A MAJOR car brand has discontinued a popular model as sales of the “funky” car have plummeted.
The Japanese industry giant reportedly saw the car as a poor fit with the rest of its US lineup going forward.
A major car brand has announced the discontinuation of a popular model[/caption]
Poor sales and no point of difference meant that the Toyota C-HR was given the boot in the US last year[/caption]
Toyota gave its C-HR hatchback the boot last year as a combination of pricing woes and a change in design directions became too great.
The model was originally a concept car for Scion, a branch of the company aimed at producing cars for younger customers.
When Scion was absorbed back into Toyota in 2016, the C-HR found itself at a bit of a loose end.
It was put into production in 2018 but, when its generation cycle ended, could not convince bosses to approve a renewal.
On its demise, Alex Hevsey of Slashgear wrote: “It’s almost like Toyota made the exact opposite of what people actually wanted.
“It was shaped like an SUV (mostly) but it didn’t do anything an SUV should do. It didn’t have all-wheel drive and it was never an option over its entire production run.”
This combined with fairly meagre fuel economy numbers to put the C-HR near the bottom of its class even within the Toyota brand.
And when you consider it wasn’t even that affordable, with its £17,000 base price not that much below the comparable Toyota RAV4’s £20,000/
All things considered, it didn’t offer anything you couldn’t find in a better Toyota for a similar price.
This was reflected in the sales figures, with 48,930 shipped out to customers in 2019, compared to 448,071 RAV4s.
Ultimately, the execs took the decision to give the model a humane end, allowing it to expire last year at the end of its first life cycle.
However, the model will live on in the UK, with a plug-in hybrid version released for the 2023 model year.
It comes after a mechanic revealed a key mistake drivers always make when jump starting a car.
Meanwhile, an expert created a set of futuristic images showing what London could look like without cars in 2050.
September 21, 2023 at 08:46PM
from The Sun