Hey Paul, interested to know if you would rate the Subaru Solterra any higher than the bz4x? They are virtually identical but would you prefer one over the other?
You can tell Toyota isn't serious about a rechargeable EV. This overpriced heap won't sell. Their hybrids are too good to consider a vehicle that needs recharging. 😊
Piss poor offering from the world's largest manufacturer. The instrument cluster being obstructed by the steering wheel is unforgivable given Toyota's pedigree. No two ways about it, this car is late to the party and is not competitive.
@@HaruHaruman I agree and disagree. They do build mediocre vehicles. But they are usually functional and reliable. But only that, Nothing more. But the instrument cluster isn't even functional. Hence why it's unacceptable, given their pedigree.
Glad you commented on the aircon. In a hot country like Australia, it's way more important than the number of cupholders, sound of the horn, or stuff like that.
Maybe he tested already and just describing his experience lol. Toyota didn’t really try with this one, they just wanted to comply with the pressure from policymakers. Toyota is putting all its money in hybrids and ICE newer models 😀
I purchased a brand new 2023 Tesla model Y AWD, hated that car and sold it after 11 months. I have owned and do own many Toyotas . Bought a 2024 bZ4X for $27k , Toyota had a $16250 off, it was a no brainer purchase for me. Build quality is superior to Tesla that had endless body fitment, paint issues, noisy leaky windows, fogged up tail lights, fast depreciating value of a car that is. What a piece of junk that was.
Exactly! The "Forward-backward" is a 4-way knob, up and down for the front and the rear parts of the seat. I am 170cm. And the issue with the missing glove box which I have seen being a mystery in other test videos as well, is really due to it now (since February in Norway) comes with IR-heather panel on both sides for the leg room. I ordered a blue Executive yesterday and getting it this month, and so looking forward to it. 😍
They have stated multiple times they have no interest in battery garbage. That takes away from the Toyota longivity mindset. Battery stuff is just more to go wrong
@@jarokennyYou missed the point. The point is that it has a hugh profit margin and just isn't worth it at 70k AUD. Especially with the weird steering / dash design flaw.
Woeful car. Even Toyota's own marketing department admits the only thing going for it is the brand name. "Barry, what made you finally go electric" "Because it's a Toyota"
No joke, the release of this Toyota EV in Australia will possibly push the sales of Chinese EV and Tesla higher, after customers are shopping around and comparing. Why not holding your Hybrid strength, Toyota?
And PHEVs which they've made since 2012, but still refuse to bring to Australia, despite the cost of batteries getting to US$50/kWh this year, so including a 10kWh PHEV battery would cost an extra $500 US or $750 AUD.
@@yggdrasil9039yeah if only there were vehicle emissions standards that incentivised bringing in those models that have been available in other regions for years 🤔
@@yggdrasil9039that’s because Toyota lobbied FCAI to prevent the government enforcing an emission standard here for decades. The US has one and Toyota had to actually put in effort there towards drivetrain development and engine tech. So in truth, Toyota are the reason we get the scraps.
Not really. Most Chinese I know prefer Japanese car because of higher quality. They are rich and prefer to pay extra to "show off" to their friends and family.
as much as I love toyota, i just couldnt justify buying an electric from them, they even said themselves they dont see electric as being the answer. i ended up getting a nx350h as I really wanted that more premium feel and I didnt feel like waiitng 12-24 months for a rav 4
The reason it wasn't released earlier in Aus was there some issues in the US market (eg the wheels were coming loose). Toyota Australia did not want to release the car until those issues had been resolved.
Says 258 recalled in USA But models before a certain production date was told to stop driving their vehicle I read aswell that Toyota was buying back the vehicles It took Toyota 6+months to resolve
Just to confirm, the 10 year battery warranty does come with a caveat, The battery is warrantied for five years, plus an additional five provided the vehicle is subjected to an annual battery health check. Toyota guarantees the battery for eight years to 70 per cent of its initial capacity.
