• last year
This car melted our website when it was announced! So we were super keen to get behind the wheel. Paul Maric drives the 2023 Toyota Corolla Cross Atmos AWD hybrid to see if it's any good!

Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE

More Toyota content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/toyota
More Toyota Corolla Cross content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/toyota/corolla-cross

Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior 00:51
Interior 03:31
Infotainment 04:59
Safety Tech 06:22
Practicality 07:11
On the Road 10:59
0-100 km/h 15:03
Verdict 19:23

We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.

Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.

Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1

You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.

Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!

Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!

CarExpert:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au

Paul Maric:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric

#toyota #corollacross #review
Transcript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. I know you may not think it, you might think that Ferraris and new Lambos melt our website, but
00:06 it's actually this, the Toyota Corolla Cross melted our website when it was announced and also as it's been coming to Australia.
00:13 So I've been really keen to have a drive of it so that I can give you guys my impression of it.
00:17 And this one right here is the top specification. It's called the Corolla Cross Atmos all-wheel drive hybrid.
00:23 It's priced at just under $50,000, but if that's too expensive, the entire range kicks off at a little over $30,000.
00:29 This competes with things like the Hyundai Kona, the new Nissan Qashqai and the Honda HR-V.
00:35 Today we're going to do a detailed review of this car, so if you do want to skip ahead to other parts of the review,
00:39 you can use the time cards on the screen, or if you're on YouTube, you can scroll down and use the chapters below.
00:43 If you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon.
00:47 That way you can find out every single time we drive cars that melt our website.
00:50 Now let's talk about the exterior. You've got eight external colors to pick from.
00:55 All but white and green are going to set you back $575.
00:59 So cameraman Igor reckons this looks like a small Kluger or Highlander, if you're not from Australia.
01:05 Let me know what you think down in the comments section.
01:07 In terms of the actual design, I reckon it looks really nice. It is so smart looking,
01:12 and the fact that it looks like a Kluger, I think, is probably a good thing. It's like a mini version of that.
01:16 And I really like this color. Toyota is actually getting a little adventurous now with the colors.
01:20 They're allowing you to pick instead of them just being boring sort of colors that were referred to previously as the German rainbow.
01:27 So down the front here, big grille. Most of that's closed off though, so that sort of top half,
01:31 and even the top sort of two-thirds is actually shut off. You only have cooling down in this bottom section.
01:36 So it is fascinating that it really only has a grille for the purpose of design as opposed to functionality,
01:41 with exception to that small bit just there. A little bit of cooling down the bottom there as well,
01:45 and then parking sensors integrated into the bumper.
01:48 Toyota logo here. I have mentioned in our previous reviews that if you do see that blue tinge in the Toyota logo,
01:53 it does mean that you are looking at a hybrid version of their car.
01:56 Over here, LED headlights with an LED daytime running light.
02:00 That's a big headlight module that stretches all the way around the side of the car there.
02:04 You can whip around to the side as well.
02:06 So this particular spec is all-wheel drive, and while you're not going to be doing any great deal of off-roading with it,
02:12 it does have these sort of wheel arch protectors on them.
02:15 18-inch alloy wheels with a machined finish on the outside, and then a graphite finish on the inside there.
02:20 Hybrid badge here, just so you don't forget that you're driving a hybrid.
02:24 Up the top here, you have body colour on that wing mirror with a black section at the bottom.
02:27 Indicator built into there.
02:29 Camera there as well for the 360 camera that's fitted to this car.
02:33 That black moulding actually goes all the way down the side of the car there,
02:36 so it really nicely breaks up the body colour as well as you move your eyes down.
02:40 Big panoramic roof there.
02:42 Roof rails, these...
02:45 kind of, I don't know what material that is, but that feels a bit hollow and cheap to me.
02:50 Privacy glass there.
02:51 Crawl across up the top here and come around to the back.
02:53 So around the back here, you have incandescent globes with the exception of that brake light by the look of it.
03:00 The rest of this is old-school technology, and it really blows me away that in 2022 and coming on to 2023,
