Let me come clean right from the beginning: I am a big fan of the Toyota C-HR, as it is the only car right now that seems to be carrying the avant garde torch in the subcompact SUV segment that was once kick-started by the equally adventurous-looking Nissan Juke. What’s more, the model’s looks are clearly not hampering it with consumers, who have taken to the model really rather well (European sales data, US sales data, US subcompact SUV segment comparison). However, despite this love, I always found it curious that this willfully different-looking car is, from the rear, very similar looking to another car that came before it…
The 8th generation European Honda Civic. Yes, there are probably more things that are different between the two rears than there are similar (the bumpers, the Honda’s additional window, the Toyota’s spoiler), but this hardly matters when the rear is really defined by the lamps, which are almost identical on both models. Nothing wrong with that, mind you – the rear was arguably the best angle of the previous Civic, and the cool lamps give the rear of the C-HR not only a lot of personality, but because of the way they jut out of the body a certain lightness that’s hard to achieve in a crossover shape.