This is really just a compliance product. Toyota are also refusing and delaying to bring any PHEVs here, and won't address their HEV backlog in any meaningful way. Nor have they really done anything with their HEV technology in the past 25 years, just made it a bit more efficient. A 2nd gen Prius from 20 years ago gets 4L/100km and a 2023 one, the last they sold here last year gets 3.75L/100km. Barely any improvement. They could have done what Nissan have done with the e-power and at least incorporated a bigger traction battery into their HEVs allowing more regen and recharge on hills and a longer range and more electric power from a standing start, but they're still putting the same Nickel-Hydride 1.4kWh battery into their HEVs that they have for the past 2 decades. I honestly don't really think Toyota are serious about much to do with electrification.
I read they are investing in Hydrogen fuel cell cars and believe the future is hydrogen. Apart from the fact that hydrogen fuel not readily available, the cars are over engineered, you still have many components.
Thanks for including the Driver Aids test section with all your reviews! Very nice seeing Toyota's Safety Sense 3.0 keeps the car centered in lane even on the third lane-- is Toyota's system the best at lane centering? Which would you recommend. Thanks!
Paul, totally agree about the piano black, it looks great but shows fingerprints and any amount of dust. That speedometer location appears to be a real design flaw .... hope they take note of that .... but maybe they won't, because you've been mentioning piano black issues for some time now. Another great review!
Well, to me it seems he was just pretending the speedometer location was a problem because you do have the height adjustment on the seat as well ;-) Totally agree on the piano black!
I honestly think it’s embarrassing for Toyota for marking a $60K car ( corrola cross ) and it’s got Halogene indicators and reverse lights, like wth! And I’m not paying $70K + for a fucking Toyota!!
What a expensive piece of rubbish! In China after bz4x released for a couple of months, sales figure was so bad so they put ads out saying "limited time only, 30k off", after that sales ends, new ads is 60k off, now sales figure is soo bad and no one even talks about it
I am amazed every time I watch a Toyota review. Very reliable vehicles but so boring. It’s like you are buying a brand new 7 yo vehicle and they are expensive
@@davidhardwick1322 In theory that works, but I am 185cm, so would be starting to hit the roof if I raised the seat. Its a glaring oversight by Toyota.
Took one for a drive at my local Toyota dealer yesterday, the first thing I found was the same as you, couldn't see the screen. I tried moving the steering wheel into different positions but ended up moving my seat into a higher position so I could see my speed. I couldn't fault it in any other way, I could easily live with it, but not at $70k.
I agree with you, the size of the plastic panels are ridiculous if you ask me - stands out way too much in any other colour other than black. Black is a very nice colour brand new, but it is unfortunately not the easiest colour to maintain - I'm sure people's black cars will look pretty faded as the years go on.
Imagine charging that amount of money for a base model that has so many flaws, lacks blind spot monitoring and a surround view monitor... Quite absurd to be honest.
@@r1ckyyyyyyy good for you. Stop complaining then that’s a feminine trait. Is men if we don’t like something we just don’t buy it and keep it moving and the money stacking.
Dont know how toyota gets away with the prices they charge for all their cars????? And then the idiot fanboys just say its for reliability.... hello hello??? Its not the 70s and 80s anymore, cars are now actually reliable
Not overly impressed by this car,but having been nearly sideswiped by three yes three Tesla's a couple of weekends ago i sincerely approve of a speedometer in front of the driver.Tesla drivers looking at a centre screen terrifies me.😮
Paul, you can tell you were a little less than thrilled with this vehicle. I've watched a heap of your reviews, and your body language spoke volumes on this one. I had to turn it off as I couldn't watch you suffer anymore. 😂
The Australian launch delay was a result of the wheels not staying on issue in the overseas model. Toyota was baffled and it took them the best part of a year to resolve.
Great review. Big thanks for info on Air Conditioning. CarExpert, you guys saw all the comments, I am not the 1st one with praise on this, right? This is Australia. Air Conditioning is NOT some kind of afterthought. Your "how soft those surfaces are...lets pull out our trusty durometer"...ehhhh...honestly? Do people really find that info of any use? Maybe some people do, I don't know. But Air Conditioning?? IN AUSTRALIA??? ( and any other hot-ish country of the world?) That IS VERY important info. And it is very simple to measure - you just stick one of those thermometers with a scope into AC vent opening, set it on full blast and see what kind of temperature reading you get. Its about time POOR air conditioning systems are NAMED AND SHAMED. YEs, it is sort of known, that the best AC systems you get in Toyota and Nissan, but who knows, things can change, right? Would be very good to get ACTUAL information on AC systems performance in cars reviewed by you guys!
