I've been driving the Cross Hybrid for a week, here are some of my thoughts:
Pro:
- Car is really quiet. Not EV quiet (when the engine fires up) but at the speed when you need the engine, the tire noise pretty much masks the engine noise too. I have to pay attention to hear the engine most times. Without looking at the dashboard I'm often unsure if the engine is even on or not.
- Since I live a little higher than the commercial area, I can EV mode all the way to the market.
- Suspension is great. Eats potholes like they're nothing. High clearance means I can take large speed humps without scraping the bottom all the time like sedans.
- Went to Genting and boy the car was super well behaved at corners. While I was driving at moderate speed only, the car was very planted to the ground.
- I can do 4.3L/100km in city without trying very hard. Just no bunny starts and braking a little earlier. 600+km range with Myvi refueling price.
- Acceleration is better than expected. Some people do not allow hybrids to merge in front of them. But if you are willing to sacrifice some fuel efficiency, you can quite easily gap them.
- Seats are comfortable, including the back seats. Not couch kind of comfortable but it's firm and very comfortable on the road.
- Boot space is very practical for a compact SUV.
- Audio is very good. I use a little bass boost and it sounds great. There's an equalizer too if you're super particular about car audio.
- Air-cond control is knob and buttons. Much better than fiddling on the touch screen like many new cars now.
- Radar Cruise control is pretty usable at highway speeds. Not good for stop and go traffic.
- Blind spot monitor is surprisingly useful. Can even detect bicycles.
Con:
- People think your car is slow and want to overtake you even when it's unsafe.
- Toyo CR1 tires are average only. Tire noise is decent at low to medium speed. Not very good during wet roads and high speeds. Although if you got a hybrid, you're probably not going to drive all that fast anyway
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- Not much place to put things in the console.
- Wish it was a plug-in. Going downhill from genting you'll max your battery around Chin Swee temple.
- Lane Tracing Assist (LTA) is not very good and you still have to correct the the car very often. Feels like assisting a new driver all the time.
- No electronic parking break, but honestly, coming from handbrake cars, it's not that bothersome.
Tips:
- If the engine activates, push the engine a little further to around middle of the eco engine zone. Engine is most efficient at that region. Battery gets recharged efficiently and you can go a little faster too.
- Use ECO mode if you want to drain the battery in anticipation of a long decent. ECO mode will target the battery to retain 3/8 bars of battery. Use PWR mode when going up mountain like Genting. The battery will increase to 6/8 bars, so you won't run out of eboosts if you push the car really hard. Normal mode targets the battery at 4/8 bars.
- Brake early, they are not wasted energy thanks to regenerative braking.
- Hybrid battery air vent is located at driver side of back row. Clean the air filter there from time to time to keep battery temperatures low.
tl;dr
It's a really well designed practical car. Very little to hate about this car. For a car that is designed to get you from A to B safely, comfortably and reliably, there is not much more I'd ask for.
Apr 5 2022, 10:33 AM, updated 5 months ago
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