03:06 they can still be launching cars with this old-school light technology, so pretty disappointing there.
03:12 Atmos here for that specification of this car.
03:14 Another hybrid badge over on this side.
03:16 Corolla Cross and then more blue within that Toyota badge there.
03:20 Boot lid spoiler here with a shark fin aerial as well.
03:23 So let me know what you reckon about the design.
03:25 Do you think this looks good?
03:26 Do you reckon Toyota's nailed it?
03:27 Because I think we're going to see stacks of these on the road.
03:29 They are proving to be incredibly popular.
03:31 So we're inside the Corolla Cross.
03:33 We will start with the key.
03:34 You've got lock, unlock, boot, panic, Toyota logo and then blank on the back.
03:41 This is the lightest key in the world.
03:45 It's like it's made of carbon fibre.
03:46 It's very impressive.
03:48 It's a proximity sensing key, so you can leave that in your pocket and then you've got a push
03:51 button start inside the car there next to the steering wheel.
03:55 Look at this interior.
03:56 This is a very impressive, I guess, improvement from Toyota of old.
04:01 We've got this giant infotainment system up the top there, big digital display ahead of the driver.
04:05 There is a lot of black around here, but it is broken up with these silver highlights and
04:10 piano black, which I don't love, but it's sort of around the place there.
04:14 A bit outside of that, the material and sort of fit and finish actually appears to be pretty good.
04:18 So at the top there, it is a little bit scratchy, but as you move down,
04:21 this is all nice and soft and same story on the doors as well.
04:24 It all feels nice and soft and well thought out as well.
04:28 In terms of your touch points, that is sort of, it's got a soft top to it, but it's quite firm.
04:33 It's going to be where you're resting your elbow and then it's soft on the door.
04:37 How soft are those points?
04:39 Well, we've got our durometer.
04:40 We've tested the main surfaces in this cabin.
04:41 If you want to see how this car compares to others that we've tested before,
04:44 have a look at the link in the description.
04:46 Now, build quality, a little bit wonky there.
04:49 Yeah, the rest of this kind of feels okay.
04:54 What about our door test?
04:55 Sounds nice and solid.
04:59 Now let's talk infotainment.
05:01 So 10.5-inch display, it looks fantastic and it's a big departure from
05:06 Toyota's old infotainment system that was so dated and just so average.
05:11 And this is just a huge step forward.
05:13 So very easy to use, all-colour touchscreen.
05:16 You then have a couple of very basic shortcut buttons down the bottom here.
05:20 It's all pretty straightforward to use.
05:21 It comes with inbuilt satellite navigation.
05:23 It's nice and snappy and very quick.
05:25 On the audio front, you have AM, FM and DAB digital radio.
05:30 And that's all plumbed through a nine-speaker JBL branded sound system.
05:33 Generally, the JBL stuff is pretty good.
05:36 Now, in addition to that smartphone mirroring, you have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
05:40 But Apple CarPlay is wireless, which is great news.
05:43 Nice and quick and snappy there as well.
05:45 That's what it looks like, takes up that entire screen, which is cool.
05:48 And this is what Android Auto looks like.
05:50 So again, full screen integration.
05:52 Yeah, all seems to work pretty well.
05:54 The only downside is that it is connected with a cable.
05:58 You'd also have wireless smartphone charging as well.
06:01 So that is a handy feature to have, especially if you do have wireless connectivity running.
06:05 Now, ahead of the driver, you also have a 12.3-inch digital display.
06:09 This one's pretty straightforward.
06:10 You can change some of the views here, but it just shows you basic information.
06:14 I really like the way that it's presented.
06:16 It's nice and sharp, very quick and easy to use as well.
06:18 So, tick on the technology front there for the Corolla Cross.
06:21 Now, when I say safety tech, you've got autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian
06:25 and cyclist detection.
06:26 You have an auto-dimming rear vision mirror.
06:28 Over on the wing mirror, you've got blind spot monitoring.
06:31 You have lane departure warning, lane keeping assistant, radar cruise control.
06:34 And also a lane centering assistance.
06:36 We'll test that later on to see how well that works.
06:39 You have rear cross traffic alert.
06:41 In addition to that, you have parking sensors and a 360 camera.
06:45 I'm going to start the car so you can see what that looks like.
06:47 So, here it is there.
06:50 Quality of that is actually really good.
06:52 So, the 360 camera quality isn't amazing.
06:54 It's quite blurred around the edges there.
06:56 But if you look straight down there at our reverse camera, that actually looks really
06:59 nice, very clear.
07:00 And you can also see the guidelines that tell you where the car is going to swing as well.
07:04 So, yeah, really nice setup.
07:06 And I think that it is high time that we actually had some decent cameras fitted to these SUVs.
