quite a bit to get past the sloping
roof line though. In the back, there's a
lot of surfaces, really, really big tail lights that
jut out from the bodywork. It all works to
me, and I'm really kind of attracted to this car.
I wasn't expecting to be. Prices for the CH-R start right
around $23,000 for the base XLE. Trim. This is the XLE premium,
which is about $25,000.
For the extra $2,000
you get things like power-folding
mirrors, which honestly, I. Don't think really makes
sense on a car this small. Heated front seats,
blind spot monitor, rear across traffic
alert, fog lights, probably not worth
the extra $2,000 when you consider that it's
already pretty affordable. Regardless of what
trim you go with, they all come with this, the
two-liter, four-cylinder engine puts out 144 horsepower.
Those numbers are right in
there with the competition, but it really doesn't use
power as well as the rivals. The EPA estimates this at 29
miles per gallon combined. That's two miles per gallon
less than the competition. However, it is easy
to get that figure, because I drove this on
our loop and got just over 30 miles per gallon.
But man, it really just needs
a little bit more power, but we'll get to
that on the drive. So I'm on the road now
in this 2018 Toyota CH-R. I'm conflicted, and
that carries over to the driving impressions. I partially blame the CVT,
the Continuously-Variable Transmission.
It's really slow to
react, because it takes a while for this thing
to spool up and finally build some power to pass. The same holds true for
when you're leaving a line. There's a whole lot
of nothing, at first, and then it starts producing
more noise than power, and then you finally start
getting some acceleration. So here we are passing a car.
Yeah. We're going to get
on the freeway here. All right, so here we go. Come on.
Come on, you can do it. Yeah. You've got to plan
way in advance. Write down a letter,
ask for acceleration.
Put it in an envelope, put
a stamp on it, seal it. Send it off, and wait
for something to happen. Now, in regard to visibility,
it's actually pretty decent. This 8-pillar here really
doesn't get in my way too much in a left turn.
Mirrors are pretty
decently sized. Rear visibility is
really good for class. You don't really need to rely
on that rear-view camera much, because visibility is really
good, especially looking back. You get a really good indication
of where the corners are, where the limits are when you're
backing a really tight space.
And that's also a good thing,
because the rear-view camera's not so great. It projects into the
rear-view mirror, and it's a really,
really small picture, and not all that intuitive. Another thing assisting thing
with low-speed maneuverability is the turning circle in this. It's really small, which
means, in some cases, multiple point turns
won't be necessary.
That's a really good thing. So the CH-R does have a Sport
Mode, doesn't do that much. It's an incremental
increase in responsiveness. Now, not everybody
needs performance.
Some people just want to
get from point A to point B. And in this case, it's a
stylish fun way to get there. I get it, but consider this. At the track, it hit 60 miles
an hour in 10.6 Seconds.
According to my colleague,
it is the sixth slowest car we've ever tested, and this is
against some very large cargo vans. Although, from what
I can understand, it's not as slow as our
long-term [INAUDIBLE].. Handling-wise, that's the weird
one for me, in a good way. This thing handles really
well, and maybe that's because it was
originally intended to be a Scion, which is their
more youthful, sporty brand.
But man, on our
evaluation loop, there's some pretty fun
twisty roads in there, and this thing handled
them like a champ. The drawback, however, is they
put low-rolling resistance tires on this car. Now, that's for fuel economy,
to help with getting better fuel economy. The payoff is, even in moderate
cornering, this thing howl's.
The tire squeal is
really quite loud. As far as ride quality goes,
it's a little tuned, I think. The one thing that
does bother me, noise. There's a lot of road noise.
There's even a
lot of wind noise. The CH-R comes with
frontal collision warning and mitigation, standard. This, in the XLE
of premium trim, has a blind spot monitor with
rear cross traffic alerts, and also lane-keep assist. So the interior on the
CH-R is really quite nice.
The material's quality, exceeds
my expectations, especially up here on the top door panel. It's soft to the touch. It looks really nice,
simulated leather dash, mulit-tiered style for the
dashboard is really nice too. Rather than just a plain piano
black, which I'm really not that big a fan of, they put
this kind of glitter in here, and I like it.
