Hi everybody, it's Peter, and in this video I'm gonna do a complete in-depth review of the 2022 Toyota Corolla Cross, which is a really bad name for a pretty good vehicle. And I'm here at Jim Gilbert's Wheels and Deals here in Fredericton, New Brunswick. And the best thing is for you, if you're just watching on video, if there's a question that you have about this vehicle that I don't get to in this video, make sure you let me know when the comments below and hit subscribe because I can come back to this vehicle because Jim Gilbert's Wheels and Deals gives me complete access to their entire vehicle lineup so that I can make sure that I answer your questions both on this vehicle and also to compare this vehicle to other vehicles in its class. So if there's a vehicle that you want at this compared to, let me know that as well and we'll get right into the view right now.

Alright, so why is this a dumb name? Well, manufacturers basically start with, let's take our really popular selling model and try to move those buyers to other vehicles. Now it would make sense if this vehicle was exactly like the Corolla, if it may be shared every part of the platform. I'm not a hundred percent sure about which platform this shares, but I can tell you it's not a Corolla. What I think it will do is be a nice stepping stone for Corolla buyers into this. But it does feel different than a Corolla. And we're gonna go through some of those differences in this video. Now there's also in the Corolla lineup is a Corolla hatchback, which is an excellent vehicle. There's the Corolla sedan, there's Corolla hybrids, which this will also be available in. So this one, this particular one is not that, but this is the Corolla suv.

And like I said, it really isn't a Corolla in the same way that the hatchback and the regular Corolla kind of have some similarities. However, the typical Corolla buyer is not a high performance vehicle buyer. And to move from a Corolla to a Corolla Cross, the handling is gonna be probably the same for your everyday driving. It will feel different, but it will give you some more practicality. So in this review we're gonna go through some of those similarities and differences. And I'm gonna show you a bunch of the tech inside this vehicle that I think a lot of the other VE videos aren't showing. So overall view here, you've got a pretty good small crossover. So if you think of something like, oh I don't know the Kia Sorento or something like that, that's kind of what this is going after. But I can tell you that it feels longer than that vehicle just from looks, I haven't checked the exact spec to see how many millimeters it is.

Shorter, longer, taller, whatever, but it has some substantial, substantial presence on the road when you're sitting in the driver's seat. You do see more hood here than you would in something like the Corolla sedan or the Corolla hatchback up top. You've got a sunroof on this one. You've got a roof rails here. Roof rails are necessary for the average crossover buyer because you want to u be able to use uh, them to take extra luggage. We're gonna show you trunk space in just a second here, but this is a nice option for an all-wheel drive vehicle. Where does it fit into Toyota's lineup? It is just below the rav4. And if you think about Toyota's history, the RAV4 started off as a very small suv. It actually started off smaller than this, but as it grows and you know, fills in a new space in the segment they need, they're able, they're able to fill in the spot that was abandoned by the RAV4 by bringing in a new model and that's where this fits. 

So let's take a look now. We'll start with the trunk space, rear seat space and then we'll head into the driver's environment where we can talk about some of the technology in this car, which is actually very good. Alright, let's start with trunk space. Usually I show the keys right before I jump into the car, but let's show you the keys right before I jump into the trunk on this one. Pretty simple keys, typical Toyota type stuff. If you hold down this button though, you do end up with something that you don't always have in this class and that is a power operated tailgate, which is kind of nice overall. You've got what you need here. This one has the JBL subwoofer off to the side. You do have the um, the uh, guide here which you can cover or the uh, blind which you can use to cover your stuff. 

It's good stuff. You have a fairly large tire underneath the floor here. It is a compact spare but it sits fairly high. My only thinking is maybe they're saving some space for that battery pack that's gonna go in the hybrid one. It does feel like a little bit less space than some crossovers, but again, they're marketing this as sub Rav4, so smaller than a Toyota Rav4 and it's probably class competitive for space. Certainly bigger than something like a Hyundai Kona or something like that. But again, the vehicle is bigger than something like a Hyundai Kona as well. One little thing you'll find here is the seats here are fixed in place. Some vehicles, uh, something like Kia Selto for instance, will tilt back one spot. This one will not. Uh, that being said, they are comfortable. We're gonna work our way there. You've got some tie downs in the front here. 

