There’s good reason why Corolla Cross is SA’s best-seller
South Africa’s top selling SUV, never mind car and best-selling hybrid, Toyota’s made in Durban petrol-electric family mover sits below the RAV4 and above the Hatch in the now condensed Corolla range. It’s spectacularly shifted the world’s best-selling badge squarely into crossover territory. Morph a Corolla Hatch into a RAV4, and this handsome and quite stylish car will sit in the middle of that clip.
Its recently facelift brings it in line with contemporary Toyota design cues in a cooler, bolder look. This body colour matrix grille is popping up all over the global Toyota line-up and will soon grace the Hilux and probably the next Fortuner too. It brings a fresh new angle to this popular SUV. Especially in this golden hue, hence its nickname, Goldilocks. Neither too flashy, nor too basic, auto-levelling LED DRL headlights better fit the bill. Add new LED tail lamps, power-retractable wing mirrors, automatic light control and Bridgestone 225/50/R18 rubber on those neat alloys.
Access to the spacious and easy to access dual zone air-conditioned black leather cabin via the Smart Key is even simple for someone with a wheelchair or walker. Cross is ergonomic and spacious inside. Echoes its Corolla siblings’ elegant style with even better visibility out thanks to that extra height in the cabin. Pleasant soft-touch surfaces and double-stitched details abound. Add one-touch power windows, rear vents and a 12-volt power outlet.
Corolla Cross is SA’s top selling car, SUV and hybrid
A reverse camera complements radar park distance control and ours also had 9-speaker JBL sound. There are many nooks, crannies, cubbies, clever cupholders and those convenient pockets behind the seats are most welcome. Corolla Cross also has a great boot. Its gesture activated power liftgate accesses class-leading luggage capacity behind the 60/40 rear seats.
Settle behind the multifunction wheel and you’re confronted by the 8-inch TFT touchscreen infotainment. It has CarPlay and Auto mirroring, Bluetooth and USB C port connectivity. Which is one place out Corolla Cross fell a bit short of our expectations. It works brilliantly when Bluetooth linked to CarPlay. But it’s sometimes difficult to get that to work, while Android phones must be physically plugged in to connect.
Add the fact that there’s just one USB C port, which cables most people still don’t have. And even worse, there’s no charging pad, which becomes a conundrum when the phone is telling the car where to go. Because all that naturally kills the phone battery very quicky. So you end up with a bird’s nest of unnecessary wires and cables all over the show and a headache sharing it all out.
Corolla Cross is spacious and easy to access
Also, while it works very well using CarPlay, the system is confusing and old fashioned on its own software. That, in a nutshell, is this car’s only real sin. You can get a three grand aftermarket charging pad, but then there’s still only one USB. Let’s hope Toyota addresses this soon. It’s letting the side down!
The car’s controls also take little patience to become familiar with and we’d prefer if it was simpler to disengage or engage and the likes of lane assist and cruise control. They need unnecessary multi-step processes to simply activate. While we have Corolla Cross down, let’s finish kicking it. The central locking sounds tinny and loose on this unit, and the long front overhang also had some of us muttering. And we also found that annoying orchestra of warning chimes nannies and beeps to all be a bit much
Point is, our expectations consider an ideal scenario. That does not exist in car infotainment. All the systems, from Mercedes and BMW to Audi, Porsche and Ferrari, Honda, and oh dear, the Chinese, are poorly thought out, shockingly executed and just plain dire. At least our Corolla Cross still has real buttons and knobs so normal mortals can actually work it. So while it’s average, here’s an opportunity, Toyota. Add what’s missing, simplify the logic and it’ll be a no-brainer. That can only be a win.
Goldilocks made it pretty difficult to criticise
On the flipside, Goldilocks made it pretty difficult for us to criticise, because there isn’t very much complain about. It’s easy to drive and pulls away silent on the electric motor before the petrol bit rumbles to life. It’s refined in operation, acceleration smooth and linear and ride is comfortable. And for the most part, quiet. It becomes a bit rowdy when pushed, but a measured driving style ensures that it’s at its best most of the time.