It doesn't look like it's
picking up as much dust as a regular piano Blackwood. It gives a little
bit more contour. There is an overriding
theme, diamonds. The buttons are
arranged in little rounded off diamonds, buttons
on the steering wheel, same diamond.
The vents are diamond shaped. You have a diamond
pattern in the door panels and even in the headliner. These subtle little embossed
diamonds up here, cool. One thing I'm not a
fan of, infotainment.
Actually it's more
entertainment than infotainment. This, even though it looks like
a typical infotainment touch screen, it's really
just a head unit for the audio, no
car-related settings or additional stuff in there,
pretty much typical for Toyota. They haven't gotten on the
bandwagon with Apple Car Play, and that to me is a real
bummer, because I really, really like it. So one thing that I
wish I had more of is telescopic range
off the steering wheel.
It doesn't come far back enough
for me, and I'm only 5' 10". Taller drivers
are probably going to have even more of
a problem with this. If it just came
back a little more, it'd be in a comfortable reach. As of now, I feel like I have
to slide the seat slightly more forward than I
prefer, which puts me in a more upright,
almost minivan-like, driving position,
not my favorite.
As far as convenience,
well, we've got a decent-sized cup holder
here, another one here, and this one has a
little stopper in there. So you can get a really tall
coffee cup in there as well. Center bin, it's pretty decent. It's not particularly long,
but it is pretty deep.
The problem, though, is
there's no USB port in there, and there's only
one right there. The door pockets
they're all right. You can get one water
bottle in there, and this little
side part, it really doesn't serve much purpose,
except maybe for aesthetics. So here I am in the backseat,
and once again, I'm surprised.
I have enough room, and I'm
sitting behind the driver's seat that was set up for me. Plenty of room for my knees, and
my feet are flat on the floor and getting enough
thigh support. I'd be OK back here for
a road trip, for sure. One thing that's a little
bit concerning, but just a bummer I suppose, is this
swooping door panel here.
Kind of makes you feel a little
claustrophobic, like you're not getting much of a view out, as
you would with other vehicles. Then again, this isn't really
meant for real family duty. For that, you'd step up to a
slightly larger compact SUV. The material's quality is
a little more hard plastic.
It's little more durable, if
you do have kids back here. Overall, I'm surprised
how roomy it is. Good job, Toyota. When it comes to cargo capacity
with CH-R, I'm impressed.
It's 19 cubic feet
behind the rear seats. That's five less
than the Honda HRV, but it's almost double
what the Mazda CX3 has. So there's no doubt you're
going to get plenty of stuff back here. Now, this raked
roof line is going to slice in as far as how bulky
an object can get in there.
But when you do have
something that bulky, fold the seats
forward pretty easily, just like that, one-handed. And you also have some small
bins off the side here, but only on this side. The rest is taken up with
tire tools and a spare tire. So yeah, overall it should
handle everything you need, without even struggling.
Like I said, the CH-R
leaves me conflicted on a number of
levels, but overall, I. Think it's a really
good execution. It compares well against the
Honda HRV, as well as the Mazda CX3. It would be a tough
call between all three, because they're all pretty
much the same price.
Really, when it comes to the
power issue I have with this, take your time to test drive. Really get to know the car,
really lay your foot into it, and find out if it meets or
misses your expectations. Let us know what you think. Leave a comment below
and hit subscribe.
[MUSIC PLAYING].
get cars that roll through here that are really
easy to evaluate. Is this one of them? No. This one was tough. This one kept me up at night.
This is the 2018 Toyota CH-R,
originally designed as a Scion. So it's got a little
more of edginess, a little more youthful
spirit to it, and I like it. I don't love it, but I
like it, and here's why. It's got this nice wrap
around edge-to-edge, headlight-to-headlight
thing going on.
It's a little lower. It's a little more hatchback
sportiness, all sorts of that stuff going on. The bummer for me up
front, at least though, is this chin spoiler. It's really low, and it tends to
scrape on driveways and parking blocks.