07:11 Moving on to practicality, and we'll start off with your connectivity.
07:14 So, one USB-A charger down here, which is pretty disappointing.
07:19 I would have liked to see USB-C here.
07:20 There is USB-C in the back, but only one USB-A charger up the front.
07:24 You also have that wireless phone charger I mentioned earlier, and a 12-volt outlet
07:28 in the centre there.
07:29 Now, what about storing your phone?
07:30 It can live in the cup holders there, but it is sort of a bit of a weird spot, especially
07:33 if you have a bigger iPhone.
07:35 But in terms of your coffee cup, it can live in there without any chance of de-lidding.
07:39 Same story with your water bottle.
07:41 The only downside is there isn't any teeth around there, so it does move around a little
07:45 bit.
07:45 Water bottle fits inside the door as well without any problems.
07:48 Let's try our big water bottle inside the door.
07:51 That fits in there as well.
07:53 Excellent job, Toyota.
07:55 Other storage, you have this little centre console here.
07:57 We thought that would be a little bit bigger, given this is an SUV, but it's kind of big
08:00 enough.
08:01 And then down here you have a really reasonably sized glove box.
08:06 What about comfort?
08:07 So, you have dual-zone automatic climate control.
08:10 The AC is actually really good.
08:11 It's bloody roasting today, and it works a treat, especially for such a small car.
08:16 You have heated seats for the front row heated steering wheel.
08:19 The driver's seat is electrically adjustable, so you can go forwards, backwards.
08:22 Backrest can go forwards, backwards, and then you can lift the front and the back as well.
08:27 Now, the good thing about this is, while the driver's seat is manually adjustable, the
08:31 seats themselves are actually really quite comfortable.
08:33 They're perforated too, so on hot days like this you won't get completely stuck to them,
08:37 even though you don't have ventilation for the seats.
08:40 On the steering front, you have both tilt and reach adjustment.
08:43 Then on the reach test, all of this stuff is easy to reach while you're driving.
08:46 Second row, the Corolla Cross.
08:48 Look, I was hoping for a little bit more room here, so knee room is pretty limited.
08:53 Toe room is pretty good.
08:54 Headroom is okay.
08:56 Given this is an SUV, they probably should have tried to make it a little bit larger
09:00 in here because the Corolla is absolutely cramped, whereas this is slightly better,
09:03 but could be a touch better even still.
09:06 So, in terms of your creature comforts, one map pocket there.
09:09 You have air vents here, thank goodness.
09:11 Two USB-C ports down the bottom.
09:13 ISOFIX points on the outboard seats with three top tether points.
09:17 You have a centre armrest here with two cup holders.
09:19 So, it fits our bottle in nicely, but because there's no teeth, it'll be all over the place
09:24 if dad's got his lead foot on.
09:27 Then you've got a bottle holder just here inside the door.
09:29 I like the positioning of that because that means it's just easy to grab, which is pretty
09:32 good.
09:33 Now, what about our all-important window test?
09:36 So, auto up and down, which is good.
09:38 Boom, goes all the way down.
09:40 Very nice, Toyota.
09:42 Now, let's talk cargo space.
09:44 We'll open this.
09:44 So, you've got a power tailgate.
09:46 Wait for that to come up.
09:48 A little bit slow and a little bit short as well.
09:52 That's built for very short people.
09:55 So, you have under 400 litres of cargo capacity available here,
09:59 and the reason for that is you have a rear electric motor here in this particular variant.
10:03 This one also has the high-end sound system, so you've got a subwoofer in there as well.
10:07 So, it kind of eats into all of your available space, but you do get a little bit of underfloor
10:11 storage here, and then beneath that is something quite fascinating.
10:15 So, it's the cable that runs from the battery, which is under the passenger seat in the second
10:20 row, into the electric motor.
10:22 Looks a bit dodgy to me, I reckon.
10:23 I don't love the idea of just cables like that sitting there.
10:26 I would have thought maybe you put a cover on it or something like that.
10:29 So, very odd to see that, but it is there regardless.
10:32 And then in addition to that, you have a few hooks off to the side to store your bits and
10:37 pieces.
10:37 I'll show you what it's like with our bags in there.
10:39 So, that's that bag, and then you can pop this one in as well.
10:43 It's actually not a bad storage space at all.
10:47 You do have plenty of room in there, more than I thought you would actually have.
10:50 And then finally, if you do want a bit more cargo space, you can drop the second row out
10:55 of the way, although it isn't quite a flat floor when you do that.
10:59 So, we have just hit the road in the Corolla Cross Hybrid.
11:05 Look, I know this sounds boring, but this actually just kind of feels like every other
11:10 hybrid Toyota product I've driven recently, and that's a good thing, because it means
11:14 when you take off from a standing start, it's nice and quiet, because typically the engine
