C-HR breaks new ground for Toyota

TOYOTA’S smallest SUV is ushering in big changes to Australia’s favourite car brand with the Toyota Service Advantage capped-price servicing deal extended to five years, and a mooted hybrid version that would pioneer electrification for its Australian SUV range under consideration.

Depending on the model, existing customers are offered a three- or four-year capped-price servicing deal on all new Toyotas but the new C-HR offers fixed prices on scheduled servicing for an extra year.

The extended deal costs $195 per service resulting in a total maintenance bill of $975 until 2022 if a customer took delivery of a C-HR today.

While Toyota is yet to confirm if the announcement heralds the deal rolling out to other models and, ultimately, range-wide, Toyota Australia executive director of sales and marketing Tony Cramb said it was likely other vehicles would follow suit.

“There’s no plan at this point in time but obviously, this being the first version of the Toyota Service Advantage over five years, it’s clearly our desire to study and make sure this is what our guests want,” he said.

“The engine in the new vehicle gives us the opportunity to do it and I think, on the passenger vehicles, we’re clearly thinking about one day offering that kind of benefit.”

The longer-lasting deal matches the offer by some rival brands including Hyundai’s five-year package, which also offers the same length of warranty, but Mr Cramb said there was nothing to announce regarding an extension of the current Toyota warranty.

Toyota’s baby SUV is the company’s foray into the potentially lucrative compact SUV market and arrives with a 1.2-litre turbo-petrol engine and a choice of two equipment grades, but other markets including the UK and Japan are offered a hybrid version.

While some rival brands shy away from electrified models, Toyota’s longstanding experience with hybrid versions of the Camry and its Prius line-up make it less reticent when considering new hybrids for the Australian portfolio.

Mr Cramb said there were no additional variants to announce for the C-HR range but Toyota Australia would take the hybrid “immediately” were it to be made available locally.

“We’re not announcing the hybrid here today but as time goes on and production capacity increases we will definitely be looking into and putting our hand up for the hybrid.”

While the turbo version has an 85kW/185Nm donk, a hybrid version would introduce a 1.8-litre naturally-aspirated petrol combined with electric motor for an output of 90kW/142Nm and frugal fuel consumption of 3.9 litres per 100km.