Toyota showed us its version of the weird crossover-thingy that is the C-HR at last year’s Paris Auto Show. That was a Toyota concept, but now it’s got a Scion badge, and Scion says it paves the way for an actual production model next year.
We already know that Toyota’s rally car-shaped concept looks like a puppy, so here’s the rally dog with a new badge.
Scion is going for a something distinct and exciting with this C-HR, whose name stands for “Compact size and High Ride height.” Real creative, guys.
The car does look a bit nuts, and Toyota knows this, stating: “When the designers for the Scion C-HR Concept began their research, they were told by young urban creative customers, ‘Polarizing is ok. Boring is not.’”
Well, we’ll give you that. The C-HR is definitely not boring. And, polarizing it may be, I think it looks damn good in a I Really Want To Jump This Thing Off-Road kind of way.
Scion says their concept is going after hipsters. Okay, technically they didn’t use the term “hipster,” they used a much stranger term: “With four doors and a hatch for supreme functionality, it’s the perfect vehicle for ‘yuccies,’ the young urban creatives who inspired the design.”
Yuccies? Really? Is that really a thing? Did they mean “yuckies?”
The C-HR sits on Toyota’s new Global Architecture (TNGA). Toyota claims it offers a lower center of mass, more body stiffness and better handling. Those seem like good things.
Scion is calling the C-HR their “next icon,” saying a production-intent version will debut in 2016. Technical specs or designs for that production version are still up in the air. We’ll just have to wait.
Here’s to hoping it at least maintains some resemblance to the concept.