SA Road Tests

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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. I drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under real-world South African conditions. Many of the vehicles driven are world cars as well, so what you read here possibly applies to the models you get where you live.

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Loaded: 2020 Toyota C-HR 1.2 Luxury CVT

Digging in

Pics by Toyota@Motorpress
Posted: September 26, 2020

The numbers
Engine: 1197 cc, DOHC 16-valve, four cylinder, direct injection, turbocharged
Power: 85 kW at 5600 rpm
Torque: 185 Nm between 1500 and 4000 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 11.2 seconds
Maximum speed: 185 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 7.4 l/100 km
Tank: 50 litres
Luggage: 377 litres behind seats
Ground clearance: 160 mm
Turning circle: 10.4 metres
EuroNCAP: 5 stars
Maximum towing capacity, unbraked / braked: 720 kg / 1100 kg
Warranty: 3 years / 100 000km
Service plan: Six services / 90 000 km at annual or 15 000 km intervals

It’s mainly in the features. Little has changed appearance-wise apart from wheel styling, a black strip across the back and some front bumper- and fog lamp remodelling. It’s what’s inside that counts.

Toyota added a Luxury grade in mid-2018, bringing choices up to four; plain 1.2T as manual only, 1.2T Plus in manual and CVT and 1.2T Luxury with CVT only.

Satnav and a reversing camera became standard across the range while the Display Audio gained Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The new Luxury level boasted pushbutton starting; LED head-, tail and fog lamps; leather upholstery with electrical adjusters, including lumbar support, in front; map pockets on the back seats; parking distance control; five more airbags and intelligent park assist. Wheel- and tyre sizes remained the same as those on Plus grade.

This year’s updates include LED head, tail- and daytime running lights on all models, retuned electric power steering, the extra five airbags for Standard and Plus models and improved sound deadening. All versions gained Toyota Connect with 15 GB of in-car wi-fi allocation to use via the MyToyota app.

The audio display grew to 8” and gained updated versions of CarPlay and Android Auto, to accommodate screen mirroring. Plus version’s MID screen now measures 4.2 inches.

Maintaining its flagship status, Luxury grade adds front seat warmers and Toyota Safety Sense - blind spot monitoring, lane change assist, rear cross traffic alert, pre-crash braking support, adaptive cruise control and lane keeping assistance.

Luxury grade now costs R62 700 more than Plus-with-CVT, pushing it up to R486 100. Once you have added some accessories and the on-road costs, it hovers close to the psychological half-million Rand barrier that makes 1200 cc cars a very hard sell. But it’s a gorgeous little thing and it’s your decision.

Its 85 kW motor propels the C-HR with CVT to 100 km/h in just over 11 seconds and on to a top speed of 185 km/h, although manual versions can reach 190 if need be. We drove a Plus car, with stick shift, a couple of years back. We really enjoyed it but couldn’t get quite as enthusiastic about this year’s automatic. Although it was nice enough in manual override, its seven-step CVT was somewhat disappointing compared with the more modern, ten-step, lockup unit in a 2020 Corolla.

This one’s fair enough in full auto mode but still displays old-school CVT quirks when pressured; flaring occasionally and not quite as responsive as we have come to expect lately.

On the positive side, steering was quick and accurate while the fully independent rear suspension felt very secure; almost as if each rear corner was ‘digging in’ and providing more adhesion than one usually experiences in lesser cars with torsion beam rear ends. It’s hard to describe accurately but it felt re-assuring when pedalling hard.

That 2017 car mentioned earlier had a fully sized spare wheel, so folding the rear seatbacks left a small downward step in the extended load bay. Since 2018, however, the spare has shrunk to a spacesaver, resulting in a perfectly level surface for easy loading. Said cargo area boasts a light, four rings for load lashing and two bag hooks. The space is neatly shaped and offers a pair of side wells to keep wine bottles, or soft goods like ciabatta, away from the hurly-burly of general cargo.

Tall backseat passengers have sufficient headroom although knee space rates as “just enough”. We appreciate this year’s added map pockets and bottle holders in each armrest, although these are a bit shallow so Toyota doesn’t recommend putting open cups in them. We can’t remember details from 2017, but were pleased to note that this year’s ISOFix mountings include top tethers and that there’s a second, central, courtesy light to make it easier to strap the tykes in after dark.

While accepting that older (or more responsible) buyers might prefer this flagship model for its added safety kit and convenient CVT, we’d be perfectly happy with a Plus-with-manual; more fun, lighter on fuel and significantly cheaper.

Test unit from Toyota SA press fleet

What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.

Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads or goat tracks as well. As a result, my test cars do occasionally get dirty. It's all part of the reviewing process.

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