Anyone reading this missive who, as a youth, welcomed a new sibling into their home will know exactly how the Toyota C-HR feels. Despite still being a cherished member of the family, it’s no longer the next-big-thing or the one which gets all the attention. With the arrival of the Corolla Cross — another small crossover with similar pricing and power but more approachable name and styling features — let’s just hope the C-HR doesn’t fall in with a bad crowd and pick up smoking.
The C-HR is one of the last vestiges of Toyota’s shuttered Scion experiment, introduced back in 2015 as a fun but functional small crossover for its youth-oriented brand. After scaling back those arm’s-length efforts, the C-HR was absorbed into the Toyota fold and hawked as a quirky tall wagon for customers seeking to inject a bit of visual interest into their daily commute. Despite its crossover pretensions, it is available only with front-wheel drive (pro tip: FWD is just fine for wide swaths of our country provided the installation of a good set of winter tires). With a distinctly two-door profile — the back door handles can be found in the C-pillar if you look hard enough — it certainly stood out as an option for Toyota customers who wanted a crossover-style vehicle smaller than a RAV4.
Here’s where sibling rivalry begins: that corner of the Toyota showroom has been usurped this year by the new Corolla Cross – in terms of mission, price, and space. Toss in a slightly more powerful engine, styling which doesn’t need explaining to the neighbours, and an immediately recognizable name and you’ve a recipe for the new kid grabbing a lot of the limelight.
Photo by Matthew Guy
Photo by Matthew Guy
Photo by Matthew Guy
Photo by Matthew Guy
Photo by Matthew Guy
Photo by Matthew Guy
But the C-HR continues to be sold, at least for the 2022 model year, so let’s see how it acquits itself when pressed into a routine. Under the hood is a naturally-aspirated 2.0L inline-four making 144 horsepower funneled to the front wheels via a continuously variable transmission. It’s an engine that begrudgingly responds when prodded, like a sullen teen asked to clean a bedroom, but it at least composes itself around town. The gearless CVT only becomes an aural nuisance when prodded, unlike some others in its class (or family, truth be told). Other than occasions in which the throttle is completely pressed into the carpet, this powertrain manages its drone well at highway speeds. Despite its crossover shape, the C-HR is offered only with front-wheel drive.
If the powertrain is vanilla, then the styling adds a streak of spicy pistachio. Since it was originally designed to be part of the Scion portfolio, designers were given leeway to create something with plenty of flares and angry flank slashes. There are some instances of style over substance, such as the rear door handles which require users to have palms on the front of their hands to operate seamlessly, but the overall riot of shapes is at least more entertaining than its sedate cousins. Stylists were apparently given a missive to include as many “diamond-cut” silhouettes as possible, with that geometry popping up everywhere from the headlamps to the interior headliner. Our tester was the base LE, making do with steel wheel and plastic hubcaps. More expensive trims have better socks.
Despite its diminutive dimensions — just a foot longer than a Mini Cooper 5-door — your long-limbed author had no trouble acclimating to the driver’s seat, finding ample leg- and headroom. The same cannot be said (nor should be expected) for the rear cabin, which in fact has 0.6 inches less legroom than the aforementioned Mini, especially when the front chairs were adjusted to my liking. The cargo area measures 36.4 cubic feet (1,031L) with the 60/40 split rear seats folded and is unencumbered with strangely shaped protrusions from the suspension or spare tire area. The transition from cargo area to folded seat is also markedly flat, which is very helpful when loading large items.
Photo by Matthew Guy
Photo by Matthew Guy
Photo by Matthew Guy
Photo by Matthew Guy
Photo by Matthew Guy
Photo by Matthew Guy
Photo by Matthew Guy
Photo by Matthew Guy
There are no complaints about the assembly quality of our test car’s interior, a unit which rolled off the line in Japan. Given the C-HR’s price point, the amount of soft-touch surfaces on the interior’s dashboard and other touch points is commendable and goes a long way towards avoiding the feeling one is piloting a penalty box. A lack of heated seats in this base LE is disappointing but at least the driver’s eyes are not assaulted with blank switch block-off plates which scream “here’s what you didn’t buy, cheapskate,” so that’s a net positive. Funky textures on the door panels look more expensive than the C-HR sticker price would suggest.
Infotainment is typical Toyota hot garbage, presented like a PowerPoint slide with too much haphazard detail and generally responding slower than cold molasses going backwards uphill. Bright spot includes the presence of smartphone integration which mercifully obliterates the monochrome Toyota screens from existence and replaces them with day-glo icons which are intuitive and easy to use. Raise a glass for Toyota’s IT team who’ve crafted an excellent system for the new Tundra; here’s hoping that UX makes its way into other Big T products soon.
If you’re hell-bent on selecting the C-HR, it makes more than a lick of sense to consider the next-rung XLE trim. For the sake of $2,600 one will find themselves with a machine which includes many of the LE’s missing features such as heated front seats and a blind-spot monitoring system. Keyless start also means there’s no digging for keys on frigid winter mornings when it’s minus eleventy billion and you’re dressed up like a mummer to deal with the cold. That latter may be a strangely specific example confined to your author during his time with the C-HR, but I digress.
The recent addition of the span fire new Corolla Cross will complicate the C-HR’s existence. There is a tremendous amount of overlap in terms of price with the former starting just $740 more dear than the latter despite being slightly larger and packing a few extra horsepower. The subjective (but no less important) metrics of less polarizing styling and a name with plenty of cred will also surely cause the Corolla Cross to outsell the C-HR in jig time. In fact, despite supply chain issues and the newer vehicle only popping up on dealer lots in the final days of weeks in 2021, Corolla Cross managed to find almost 300 new homes in Canada last December. The CH-R netted just 389 units.
Sibling rivalry? It should only take a couple of model years to see if there’s room enough at Toyota’s table for both the C-HR and Corolla Cross.
Keyword: SUV Review: 2021 Toyota C-HR