For that reason don't think
of it as a subcompact SUV. Think of it as a
raised hatchback. On the side, this is where
things get really cool. It's really scooped out.
It's got all these
surface treatments here that thin it out and make it
look sportier and lighter. Unfortunately, and
we'll get to this later, there's no such thing
as speed with this. Another thing I really
like is the white roof. It really works with
this body style.
It's got a coupe look to it,
because these door handles are way up high and almost
hidden, really easy. You do have to dip your
head down quite a bit to get past the sloping
roof line though. In the back, there's a
lot of surfaces, really, really big tail lights that
jut out from the bodywork. It all works to
me, and I'm really kind of attracted to this car.
I wasn't expecting to be. Prices for the CH-R start right
around $23,000 for the base XLE. Trim. This is the XLE premium,
which is about $25,000.
For the extra $2,000
you get things like power-folding
mirrors, which honestly, I. Don't think really makes
sense on a car this small. Heated front seats,
blind spot monitor, rear across traffic
alert, fog lights, probably not worth
the extra $2,000 when you consider that it's
already pretty affordable. Regardless of what
trim you go with, they all come with this, the
two-liter, four-cylinder engine puts out 144 horsepower.
Those numbers are right in
there with the competition, but it really doesn't use
power as well as the rivals. The EPA estimates this at 29
miles per gallon combined. That's two miles per gallon
less than the competition. However, it is easy
to get that figure, because I drove this on
our loop and got just over 30 miles per gallon.
But man, it really just needs
a little bit more power, but we'll get to
that on the drive. So I'm on the road now
in this 2018 Toyota CH-R. I'm conflicted, and
that carries over to the driving impressions. I partially blame the CVT,
the Continuously-Variable Transmission.
It's really slow to
react, because it takes a while for this thing
to spool up and finally build some power to pass. The same holds true for
when you're leaving a line. There's a whole lot
of nothing, at first, and then it starts producing
more noise than power, and then you finally start
getting some acceleration. So here we are passing a car.
Yeah. We're going to get
on the freeway here. All right, so here we go. Come on.
Come on, you can do it. Yeah. You've got to plan
way in advance. Write down a letter,
ask for acceleration.
Put it in an envelope, put
a stamp on it, seal it. Send it off, and wait
for something to happen. Now, in regard to visibility,
it's actually pretty decent. This 8-pillar here really
doesn't get in my way too much in a left turn.
Mirrors are pretty
decently sized. Rear visibility is
really good for class. You don't really need to rely
on that rear-view camera much, because visibility is really
good, especially looking back. You get a really good indication
of where the corners are, where the limits are when you're
backing a really tight space.
And that's also a good thing,
because the rear-view camera's not so great. It projects into the
rear-view mirror, and it's a really,
really small picture, and not all that intuitive. Another thing assisting thing
with low-speed maneuverability is the turning circle in this. It's really small, which
means, in some cases, multiple point turns
won't be necessary.
That's a really good thing. So the CH-R does have a Sport
Mode, doesn't do that much. It's an incremental
increase in responsiveness. Now, not everybody
needs performance.
Some people just want to
get from point A to point B. And in this case, it's a
stylish fun way to get there. I get it, but consider this. At the track, it hit 60 miles
an hour in 10.6 Seconds.
According to my colleague,
it is the sixth slowest car we've ever tested, and this is
against some very large cargo vans. Although, from what
I can understand, it's not as slow as our
long-term [INAUDIBLE].. Handling-wise, that's the weird
one for me, in a good way. This thing handles really
well, and maybe that's because it was
originally intended to be a Scion, which is their
more youthful, sporty brand.
But man, on our
evaluation loop, there's some pretty fun
twisty roads in there, and this thing handled
them like a champ. The drawback, however, is they
put low-rolling resistance tires on this car. Now, that's for fuel economy,
to help with getting better fuel economy. The payoff is, even in moderate
cornering, this thing howl's.
