Toyota’s compact crossover C-HR will be making another auto show appearance before its production version is unveiled next year at the Geneva Auto Show, and its quite possible that the model could make or break Scion’s future in the U.S.
Toyota hasn’t released many details about the C-HR, other than to say that it’ll be built on the same, global TGNA structure that the next-generation Prius is built on and would have a similar hybrid powertrain.
The small crossover would fit entirely within Scion’s wheelhouse of younger buyers who apparently can’t get enough of crossovers, and would help make relevant a brand that is, um, struggling with sales.
In addition to the updated images, Toyota says it has brought the C-HR closer forward to production by adding two more doors and changing the roof color from two-tone to glossy black. That gigantic belt-line detail on the rear doors and impossibly sharp rear tail lights probably shouldn’t won’t make it to production.
(It’s possible that the model could be shared between Toyota and Mazda under their growing partnership.)
This year, Scion will release a reskinned Mazda2 sedan in the States as the Scion iA and a rebadged Corolla hatchback as the Scion iM to replace outgoing or slumping models that have fallen flat at dealerships. Both new models may be sold at dealers under a new “Pure Price” format that would allow buyers to all-but purchase their cars online and accept delivery at a dealership, which could put the automaker one-step closer to again connecting with younger buyers who view cars — and car buying — substantially different from their parents. Another step: a small crossover that sell like crazy right now.
Scion sales have slumped since its zenith seven years ago. The brand ranks 30th among automakers in sales so far this year.
A HIDEOUS two door crossover. Exactly what Scion does NOT need.
Four doors sir, look at the rear shut line. They’re clearly suicide doors.
Not suicide doors. Look at the upper rear doorframe – there’s a cutout for a flush handle there, a la Chevy Sonic.
You’re right! Now I’ve got motion sickness from so much examination.
Another crossover. *yawn*
It won’t look anything like this if it sees production.
-No suicide doors
-No architectural razor blade-like mirrors
-No buttress on brake lamp
-Yes hideous DLO fail
-Yes crap overboosted tiny 1.8L
-Yes zero visbility
-Yes FWD w/AWD optional
What it will end up being is an iM Allroad. So let’s look for that in the future.
This.
Tiny 1.8L?
It’s a small car.
A 1.8L without a turbo would honestly be plenty of power, as it is in the Corolla and Civic; add a turbo with low boost and it’ll be just fine.
(I mean, powertrain-wise. If it looks anything like that trainwreck in the rendering it’ll be horrible.
But a small crossover can easily manage with a 1.8T and maybe 150-160 HP.)
It will probably come to Scion but like you said will have none of these styling clues for better or worse. What Scion will get will probably be a edgier mini Rav 4 looking SUV w/ a Prius drive train. Which isn’t bad for Scion regardless of looks since they really need a CUV.
Were these pics taken before or after it fell off the transport truck?
OMG! It’s not Crab People…it’s South Park’s evil otters that have infiltrated the styling departments!
Cute button-nose, though.
Another hideous overwrought styling exercise from our friends at Toyota – the ones who also brought us the Lexus RX and NX to aesthetically afflict our better neighborhoods.
This thing is horrifyingly bad. Another example of a Japanese design that strives to make the Aztek look sleek, tailored and refined in comparison.
Does Scion really believe their 20-something buyers have no taste nor a yearning for good design? Hey, maybe they are right, but I am betting a dumbed-down production version of this thing would be even uglier and send Scion over the edge into oblivion.
I agree, and hope youre right lol. Scion fails. It used to be relevant with the first xB. Then they screwed that up. The Camry-ized it (got fat and ugly) instead of going again with the JDM version. Speaking of such, why arent quirky (but fairly good compared to this crap) Daihatsu cars coming here as Scions? Seems like a win-win.
The only thing they really have now is the FRS, but it, in my opinion, shouldve been the Toyota Celica. My friend just bought one recently and he said he did so because it made him think of old RWD Celicas he saw in his youth (he’s 30).