I don't actually see tie downs in the back here, which is interesting. So you have less tie down ability than you would have in some other vehicles, but you do have some little hooks over here and there to hold groceries and other things. Um, you know, and again, that blind there can come in and come out. So, uh, again, good space. The storage space underneath here is working its way around the tire. Not a whole lot of storage space, but again it is a hatchback type design. So you can fold down the seats and fit a lot of stuff in here more again than the Corolla hatchback. One feature we're seeing more and more on these power closing trunks is you used to just have the trunk closing button and when you have these keyless entry keys, you would close the trunk here, have to walk around to a door handle of the vehicle in order to lock the vehicle.

Now you can close and lock the vehicle by just hitting this button here, which makes more sense. Uh, so that's a good kudos to Toyota for, uh, adding that feature there. We're just gonna close it for right now and we're gonna hop in the back seat. The first thing we're looking for rear seat space and a crossover like this is how does a six footer fit? So average tallish person, how do I fit? Well, getting in and out just fine. So we're gonna take the camera inside the car here, but you've got a square roof line here, which is really good. A lot of vehicles kind of curve that, uh, door line off and it is easy to get in. You sit sort of low for an suv, which is fine, it's comfortable. But let's take the camera in and show you the pros and cons down here. Alright, we're headed to the back seat, but I wanna show you one little thing that this crossover does, right? That doesn't happen much in this class but does happen on other SUVs. The doors here front and rear wrap all the way around the bottom. Now that seems like a minor thing, but in Canada

Here where we get a lot of Road salt and other dirt and stuff, you have this area here that is protected From dirt with

A little rubber steel down the bottom there and it all stays clean. So when you're getting out of a taller vehicle, sometimes your pant legs will rub against the back here and you'll have that dirty pant leg all day. You won't have that here on the Corolla cross. Let's jump in here and show you a couple little things. We are gonna shut the door

Mostly cuz it's cold outside. All right, I'm gonna go wide angle for a second here. So the camera's view is a little skewed. One thing that kind of confuses me with this car is it looks to be a larger SUV than it is now. Overall rear seat space, probably similar to something like a Hyundai Kona, which is not known for a ton of knee space. Again, as a six footer I fit here just fine, but for a vehicle that looks larger, it doesn't have a massive rear seat, I think it's fine for the class, it'll work. This seat is tilted a little farther back than it should be for comfort. But again, the seat that I'm sitting behind is what a six footer would need to create room for me. And again, I'm a six footer here. Now again, not a real problem. You do events down here.

Side, but none on the driver's side. I'm not sure why we still don't put 'em on both sides. You've got a cup holder in the door there, so that's more of a bottle holder. Sometimes they put them lower, but you've got the speaker down lower in there. And then you also have in the armrest the cup holder's right there. Let's flip the camera around and Show you what it looks likeFor me sitting in here. All right, so as

A six footer sitting here with a winter coat on to make me extra bulky, I've got all kinds of headroom. Now it does curl down in front of me here and that's because this vehicle has a sunroof. So that sunroof has to come back inside the roof. Uh, but the lineup, everything here is perfectly comfortable. So very comfortable rear seat. It does not recline. I would kind of like the ability to recline just because some vehicles in the class do that, but not all do. So again, I'm fine with

It. Backseat space is Middle of the pack really for the class, but we're heading to the front seat where it's actually very good and very near the top of the class. Let's go check that out right now. Alright, open up the driver's door. First thing you're gonna notice on this nicely equipped trim line is power seats with power lumbar support and typical Toyota seats. So these are not overly sporty, which means they're not overly bolstered on a vehicle like this. I think that's fine. It's easy to get in and out of. You're not gonna be cornering at crazy speeds in this, so totally fine with that. All right, let's go inside here. We're gonna go to that wide angle camera one more time just to kind of get a little bit more of you. And we may have to move the vehicle to see some of those screens in this car, but let's just start with a few basics. 