The tire squeal is
really quite loud. As far as ride quality goes,
it's a little tuned, I think. The one thing that
does bother me, noise. There's a lot of road noise.
There's even a
lot of wind noise. The CH-R comes with
frontal collision warning and mitigation, standard. This, in the XLE
of premium trim, has a blind spot monitor with
rear cross traffic alerts, and also lane-keep assist. So the interior on the
CH-R is really quite nice.
The material's quality, exceeds
my expectations, especially up here on the top door panel. It's soft to the touch. It looks really nice,
simulated leather dash, mulit-tiered style for the
dashboard is really nice too. Rather than just a plain piano
black, which I'm really not that big a fan of, they put
this kind of glitter in here, and I like it.
It doesn't look like it's
picking up as much dust as a regular piano Blackwood. It gives a little
bit more contour. There is an overriding
theme, diamonds. The buttons are
arranged in little rounded off diamonds, buttons
on the steering wheel, same diamond.
The vents are diamond shaped. You have a diamond
pattern in the door panels and even in the headliner. These subtle little embossed
diamonds up here, cool. One thing I'm not a
fan of, infotainment.
Actually it's more
entertainment than infotainment. This, even though it looks like
a typical infotainment touch screen, it's really
just a head unit for the audio, no
car-related settings or additional stuff in there,
pretty much typical for Toyota. They haven't gotten on the
bandwagon with Apple Car Play, and that to me is a real
bummer, because I really, really like it. So one thing that I
wish I had more of is telescopic range
off the steering wheel.
It doesn't come far back enough
for me, and I'm only 5' 10". Taller drivers
are probably going to have even more of
a problem with this. If it just came
back a little more, it'd be in a comfortable reach. As of now, I feel like I have
to slide the seat slightly more forward than I
prefer, which puts me in a more upright,
almost minivan-like, driving position,
not my favorite.
As far as convenience,
well, we've got a decent-sized cup holder
here, another one here, and this one has a
little stopper in there. So you can get a really tall
coffee cup in there as well. Center bin, it's pretty decent. It's not particularly long,
but it is pretty deep.
The problem, though, is
there's no USB port in there, and there's only
one right there. The door pockets
they're all right. You can get one water
bottle in there, and this little
side part, it really doesn't serve much purpose,
except maybe for aesthetics. So here I am in the backseat,
and once again, I'm surprised.
I have enough room, and I'm
sitting behind the driver's seat that was set up for me. Plenty of room for my knees, and
my feet are flat on the floor and getting enough
thigh support. I'd be OK back here for
a road trip, for sure. One thing that's a little
bit concerning, but just a bummer I suppose, is this
swooping door panel here.
Kind of makes you feel a little
claustrophobic, like you're not getting much of a view out, as
you would with other vehicles. Then again, this isn't really
meant for real family duty. For that, you'd step up to a
slightly larger compact SUV. The material's quality is
a little more hard plastic.
It's little more durable, if
you do have kids back here. Overall, I'm surprised
how roomy it is. Good job, Toyota. When it comes to cargo capacity
with CH-R, I'm impressed.
It's 19 cubic feet
behind the rear seats. That's five less
than the Honda HRV, but it's almost double
what the Mazda CX3 has. So there's no doubt you're
going to get plenty of stuff back here. Now, this raked
roof line is going to slice in as far as how bulky
an object can get in there.
But when you do have
something that bulky, fold the seats
forward pretty easily, just like that, one-handed. And you also have some small
bins off the side here, but only on this side. The rest is taken up with
tire tools and a spare tire. So yeah, overall it should
handle everything you need, without even struggling.
Like I said, the CH-R
leaves me conflicted on a number of
levels, but overall, I. Think it's a really
good execution. It compares well against the
Honda HRV, as well as the Mazda CX3. It would be a tough
call between all three, because they're all pretty
much the same price.
Really, when it comes to the
power issue I have with this, take your time to test drive. Really get to know the car,
really lay your foot into it, and find out if it meets or
misses your expectations. Let us know what you think. Leave a comment below
and hit subscribe.
[MUSIC PLAYING].
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