This 70 kW 142 Nm 1.8-litre Atkinson cycle petrol engine is joined at the hip with an electric motor to give its latest generation Hybrid 90 kW total system output. It harvests electric power while braking, coasting, and freewheeling and stores the energy in a small, highly effective battery. The e-motor can drive under full battery at very small throttle input and without too much of an uphill against it power.
It’s no rocketship, but there’s sufficient power, with that ever present electric bonus. Makes overtaking faster, easier, and dare we say, safer, too. Fuel economy is outer worldly. Toyota reckons Corolla Cross will sip an average of 4.3 l/100 km on a good day. In the real world. Guess what? We matched that. This power unit however seems to prefer city driving, which it perhaps never got quite enough of. So we could have done even better.
Easy to drive, refined and inspiring handling
Corolla Cross Hybrid is not only easy to drive, its refined handling also impressed. Precise and inspiring, there’s a little body roll. A low centre of gravity, beefed-up McPherson front and well fettled torsion beam rear suspension keep it engaging. Driver feedback could be sharper. The Cross is a tad wooden in feel and lacks connection with the driver. And like any CVT hybrids, it sounds a bit like a vacuum cleaner.
Stacked with everything from stability control to ABS EBD brakes, add hill assist, enough airbags, ISOFIX, anti-theft and auto locking, Toyota Safety Sense includes cruise control, blind spot, lane trace, rear cross-traffic and pre-collision. After ours left, news broke of Corolla Cross’ 2-star Global NCAP score due to lacking side impact protection in lower spec variants. While that is a worry, we’re confident that Toyota will take swift action.
There are however a few other reasons why we asked for a Corolla Cross Hybrid as a longer term test. Not least to live the hybrid life a little, which we cover amply above. But more importantly, to gauge how this best seller is standing up against that Chinese invasion.
Goldilocks Keeping Chinese in check
We’ve driven a number of Chinese hybrids of late, three more of which tests we’ll publish soon, so it’s been an interesting process. There are of course many different types of hybrid, including plug-in, helper generator BEVs and conventional cars like this. Of those, the Haval straight hybrid impressed with great performance, style and poise, but its’ quite a bit bigger and more expensive.
As are the likes of the barrage of Chinese plug-in hybrids. All also seem to aim quite a bit higher than this neck of the woods, but almost to a car, they feel crude, crass and woefully underdeveloped. The more we drive them, the more we become convinced that Chinese cars are worth their discount, for those and other reasons. Including abominable infotainment interfaces that make this archaic system seem brilliant.
The Chinese are of course threatening the local car industry and some less popular traditional carmakers are severely compromised by the attraction of cheap Chinese cars that on the face of it, seem pretty darned good. But Toyota has no reason to worry about all that. There’s very good reason why this Corolla Cross Hybrid is South Africa’s best-selling car, SUV and hybrid.
Goldilocks was quite the character
It’s a better car all round, it’s made in Durban and it does everything as well as, better or significantly better than any of those Chinese. And many other cars too, for the money. Goldilocks failed to annoy us over our few months with ir. Whereas most of the cheaper Chinese cars’ foibles had us pulling our hair out within a week, or even hours of first driving them. If anything, Corolla Cross makes them feel exactly that. Cheap.
We had a very good run with our Corolla Cross and I was surprised by who seems to be missing Goldilocks most around here. Some of us who criticised it most, now pine for it. Which I suppose is this fine car’s biggest plus. It’s quite a character and you only realise that when its gone… – Michele Lupini
Images & Testing: Giordano Lupini
LONG-TERM WRAP: Toyota Corolla Cross 1.8 HEV XR
Engine: 70 kW 142 Nm 1.8-litre Atkinson petrol
Hybrid: Electric Motor Total system output:90 kW
Drive: CVT FWD
Odo on Arrival: 13,250 km
Odo at End: 17,750 km
TESTED:
0-60 km/h: 4.34 sec
0-100 km/h: 10.12 sec
0-120 km/h 13.31 sec
400m: 17.1 sec @ 131 km/h
80-120 km/h: 7.42 sec
CLAIMED:
VMax: 170 km/h
Fuel Average: 4.3 l/100 km
CO2: 98 g/km
Warranty/Service: 3y 100K/6 service 90K km
LIST PRICE: R545K
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