I recently had the luxury of interviewing South African rally and Dakar legend Giniel De Villiers, and ABSA Cape Epic reigning champion Matt Beers, from the back seat of the latest Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid, writes Ryan O’Connor.
While Giniel drove us around, with Matt his passenger and myself bellowing questions from the backseat, I gained some insight into their respective competitive worlds. I also came away with a good feel for what Toyota’s latest Corolla Cross Hybrid has to offer!
From my position at the back, what was first obvious was the amount of space. The car packs a massive boot and still manages a spacious interior despite housing a battery and engine.
The dashboard screen displays the functioning of the engine and the battery, and I was blown way by the fuel economy professed by Toyota, of just 4.3l per 100km. I’d been driving the car for two weeks before hopping in with Matt and Gineal, and there was three quarters of a tank left!
The car comes with a 1.8l petrol engine, which works either in tandem with, or independently of an electric motor. The torque figures for both engines differ, with the petrol motor listed at 142Nm and the electric at 162Nm. While the car itself is a pretty big unit, at 1400kg, the tank’s maximum capacity is rather small, at 38l.
Giniel, who currently drives the Toyota Land Cruiser 300 GR Sport, is a big fan of the new hybrid technology that is slowly coming to the forefront of car production, and made the good point of the financial benefits given the scary rise in fuel prices recently.
He’s also just a fan of the car itself, saying to Matt and myself “It’s a really solid car, its very well priced (starting at R448 300), you get a feel of luxury and the handling is quite good.”
Smooth to drive, the car handles well for its size, it’s been built with an eye on saving the environment, and its fantastic fuel economy makes for the perfect runaround the suburbs and lazy cruise over the weekends. All in all, the three of us were in agreement that Toyota has delivered a goodie.
Check out our video below: