The Toyota C-HR with its distinctive looks make it a standout vehicle and with a self-charging hybrid which pushes out less CO2 into the climate than the vast majority of rivals along with impressive fuel economy and lots of equipment as standard.
Toyota C-HR Hybrid
So, Toyota offered Female first the use of one of its C-HR’s to put to the test and see if it lived up to the companies claims.
When we put a car through its review process we tend focus on how the vehicle will performs tasks that it will be used for on a regular basis. We don’t just report back with lots of technical data on things like 0-60 speeds because in reality there are not many scenerio,s where this become crucial. We put through everyday use such as getting the kids to school, shopping trips, the practicalities of taking the whole family away on a weekend break.
So, to these ends we decided to take our Toyota C-HR on a road trip to Wales.
Well waiting outside was the car itself so talking over - time to get the C-HR into real life situations.
The model we had was the Dynamic 5 dr crossover 2.0 petrol Hybrid 2 wheel drive auto
Following a hectic bit of forward planning – load luggage, food and drink, for the journey, check the car for fuel, get the kids onboard, put journey in the satnav - all models come with Toyota’s Touch 2 system, which uses an 8.0in touchscreen to control its Bluetooth phone connectivity and DAB radio.
We had planned a trip to Cardiff so our route would take us down the M6 -M5 – M10-M4 finally navigating the South Wales A and B roads to our destination.
First up collect the kids from school they and their friends all piled in the spacious rear with ease – school bags and all. Swiftly away dodging the rest of the mum’s collecting their children with ease, drop off and get them ready to travel.
Ready to go
As we often do at Female First is hit the M62 taking the C-HR over from Manchester to join the M6 to Birmingham a somewhat challenging journey in peak traffic and inclement January weather along with a promise of strong winds and snow flurries – ‘oh good’.
We found the C-HR easy to handle and very responsive amongst the ‘stop – go’ traffic in and around Manchester. When we got free of the slow moving traffic the Toyota responded with ease tackling the steep climbs and hardly moved offline when encountering the strong crosswinds – you could use the old faithful phase, ‘it felt like it was on rails’.
Arriving outside Birmingham at the M5 junction I felt fresh and relaxed thanks to the quality of the ride, a major plus from the C-HR. Taking into account that this was Friday afternoon with all its usual peak time traffic we decided to continue to try and avoid as much of this as possible, so we decided to leave taking a break until as late as possible.
In what seemed no time at all we came off the M5 to take the A and B roads to our destination.
After a quick coffee we headed through the small towns and villages and I might add the very twisty narrow roads around Caerphilly which put the handling on these roads through an even more challenging test.
The Toyota C-HR handled like a dream during the drive, negotiating the wet and often muddy potholed country roads frequently having to navigate past slow moving traffic – it took all in its stride, delivering us to the Celtic Manor Resort in Cardiff relaxed and stress free after a very long drive in challenging conditions.
The Toyota 2.0 Hybrid was a stunning looking and unconventional car that lives up to the hype, a pleasure to drive, the handling was second to none with impressive driving manners. Just as impressively, the C-HR evens out ruts and broken Tarmac making for an easy comfortable ride.
Fuel economy was perfect as at low speeds, the Hybrid can power itself using its electric motor only we returned 46.3 mpg and the impact on the environment was excellent again due to its hybrid qualities.
Parking - all versions have a reversing camera and parking sensors which helps get around limited rear vision, very minor critique I know.
The C-HR come with lots of safety, pre-collision system that can automatically apply the brakes to avoid you running into the car in front. It can recognise pedestrians, lane departure warning and automatic high-beam assist for the headlights and blind spot monitoring as well as rear cross traffic alert.
Above all – it handles people and their belongings very well.
The ease it dealt with everything that day to day life threw at it while delivering its occupants at their destinations relaxed, stress free and ready for the day ahead every time.
The one issue we had came from our kids, in the back seats they did initially complain – ‘We can’t see out of the back windows’ but being ‘modern kids’ they have games on their phones so appreciated the fact that they weren’t distracted - bonus as it kept them quite during the journey.
It gets our vote and that also included a positive from our two kids.
Get more on the C-HR here: Toyota
Tagged in motor review Toyota