11:17 is switched off and it will run in EV mode until it gets to a certain speed, and then
11:21 it sort of fires up to life.
11:23 I'll run you through how this whole combination works.
11:25 So, you have an internal combustion engine under the bonnet, it's a 2.0-litre petrol
11:29 four-cylinder, and that uses an Atkinson cycle, which is just the type of combustion
11:33 cycle that the engine runs through, and then that's mated to two electric motors, one that
11:37 sits on the front axle and then one that sits on the rear axle.
11:40 That means you don't actually have a physical mechanical driveline connection down the centre
11:44 tunnel of the car, it's all just controlled electronically, so that is a far better way
11:48 to do it, because it's better for packaging.
11:50 And then in addition to that, it has roughly a 1kWh battery that is stuck under that rear
11:55 passenger seat.
11:56 Now, how does all that work in terms of your power numbers?
11:59 So, the internal combustion engine makes 112kW of power, and it also makes 190Nm of torque.
12:06 Then in addition to that, your front electric motor makes 83kW of power, and the rear electric
12:10 motor 30kW of power.
12:12 So, they're not huge numbers, but that all comes out to a combined power output of 146kW
12:18 of power.
12:19 So, I think that is a pretty decent and healthy figure to it, it doesn't quite a combined
12:22 torque figure, but when it comes to looking at the size of the car, and it is pretty light
12:27 with even with all of that hybrid drivetrain, it actually feels nice behind the wheel.
12:30 So, when you are behind the wheel and you do sort of give it a little punch, you hear
12:35 it all fire to life and it gives you that sort of electric propulsion as well once it
12:40 all sort of gets up and moving, and everything runs through an electronic CVT, so an electronically
12:45 controlled CVT, which is why you hear a fair bit of noise inside the cabin if you get on
12:49 the throttle, that is the CVT flaring up and putting the engine in its peak power or torque
12:54 bands to get the most acceleration.
12:55 I thought I'd call out as well that you can actually run this in EV mode entirely, just
12:59 by hitting the EV mode button, you can see it pop up down there, that means it's now
13:03 running entirely as an electric vehicle.
13:05 If you do put a little too much throttle in, that disappears and it kicks on the internal
13:09 combustion engine.
13:10 You could in theory, if that 1kWh battery was full, do about a kilometre worth of driving,
13:15 and in addition to that, when you roll out of the throttle and use the brake, you can
13:18 see it goes into that charge zone, and finally in addition to that, you can actually put
13:21 it into B mode, which increases your charging but actually uses the engine to do some engine
13:26 braking as well, which doesn't use any fuel, which I think is pretty impressive.
13:29 Now, Toyota claims a combined fuel economy of under 5 litres per 100km.
13:36 Let's have a look at how we're doing at the moment here, we'll whip through this,
13:40 we're sitting on an average of 6.1, so it is a little higher than that figure, but still
13:45 pretty impressive nonetheless when you look at the size of this vehicle.
13:47 Now let's talk drive modes, so you've got Eco, Normal, Power, let's stick it in Power
13:54 and we'll go for a little stab around our track.
13:56 It's actually quite responsive when you get on the throttle there, we'll punt it through
14:00 our corner, it's got a fair bit of body roll, but actually holding on nicely.
14:06 You feel that assistance from the rear electric motor, it doesn't sort of understeer all
14:11 that much.
14:12 I'll get on it up the back here, it is making a stack of noise on the throttle, which is
14:19 due to that CVT, but it's actually getting along really nicely.
14:23 And it is very predictable, so when you do sort of come into a corner, it does have that
14:29 degree of body roll, but it all feels nice and predictable.
14:32 So, yeah, look, I mean the owner of this car probably isn't going to be driving health
14:35 or leather, but at least you know you can go for a bit of a punt if you want to, and
14:39 it feels responsive enough off the throttle.
14:41 Okay, time for 0-100, so make sure that is in Power mode.
14:45 Toyota has an official figure of 7.6 seconds, which seems pretty good for a vehicle like
14:52 this, so we'll give this a shot here.
14:54 I'm just going to mash the throttle, I guess, see what happens.
14:58 Actually, I'll turn traction control off just so we have a little bit more there, and
15:00 I'll go up to 120 so we can get our 80 to 120 overtaking time as well, so here we go.
15:08 Bit of a little pep off the line there, so not too bad.
15:11 All right, we're almost there.
15:17 There's 120, as everything moves around in the car, I'll come to a stop.
15:22 Okay, so 0-100 came in at 8.7, that is way slower than the climb, and 80 to 120 was 5.8
15:33 seconds.
15:34 Wow, that is way off that number.
15:36 Let me just try once more, I might load up the throttle a little bit there, but typically