Alright, headlights are over here. Typical stuff. Now you also have a headlight button down over here, which is just in front of my driver's knee. Again, always one weird button in the car. There's actually two weird buttons in this car. This just seems like an odd location. You do have a windshield wiper de-icer down there as well. Um, you know, it can be there, it can be other places, but it is what it is. We are gonna move this car in a second to show you the screens just cause I wanna have a little bit less glare on there if we can. But we'll show you some of the steering wheel controls here. You've got your, you can speak to this car now apparently this car has a feature where you can say, Hey Toyota and it will activate. I have not been able to figure that out yet. (09:57)
Um, but you can have the typical touch the button and control things, not just controlling things like your phone, which we'll talk about in a second. We can also control the cars. You can choose your, you know, radio stations, choose all kinds of things in there, uh, by voice if you wanted to. Although most people don't use that to change the radio station. Safety control, safety situation. Um, top of class here, when you get a top of the line Toyota, you get all that safety stuff. But um, there is nothing in this class that this vehicle doesn't have for safety wise. So it's, it's excellent When you come to Toyota and their safety, they tend to put most of their safety equipment even on their lower trim cars. Alright, we're gonna show you the screen here. We'll turn it on a second here. Eight inch screen over there. 

Nice display screen, color display screen in the dash as well. Just turn the car on for a second and we'll show you the climate control dual zone automatic climate control. Again, something like the Kia Selto. Uh, something like the, at least up until now, I know they're redesigning that but it has not had a dual zone climate control. This one does. So again, stepping up there with the dual zone climate control. One thing I like about Toyota is they have their heated seat button as a permanent placed uh, button. So a lot of these buttons where you push them in when the car turns off, your heated seats don't stay on. What's interesting about this is the seat can stay in place and you can see that it's in place. The seat here stays on when you turn off the car. I also had the heated steering wheel on and even though this is a button that you know, can kind of be reset, actually, maybe it's not, it does push in.

So again, heated steering wheel can also stay on when you turn the car off, which is a nice feature. Now I am gonna turn this, uh, down from 25 degrees cuz it's gonna get a little warm. You can see that dual zone we can set different for driver and passenger and that works just fine. Alright, coming over to the, what was I gonna show you here on the steering wheel? Yes, as we go wide angle one more time. One thing that we had with the Mitsubishi Eclipse cross, another vehicle cross, uh, in this class is the heated steering wheel was heated from this seam down to here. It did not seem to be heated down along the bottom and then again was heated along the side. The Toyota feels similar. Now this has been sitting in the sun so it warms up, but I'm pretty sure that the heated steering wheel is just the side and maybe not the top, which as for me, when I sometimes drive with one hand, I get it, you're not supposed to, but I sometimes drive with one hand up here. 

It's a little interesting that that may not be heated. Again, I does feel warmer now. It's been sitting in the sun, but these feel hot over here. So really good. Two hands on the wheel, hot, uh, steering wheel, uh, which is what you want. And heated steering wheels are really important because you've got touchscreens in this car that you're going to want to touch. Now we are parked in the sun. This screen has much less glare in person, but it's very difficult to film a screen, uh, uh, in a vehicle like this. So we're gonna try to find a little bit more shady spot to give you a little bit clearer view of what's going on here. And uh, because the screens in this car are actually very, very good. All right, we're wide angle. Let's zoom in again. Let's start with a center display screen. (12:43)
Pretty typical stuff here. Your entire speedometer is actually a display screen in this vehicle. And there's a lot of things you can cycle through through the middle section. You can have sort of your audio source. You can see at the bottom there. If we just zoom in one more time. The very bottom of the screen, when you start pressing these buttons there, it tells you all the menu. So there's a settings menu. If there's any messages there, you've got eco information, 8.3 liters per kilometers. What this has been getting for the other driver. Uh, never pay attention to dealership mileage numbers because like right now I have this vehicle idling a lot. So dealership, vehicles idle a lot. Their mileage is usually much higher than what you're gonna get or higher number, worse mileage than what you're gonna get. All that safety information there and uh, music information.

