Text and photos By Emily Chung
The all-new 2018 Toyota C-HR (Compact High Rider) comes on the market with a unique design, lots of standard features, and the starting price is under $25,000 CAD. Hit jump for our review.
Exterior Design
The exterior design is inspired by a coupe-style, and this is evidenced with the rear door handles being flush.
There are multiple sharp angles that give the Toyota C-HR a sporty, edgy look. Check out the rear liftgate’s edge that is below the spoiler. This gives the vehicle a feel that seems like it’s quick, in motion.
The front headlamps and rear tail lenses are consistent with the overall design and are distinctly recognizable from a distance.
My road test came with 18” aluminum alloy wheels which I loved, and the vehicle had puddle lamps on either side of the front door which was a nice touch at night time.
You also have the option of changing the roof colour to white if you want to give the vehicle an extra ‘pop’.
Interior Design
The interior dash is relatively streamlined; the infotainment system and climate controls are angled slightly towards the driver.
The diamond theme repeats throughout the 2018 Toyota C-HR. Here’s a few that we found, and there’s more that we didn’t include in the collage!
The climate control buttons are clustered in a diamond shape, and my road test came with dual zone auto climate control, heated front seats, and rear seat heater ducts.
The acute angles continue in the passenger cabin as well, you can see from the side view of the dash that the design angles are consistent with the exterior.
One thing that I liked about the Toyota C-HR is that it tells you clearly when the vehicle is in ‘accessory’ or ‘ignition on’ mode. It used to be very easy to tell when we had the actual ignition key in various positions, and sometimes it’s not as obvious with push button start vehicles.
The rear camera displays in the rearview mirror, which took a bit to get used to.
There is also a seatbelt warning light for the rear outboard passengers which is handy if you have children buckling up independently and want to know if they’re secured properly.
My youngest son also has a bad habit of unbuckling his seatbelt before we come to a full stop so with this feature, I knew exactly when he was doing it!
Special Features
Included in the standard feature is the Toyota Safety Sense package. This combines a lot of features that you’d normally find in vehicles priced higher than the C-HR’s starting point such as pre-collision system with pedestrian detection, automatic high beam, and lane departure alert with steering assist. The other feature it includes is a dynamic radar cruise control, which automatically adjusts the vehicle speed so that you can maintain a preset following distance. Usually these features are only available as added options.
Under The Hood / Basic Maintenance
When you open the hood, you’ll notice that the engine bay is very compact. The components are tightly fit, and Toyota has kept the basic maintenance items up top and easy to reach including engine oil fill cap and dipstick, battery, air filter, washer fluid, coolant reservoir, and brake fluid reservoir.
My only note would be that the coolant reservoir full and low levels are hard to read so you may consider making them easier to spot by taking a permanent marker and going over the full/low level markings.
Child Car Seat
If you are installing a rear-facing child car seat in the 2018 Toyota C-HR, you may lose some space for the front seats to accommodate the car seat’s recline angle (depending on the size of the child car seat). The rear seat bench has a very slight bucket shape and the UAS latches are located higher than the vertex of the seat bench and seat back.
This means that you may require pool noodles during a rear-facing child car seat installation in order to get the correct recline angle.
The UAS latches are very conveniently located behind a cover that flips upwards.
The headrest of the rear seats protrudes forward slightly so when you install a forward-facing child car seat, you’ll likely want to remove the head rest so that the back of the child car seat will sit flush with the car’s seatback. The centre rear seat also has a head rest that is height adjustable and removable.
Lastly, the rear tethers for forward-facing child car seat installations are located just behind the seatback. They’re in the mid-way on the seatback, which is good because you won’t be struggling to install the tether hook and it won’t interfere with items you place in the trunk.
Storage / Trunk
The trunk was quite spacious and the sides were flush to maximize the trunk space (sometimes vehicles have rear struts or other components that take up space in the trunk). There’s also smaller (somewhat diamond-shaped, of course!) compartments on the sides.
The 2018 Toyota C-HR comes with a spare tire (yey!) as opposed to a flat tire kit. It’s located underneath the trunk floor, along with a few other storage compartments.
Overall my time with the Toyota C-HR was enjoyable. The engine isn’t turbocharged and performed as any 4-cylinder naturally-aspirated engine would. It handled city-driving just fine. What I did like was the handling; the Toyota C-HR was quite responsive. If you’re feeling bored with some of the vehicle designs out there and want a fun sporty look, check out the 2018 Toyota C-HR. It’s definitely got a design that’s one-of-a-kind and starting price is $24,690CAD.
Model tested:
2018 Toyota C-HR XLE Premium
2.0L 4-cylinder engine
Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) Intelligent Shift
Front-wheel drive
Seating Capacity: 5 people
Road Test Terrain: 60% city, 40% highway
Tested MSRP: $26,290 CAD