The steering wheel/display issue is due to the vehicle being released with a yolk steering wheel. Unfortunately, Australias strict vehicle rules dont allow a yolk wheel.
Not being able to see the speedo has been a well documented issue, particularly in the US. The Prius prime is set up the same way and reviewers said the same thing.
why did you not mention the abysmal range?they were sued by owners .... it's a massive issue. Charging the battery is also very very bad,they don't let you quick charge more than a few times in 24hrs which makes it useless on long trips
You are blowing up issues that has been taken care of last summer. Now you can quick charge 3,8 times in 24 hours. And the issue with the missing glove box is cause now since February in Norway it comes with an IR-heather panel for the driver and passenger. It was announced to come from the beginning but for some reason it didn't come until now.
Pfft that fossil Cardogan is a dinosaur who lobbies against EVs because his sale procurement business can’t make money off of them. He’s a morally corrupt Boomer clinging to the past, and nothing more.
According to Toyota, the meaning of the "bZ4X" nameplate breaks down into: "bZ": for "beyond Zero" emissions, representing the nature of a battery-electric vehicle by going "beyond Zero" emissions, "4": from the equivalent-sized Toyota RAV4 and the "X": describing it as a compact crossover ('X') SUV. paul might need to read the documents that come with the press vehicle .
What a rush job. This was like the dev team just pushed one out for the sake of it without any real care or concern. Typical Toyota, charge the moon deliver stuff all.
Great review as always but that pricing is ridiculous for the amount of plastic wrap your getting. If this car was white you'd be accused of being a zebra. I also can't believe they still have halogen rear indicators lolol 😂 Great to hear she rides well though but sounds it's a miss from me.
This is truly a half hearted attempt by Toyota. At the very least, they could have bought a Tesla model 3, and a Polstar 2, and reverse engineered the shit out of them, and come up with an excellent alternative to this. Very sad from Toyota, 😢😢
You have not driven it, have you ;-) Awesome car! About the cluster: He just need to read the Owners Manual, then he would have discovered that the Forward-Backward knob is really a 4-way knob, lift it in the front and you raise the seat in the front, lift it in the rear part of the knob and you RAISE the rear part of the seat. NOW you see the cluster! The mystery with the missing glove box; it is prepared for a IR-heater panel, ..for each side. The 2024 has it, at least in Norway
Paul is the only honest Toyota reviewer in Australia. Every other journalist is linked to the big news corp companies that receives millions in advertising from Toyota.. thus don't dare critisis the hand that feeds you.
As a none SUV EV owner,l smiled and shook my head.I take the view people do their homework and l respect their choice if it differs from mine.EV the way to go as a BYD Seal Performance owner that’s was my homework.
Great video review Paul...went to test drive one and the deal breakers for me were: that the nav system did not plot charging stops for long trips, no digital key (have to carry a key fob), no glovebox, and according to the sales guy, I have to either pair the system to wifi or a mobile hotspot for Over-The-Air updates - at a starting price of $70K - it's waay overpriced in my opinion - ended up ordering a Model Y instead and got that even cheaper
For such a vast company that produced the most popular fuel efficient car on the planet for a while, this seems a halfhearted effort. FWD, dated interior, limited tech, poor ergonomics. Maybe if it was $10k-$20k cheaper? It's competing with the Y, Ioniq 5 and EV6. When Seal U and offerings from VW, Skoda, Peugeot and Renault arrive... I dunno... I just can't see it selling unless the buyer is a huge fan of Toyota.