15:40 these don't like you loading up the throttle simply because it gets confused and it shuts
15:46 everything down, but I'll try it once more.
15:48 Okay, here we go.
15:48 I can feel that revving up a little, a little bit of wheel slip there as well.
15:54 Okay, that feels far better.
15:55 See how this goes.
16:04 All right, come to a stop.
16:06 8.4 seconds, that is still way off that claim of 7.6.
16:11 Maybe they were going downhill and had slender Japanese people in the car, but yeah, that
16:16 is significantly slower than the claim, which is a little bit disappointing, I reckon.
16:20 Okay, it is time to do our reverse acceleration test, see how this goes.
16:24 Okay, so I'm going to turn stability control off, because I remember with Hilux it was
16:28 actually quicker with stability control off in reverse, so let's give that a shot.
16:32 Power mode is still on, here we go.
16:33 Oh, that is so soft.
16:42 33 kilometres an hour.
16:45 Okay, let's crank our speed up to 130 and see what it's like over our sine waves.
16:52 Now, these simulate overtaking in the country and give us a good indication of what body
16:56 control is like, what it's tuned like.
17:00 So here we are, here it comes, pretty noisy at 130.
17:02 All right, so that is super, super floaty.
17:09 Yeah, so it doesn't have a great deal of body control at that top end there.
17:12 So look, in and around the city, the ride is actually perfectly fine.
17:16 It's really nice and gentle and comfortable.
17:18 Yeah, you will notice when you are on a country road or you're doing some of that driving
17:22 where you are carrying a bit of higher speed through a corner and you catch a couple of
17:25 bumps consecutively, it will feel like it floats and hangs there as it goes.
17:29 So let's talk road noise.
17:30 There is a fair bit of tyre noise coming into the cabin and it's a little bit disappointing.
17:35 I would have thought, you know, instead of just going from Corolla to Corolla SUV, they
17:38 should have probably put a little bit more effort into insulation inside the cabin, because
17:42 as you are sort of driving on a coarse chip surface, you do tend to notice a fair bit
17:45 coming into the cabin, especially at highway speeds.
17:48 Now, let's talk about visibility.
17:49 So yeah, it is a little bigger than a Corolla, but visibility is still fantastic.
17:52 I can see clearly down the front of the car there, giant wing mirrors, so I can see nicely
17:56 down the sides there with that blind spot monitor built in.
17:59 Visibility out the back is OK.
18:00 It's quite a narrow envelope, so you don't see a huge amount, but it's fine, it could
18:05 be worse.
18:05 And in terms of parking, with that semi-autonomous parking system and the big camera there, it's
18:08 all sort of pretty straightforward.
18:10 OK, so it is time to test some of our autonomous functions in the lane departure system.
18:15 So I'll get this up to 70 k's an hour and then we will see how everything works here.
18:22 So just ahead of the driver there, you'll see a little steering wheel icon.
18:24 That means the car is steering on its own.
18:27 You do still have to hold the steering wheel, but with a few minor inputs it will sort of
18:31 keep steering on its own.
18:32 We're going to test this in the three outer lanes and they get progressively more banked.
18:36 I've only had a few cars pass in the very outer lane, so I'll be keen to see how this
18:40 works.
18:40 So bottom lane here, it seems to be doing a pretty good job, no dramas there at all.
18:44 Jump up one more lane.
18:46 See how it goes here, wait for a little icon to go green.
18:50 So icon is green.
18:53 It's actually doing a nice job holding us centre of the lane there.
18:57 All right, that is good.
18:58 We'll jump up to lane three of three.
19:02 OK, so green steering wheel, let go of the wheel.
19:06 Wow, that's really good.
19:10 So that's holding us there as well.
19:11 It is creeping a tiny bit close to that line, but it's correcting itself into the centre
19:16 of the lane.
19:16 So bloody good.
19:18 Very impressed with that.
19:20 Three passes there for the Corolla Cross.
19:22 Nice one.
19:23 So Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid, what do I think?
19:29 I reckon you would be bonkers to buy anything like a Hyundai Kona at the moment.
19:33 This is so good.
19:34 Like it's fuel efficient, it's punchy enough for what it is.
19:38 There's more than enough room inside, especially compared to a Corolla.
19:41 And in addition to that, they've finally upgraded all of the tech.
19:44 So all of this stuff that we used to complain about with Toyotas, they've really started
19:47 to address.
19:48 So outside of stuff like the incandescent globes, this actually represents really good
19:52 value for money.
19:53 So have you bought one?
19:54 Are you on the waiting list for one?
19:55 Or have I convinced you to buy one?
19:57 Let me know in the comments section below.
19:59 I'm keen to see what you think.
20:00 If you did enjoy this video, please make sure you like it and you share it with your mates.
20:04 And if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon.
20:07 But until next time, take it easy.

Recommended