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2024 TOYOTA C-HR GR SPORT HYBRID
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Words and Photos by Richard Hobo
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Toyota released the C-HR back in 2017 with a 1.2 litre turbocharged engine that delivered decent low-end torque and an excellent, comfortable ride. Fast forward a few years and Toyota’s little SUV has grown up a bit, now with a two-litre hybrid powerplant, but fear not, as it has not become staid, boring or even sensible, as Toyota has other models for that job.
The C-HR is still the funky family member, not taking itself too seriously, always ready to have fun. And it is possible to have fun, as there’s plenty of power available from the four-cylinder engine at 112kW@6,000rpm and torque of 190Nm from 4,400 to 5,200rpm. Total system output including the hybrid drive is 145kW. Out on the road, this car really is bit of a hoot to drive and pretty much in keeping with the reputation of the GR badge it’s wearing. As with the original C-HR, the ride and handling make it feel like a much bigger vehicle, but it is still light and nimble enough to skip over road surface imperfections. I ventured out onto some pretty ropey Taranaki back roads and the C-HR GR handled them no problem.
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Inside this GR-spec model, the feel is more sporty than luxurious. Seat fabric is a suede-like material mixed with GR-branded synthetic leather and the driver’s seat is electrically adjustable. All the luxury accoutrements are here, including heated front seats and heated steering wheel, which on the cold and wet weekend I drove this car was very welcome. The plethora of information that drivers are expected to deal with these is displayed on an LCD screen directly ahead of the driver and there really is a lot of it, including a graphic to tell you when the brakes lights are illuminated, which I can remember only seeing on one other car ever. There is a Drive Mode toggle switch in the centre console that alters the performance of the throttle and steering, but most importantly it alters the graphics in the dash and puts a red border around the speedometer. There’s a Heads Up Display too.
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Interior materials feel of very high quality and the suede-like fabric of the seats grips you on tight bends. Space in the back is a bit tighter, but I still managed to sit comfortably back there. Your dog will love it. The rear seat folds with a 60/40 split to expand the already decent-sized boot. There are a lot of very neat lighting touches inside the C-HR, with LED strips running along the front doors and across the dash. I noticed that while parked on the street, the light strip on the door will glow red as another car drives past, in order to deter the car’s occupants from stepping out into traffic. There is plenty of storage in the cabin, including a generous bin in between the front seats, a glovebox and a wireless phone charger for people with better, more modern phones than me.
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Sensibly, Toyota has retained actual physical buttons for such important features as climate control and heated seats rather than hiding them in the infotainment screen and a lot of those buttons have a wonderfully tactile, metallic finish to them, adding to the overall feeling of quality in this Toyota.
There are a lot of stylish design elements in the C-HR’s interior and with this one being the GR-spec, there are neat touches like the two-colour stitching of white and red on the door fabric and steering wheel. You can make phone calls and play your favourite music via the C-HR’s Bluetooth infotainment system with Apple Car Play and Android Auto and the nine-speaker JBL audio system.
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On the exterior, swoopy lines abound. The C-HR has always been the bold, stylish model of the smaller Toyotas and the designers certainly haven’t shied away from their brief on this car. Check out the triangular points on the front doors and the double spoiler protruding over the rear window. One thing you won’t see back there is a rear wiper, as Toyota has joined the car industry’s move away from rear wipers, apparently for reasons of aesthetics, aerodynamics or something else which will become irrelevant when you try to look out of your back window and realise it’s covered in raindrops. Not that that’s a problem for reversing though, as the C-HR GR has excellent cameras all around, not just on the back. There’s also an “overhead” camera which makes precise parking an exercise in absolute precision, as it makes it so easy to position the car with almost millimetre perfection and will make you wonder how you ever parked a car properly without it.
While I was out on my Taranaki hinterland adventure, I stopped briefly and a passerby said that the C-HR’s black and white colour scheme reminded him of the Belted Galloway breed of cattle. Well, it certainly doesn’t perform like a cow.
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However, the coolest feature of this entire car is in my opinion,
at the back, in between the tail lights, where you will see a Toyota C-HR logo in amongst all that red. Lock the car, the tail lights do a little dance and the C-HR logo light
s up and stays illuminated for a few seconds, as you walk away from your car, looking back to look at this rather pointless, but very cool feature. I’ve dug into my memory and done a quick check online and the list of cars with factory-spec illuminated badges is very, very short, so the C-HR is cutting a neat little niche for itself with this feature.
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PRICE AS TESTED: $56,990
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Contact the team at Tasman Toyota to book your own test drive.
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