2018 Toyota C-HR - Fade to Matte

It's a sad day as we finally have to kiss our Toyota C-HR project goodbye. To recap, we picked up our C-HR as a one-year loaner, just after the CUV went on sale in the spring of '17. While its 144hp 2.0-liter and CVT tranny weren't anything to brag about, its styling had potential, especially compared to other crossovers. Add in some awesome aftermarket support from Japan and local partners, and we had ourselves a Super Street project car.

Now if you remember correctly, the C-HR was yellow last November on the SEMA show floor in the Car Mate/RAZO booth. It was finished with a full Artisan Spirits body kit, 20" bronze TE37s, RS-R coils, custom Borla exhaust, and Stillen big brakes. We hosted an online poll for readers to decide whether we should wrap it in something bright and yellow or subtle and gray. Yellow won the public vote, and Auto Tuned came to our aid by installing all the parts and applying the wrap. We couldn't have been happier with the result...or could we?

Only a couple of weeks after returning from Vegas, we got a call from Pioneer asking to borrow our C-HR for its booth at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). We answered with an emphatic, "Yes!" However, we couldn't bring it back to the same convention center looking exactly the same. We needed to spice things up, so we thought, "Why not have the best of both worlds and go with the other color that didn't win the original poll?" A few days later, a roll of Avery Dennison matte charcoal vinyl was delivered to Auto Tuned by way of Service Group Distribution, and the C-HR went to CES looking like a whole new animal wrapped in a combination matte gray and black.

With two major trade shows under its belt and being able to show off both colors voted in the poll, our little C-HR has had a successful journey. While we didn't have the most favorable powertrain out of the box or the resources to go balls to the wall, we hope you enjoyed what we did to Toyota's latest crossover