I have just ordered the C-HR plug in Excel with heads up and upgraded sound system, due in July so I will report back. My wife drives old model 1.8 which is coming up for 6 years with only one problem which was not a Toyota fault. During covid the car was not used so the battery went flat. 10 year warranty on car, 15 year on battery, so good peace of mind. I do not like the hard acceleration response on the 1.8 and I am chopping in my 5 year old Jaguar I Pace which has been trouble free, so before the rumoured JLR battery problems start, I feel it is right to exit. I do have some trepidation as the Jag is a wonderful car to drive. If I am not happy with the C-HR, my wife has said she will take it over and chop in her C-CHR and I can go back to full electric. I only drive 7000 miles a year and rarely more than 60 miles in a day so I do not have range anxiety. The Toyota might not be as cheap as the Jaguar “fuel” cost but set against that is the £800 extended warranty of the Jag and £300 p.a. More to insure

We are retired and we live in a rural area. We have solar panels on our roof. PHEV suits our lifestyle. We dont like getting stung for fuel whilst we are touring or going on holiday and when at home we need to get into town and back on electrical power provided by the solar panels on our roof. We dont need a big car and we do need a car which costs nowt to run locally. This seems to tick the boxes. We've had Toyotas before and have enjoyed trouble free motoring with them. So..... we will wait for this model to start appearing on the second hand market since we never buy new!

I test drove the 2.0 GR Sport yesterday. I'm quite tall and noticed good range in the seating position. I currently drive a Peugeot 3008 and I'm right at the maximum with the seating position. The CHR was a nice enough drive. Handled well, enough power, good safety features etc, but I asked the dealer, if I could use the onboard battery to just drive to the shops and back. Answer was no, which got me wondering why there is an extra battery at all? It kicked in at traffic lights and at the start. Ok. The car felt a little bit narrow, but then this is the smaller car segment. I don't mind that bulky divider in the middle. I guess it provides some stability. I like the exterior styling. Interior is quite nice, but yes not strikingly stylish like the new 2024 Peugeot 3008. When I got back into my old 2018 Peugeot 3008 to drive home, It was hard for me to tell which car I liked best? I still like my Peugeot. In the end, a lot of the decision will come down to cost. Everything is ridiculously expensive these days. One might start to think we are being priced out of car ownership.

Honestly why couldn't Toyota offer the 1.8l with the plugin battery? Doesn't make any sense to limit variety and accessibility. Seeing €40,000 for the regular hybrid is ridiculous, so is €30,000 for the Yaris Cross, €27k for the Yaris. Everything is too inflated. 13:28 not true at all, Toyota should be charged for false advertising for this claim. If there is enough momentum to recharge the battery it may spend 50% of its "time" in EV, emphasis on time not time x speed= distance. In traffic however crawling after 1.5 miles it doesn't take long for the small hybrid batteries to run flat and idle heavily at +1200rpm This advertising like the "self charging" nonsense is misleading everyone about hybrids against electric cars of which Toyota's sole bz4x SUV is hopeless