SENIOR SERVICE

Sean O'Grady finds the comfortable new Toyota C-HR will deliver the sweetest of feelings for the retirement brigade

- Sean O'Grady

Getting on in years, a friend looking for a bit of reliable transport with easy access asked me what I’d recommend. Almost instinctively I replied: “A Toyota”. Yes, I’m mentally lazy but, not wanting any “comeback”, telling anyone a Toyota is a good idea least likely to cause a rupturing in personal relationships.

Specifically, and not just because it was the last car I’d tried, I prescribed a Toyota C-HR to assist with his incipient arthritis. (Indeed, the SUV/crossover boom of recent years can be at least partly attributed to demographics.) For purposes of clarity and brevity, because I was keen to get on with slagging off Donald Trump, I described the C-HR as a sexier-looking version of the Toyota Prius, so familiar to the world – but taller and easier to get in and out of.

Which it is – but it’s much more than that. The C-HR press car I was lent is the later of the two versions to be released, the “plugin” petrol-electric hybrid, the standard hybrid having already been in the showrooms for some months, and there as yet being no petrol or full-electric battery-powered versions (though there is a proper battery-electric only Lexus sibling).