So again, a good selection of stuff you can throw through, uh, on this screen and get what you need. Easy to read. Well done. Good job. Toyota. Moving over here. Toyota has had a mixed bag in my opinion of screens. This one is better. Their software is getting better. Uh, you've got a nice clear backup camera when I turn the wheel here. You can see that you've got the guidelines there. So good points there. You also can change the view here to a little different uh, view. It's hard to sort of see, it's a little wider angle versus uh, more narrow angle there. Uh, you can see, let's just show you again on the side here, you can't see the red vehicle, whereas right now you can see the red vehicle. So just a little different uh, view. So you have a pretty good camera. 
I like that. You also have parking. Parking beepers, front and rear, which is quite nice. We talked about the climate control, we talked about, uh, that kind of stuff. Let's move into some of the, let's put it on a rehearse for a second. Move into some of the display things here. Now there are a lot of things I like here. Let's just uh, go to the setup over here. Which, where was I over here? I apologize. Menu. There we go. I was looking for setup, but there's a menu. Menu and setup. You've got some voice control here and what's pretty cool is you can actually customize and train your voice. So the same way your phone recognizes your commands, this can also train and it's a simple process of just repeating 10 commands. A lot of audio sy or voice recognition systems in cars just aren't very good with different people with different voices. 

So it gets you to say 10 different phrases and then the car is better at recognizing how you say those, those phrases, if you have a bit of an accent or if you have anything else, it basically understands what you're saying, which is pretty good. Now speaking of voice recognition and other things you have into an auto and apple CarPlay in here, let's see if we can go to, uh, we'll skip out of that. We'll go down to uh, projection vehicle apps. Uh, well we can customize some things apps down here yet we haven't got it right there. So we have to go to um, projection settings, which we'll just uh, show you in general. You do have Android Auto and Apple CarPlay in this car, which is good. Toyota was a little late to the game with Android Auto I believe, but they had a CarPlay or the other way around. 
They've got both now and they are wireless now. Anytime you have wireless android auto and wireless apple CarPlay, you should put in a wireless charging pad and you have that here as well. So really good marks. Wireless charging pad, easy to reach. What's interesting, well this one is, has an on off button right over here if you can see it. Uh, right there. So you can see right now it's on, it's ready to go. If I drop my phone there, it would charge and it would change the light color. So full marks for that. They do a good job there. But being able to turn it on and off is interesting because you can kind of use this with other things, um, as a storage area without having to have it on, which is kind of nice. Now, again, just awkwardly placed button, kind of hard to hit there as well. (16:02)
Um, because when you look at it on a wide angle, it's kind of buried in there and that's just what Toyota does. Most of the key components are very good. Just some weird uh, button place for other things. Automatic transmission here you do have a manual shift option. So you put it in drive, kick it this way, up a gear, down a gear if you want to. And then you also have um, sort of in this top brand version you have electronic parking brake with the auto hold feature, which is sort of standard for the class. But this is a sort of a step up as well because this is a top trim level. So very good stuff. I do wanna point out a couple little interesting things is here as well. This stereo system in this car is very good. It's a JBL audio system and you can see even the tweeters, I don't know if you can kind of see, but they're kind of aimed towards the driver, which is a really nice thing. 

It gives those high end um, noises should be aimed towards you. Whereas the low end, like the base, it can be in the trunk, it doesn't matter. So they do spend some time and energy thinking about that. You've got your blind spot detection there, you've got the heated mirrors, uh, sort of wing mirrors there. They're set out and very Subaru like they give you an extra window here. So you've got good visibility looking out again compared to a Corolla, you're gonna see more hood here you have a bit more of a square hood. Um, it does not feel like a Toyota when you're sitting or a Corolla when you're sitting in here. Although the drive is probably very similarly tuned to a Corolla. Flipping the camera around. No complaints about the driver's environment. Here you've got a tilt telescopic steering wheel, you've got good headroom. 