Speaking of names, anybody else see that this one is one letter away from Honda’s HRV and CRV? And its a crossover like they are, and would theoreticly compete with one of them? Wtf? Reminds me of the time they were planning to name what became the Tundra “T-150”, as if T-100 wasnt already sorta stepping on Ford’s toes even though they no longer made the F-100.
Yeah, it’s what it needs to succeed … at producing more mass market crap that’ll be completely worthless in 10 years.
This got walloped by the ugly stick. Some of the more recent Toyota designs make the Fiat 500 crossover and the Aztec look like things of beauty. Maybe Toyota needs to hire some Chinese designers, they couldn’t do any worse.
Why?
Concept. Concept. Concept. You guys get wrapped around the axle about styling that won’t actually be going to production.
THIS. It won’t be this wild. After all, it is Toyota we’re talking about here. But Scion desperately needs a crossover.
Yeah, I get the concept of concepts, but why is it a tradition for wildly impractical and completely unpredictive designs to be periodically inflicted upon the public?
It’s like advertising the NBA by having semiannual displays of ballerinas dancing nerf basketball.
U-G-L-Y!
‘Nuf said.
so they go from innovation with the xB to copying a juke. at least this thing doesnt have frog eyes.
Rear visibility? Where we’re going we don’t need rear visibility Marty…
Looks just like that silly Nissan Gripz or whatever the hell it was called. Is this REALLY the our future, silly overwrought knock off of a child’s RC car?
Not particularly this thing as it’s impossibly impractical (huge fenders over actual interior room), but what Scion needs is a feature-competitive, well-priced, good-looking CUV.
I can’t tell which is the ass end.
Its both, man, its actually the whole thing. Just a blob of ass.
If only if Scion had a 4 door tC “coupe”.
My eyes! The goggles do nothing!
It’ll look like a Toyota once the accountants and lawyers are done with it. Ugly, but not too offensive. It’s exactly what Scion needs, assuming that what Scion needs is to continue operating rather than being absorbed back into Toyota.
Toyota is today’s GM. Toyota should just kill off Scion but instead keeps Scion on life support. Cheapened interiors and too many models. Toyota vehicles are about as interesting as an electrical clothes dryer. Toyota is living off of their past reputation.
^Couldnt agree more.
Is practical rear visibility without using cameras a thing of the past? I just cannot see myself driving any of these new cars with such limited outward sight-line
This is one car that the bean counters can improve. Even if the bean counters made this look more like a Prius that would be an improvement.
I was wrong: I thought if there was one car nobody would copy it was the Nissan Juke.
If it uses the Prius hybrid drivetrain, aren’t they missing out on a lot of sales by not branding it as the Prius X or something along those lines? It seems like the Prius name has a lot more capital for a hybrid CUV than Scion has for…anything.
I understand this is a “concept” and/or “styling exercise” but still, do they all have to be SO FREAKIN’ UGLY???
I tell you again, we are going into a period just like the very late 50s where in future years people will say “what the heck were they thinking?” Compare a 1955 Chevy to a 1958 to see what a difference 3 years made. And the Chrysler products made the ’58 Chevy look positively subtle and restrained by contrast.
Unfortunately, except for a few years from the mid 80s to the early 2000s, the Japanese have never been able to design cars that don’t look screwy. Even more unfortunately, the rest of the world now seems bent on copying all the worst aspects of Japanese “design” (see “manga” for a million examples). I don’t understand how car designers from a culture that could create the temples and gardens I have visited, could somehow lose that aesthetic entirely when they sit down at the tube; and if this was designed elsewhere, I don’t understand why everyone else seems hellbent for leather to follow them down the styling drain.
As I posted a while back, the other day I pulled up next to an early-90s Jeep Cherokee in a parking lot. I was a grown adult when these were being sold, and I remember thinking they were rather bland and uninspired at the time; in today’s context the early-90s Jeep Cherokee stands out as a raving beauty of styling – like a first series E type would stand out in a sea of 1958-59 American autos.
It’s the 2016 Isuzu VehiCROSS!
Does kind of resemble an Isuzu VehiCROSS. Maybe it is the offspring of a VehiCROSS and a Cube.