So in summary compared to its competitor the Model Y. PROS It handles comfortably CONS Higher price Less storage space Noisier Slower Less Efficient Less Range Slower to charge No one pedal driving No blind spot monitoring Piano black will age badly Cant see the speedo Little wonder Toyota is so against EVs & fuel efficiency standards when their offering is so sub par & uncompetitive
What a cynical contribution from Toyota. Intentionally cheaply designed from a strong player. The name says it all - bz4x. Toyota clearly oil biased/financed to provide such an overtly p!ssweak effort instead of leaning into EVs. When people complain about it's many faults Toyota will say "People dont want EV's! ". Very apt that the Toyota CEO was sacked after this effort, but I expect there's more to come.
Like the idea of EV and maybe Toyota will have the best build quality, but at that price for a base plus the fact it may be worth 25% (Ok let's call it 30%) of its value after 5 years, umm, nope. Keep it any longer and install a new battery at ? price. Not a compelling argument to buy.
Sorry Paul, you say you don't want a car that looks like a science project, but this car is pretty damned boring looking, it has a nothing look, it looks like a RAV4, another pretty boring bland car! And what is wrong with the Cybertruck. It looks futuristic, cutting edge, like a space ship?! Which is exactly what it is. I have read people saying EVs are twice as good as a ICE car. I have to say the Cybertruck is at least 100 times better than this car with its stupid name that no one can get their head around. Is this what you do when you produce a really boring bland car, give it a stupid name that no one is going to be able to get their head around to try to pretend that it in any way is funky, which it sure is not!
Before you mentioned about the position of the instrument screen I thought it looked like an odd location. Maybe Toyota originally had a yoke steering wheel?
This car is a complete lemon. Toyota has no interest in EV’s they did this on purpose to ensure their narrative of hybrid and hydrogen vehicles are maintained. I hope it is a complete failure uses BYD battery and engine, poor interior, poor visibility, poor storage, not RWD, poor charging, and highly inefficient. Make sure you buy any other EV in this segment.
Surely not being able to see something as important as your speed is a deal breaker, toyota oh what a joke. Update Just saw another review by a mechanic about battery life when cold weather, the guy has actually been living with the car in cold weather and says battery life is woeful because of substandard way Toyota have tried fixing the problem. Seems like another crap effort like the pdf problems Toyota unlike everyone couldn't work out but rely on fanboys parting with hard earned money on past reputation.🚮
Also, big thanks on mentioning the absence of utterly idiotic glass roof. About time car reviewers start telling the truth on what is one of the most useless, wasteful, disgusting and idiotic inventions of car manufacturing industry, which is the glass roof. The stupid thing is not only utterly, hopelessly useless, it makes cars A LOT worse, with loss of efficiency, loss of range, allowing insane amounts of heat into the cabin, reducing head space, substantially increasing costs both of cars AND car insurance premium, the list goes on and on and on.
HI I got a 2024 model mib range yes I agree it is a struggle if you put the steering in the wrong position you need to play with the seat it goes up down back forward and a lot more to get your in a comfortable position and you will see all you want it is a faff but it works. good video 👍👍
Faw built this. Also when you look at how it’s failed the couple years abroad and the ridiculously cheap price it’s going for. Further engrains how much Toyota in Australia is taking people for a ride, wait no it’s the consumer that’s just blind and can’t use the internet to check things, likely both
Those loyal Toyota buyers must be getting a bit upset with all the scams Toyota are pulling on the public. Trying to get out of the mess they have created for themselves with advertising. People will wake up - start by telling it how it is Toyota - you are not making competitive products with competitive prices and just trying to scam your way through the short sighted mess you have created.
66K? pass. who will you think you are Toyota? Your EV will cost twice as much as your normal ICE? if you are not serious about EV, why even bothered to come out with one?
Terrible name, exterior looks are not bad, internal looks dated and put together with off-the-shelf Toyota parts, and then the price, ridiculous. Computer says NO.
Test drove one, as stated couldn’t see the speedo, terrible terrible design. Boot door was also rattling. And the aircon wouldn’t work. Turned me off straight away. Try again Toyota.
Terrible styling, looks like a corolla, the plastic is cheap and the aeros plus the wheels will chew into the range. Silly car build by the company who hates BEVs and it shows...