I can move the seat up or down. It's kind of, it's a little high right now but I can move it up or down. I'm about six feet tall but tons room between myself and the sunroof, which is good here. Toyota again, love their buttons. They have uh, two controls. A lot of cars do one control for the buttons. This is SL tilts and slides. That one um, tilts or slides it the sunroof. This one on the other side here tilts the sunroof, which is just an interesting way to do it. A lot of companies use one button. Again, lots of buttons. Sometimes we complain about buttons disappearing in cars. Toyota doesn't have that problem. They've still got a lot of buttons there. Uh, but yeah, overall driver's environment, visibility's good. You sit a little higher than in a Corolla, which a lot of people like. 

And I think if you're used to driving a Corolla, again the handling is probably similar to a Corolla. Obviously it is a taller vehicle so at the limit handling will be different but most people aren't driving their corollas at the limits. Um, unless you have the Toyota gr, which is a whole different car. Um, but yeah, this one is something that will probably feel relatively familiar to the Corolla buyer, but it is a step up. So I have an issue with the Corolla cross name simply because I think it's more of a marketing term. Hey Corolla buyers, look what you could get next. That's what they're calling out to you. More so than hey Corolla buyers, this is your car in a wagon form with that's a little taller. It's not really that to me. But let's finish up this video and talk about who this car is for. (18:40)
So a lot of people searching for a relatively small crossover are looking for a crossover that doesn't crossover a specific price point. And I think that's where this vehicle appeals more than ever priced under the RAV4 size, just below the rav4. I think for a lot of small crossover buyers, the ability to have this in all-wheel drive with enough space for five passengers, enough trunk space, sort of a good enough in every way. But the real standout here is decent technology, which Toyota hasn't always been known for with their screen usage. This one is easier to use, it's also got a ton of safety and the Corolla cross name fits in the way that it drives. It's not designed to be something that's crazy, sporty or anything else, but I think it fits what people in this class are looking for. So should you consider this over other vehicles in the class? 

Yeah, absolutely. It's a very good smaller crossover. The only thing that throws me is it looks longer visually, which I think may appeal to some people but does not provide you with that longer feel inside. Again, this is a plenty big enough vehicle for what it is. It's just a vehicle where I expected it to be bigger inside because maybe just the styling it looks pretty good on the outside. So there's a lot of options in this class. Uh, everything from uh, higher end KiaSorento and Hyundai Kona to lower end Honda CR-v Toyota itself I think is people are gonna cross up this with the RAV4 and figure out, and I think this will steal sales from the rav4 when you move into this as a hybrid, which will be available in the future, a Corolla cross hybrid. Then you're also having the venza in the lineup, which they crossover right in the Toyota's zone showroom. 

So lots of crossover in the crossover segment. This is gonna be a great vehicle for people who just want a comfortable, reliable, good technology, great safety that you don't have to think about. Fairly simple to operate vehicle with a lot of really nice features. It's a vehicle I quite like, it's a vehicle that I think makes a ton of sense. It's not a vehicle for enthusiasts or anybody else who's gonna drive aggressively, but again, I think Toyota knows who their market is. So very good, uh, effort here by Toyota. And again, if you wanna see this vehicle more, let me know when the comments below. If you have questions that I didn't answer, let me know when the comments below and hit that subscribe button cuz we'll come back to these videos where we're gonna look at other vehicles in the, in the class Mitsubishi, we just did the Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross as our previous uh, video that we did on cars. (21:01)
And uh, that's really a competitor to this class. It's got a heads of display. This one doesn't have that. Pros and cons to each thing in its class. If you wanna see this vehicle in person, make sure you swing by Canada's Huggable Car Dealer. Jim Gilbert's Wheels and Deals, they are absolutely laser focused on caring for their customers. They do a better job than anybody. This vehicle is very difficult to get from Toyota right now. There's long order times. It says right on the website that, hey, there's not many of these out there and you're gonna have trouble getting one. Toyota basically advertises that. If you want to get one easily and just drive off the lot with it today. Jim Gilbert's Wheels and Dealers here in Fredericton. Thanks everybody for watching.