How the Toyota Raize Turbo makes one liter full of fun
This car was never, honestly, on my radar.
I have been playing with the Toyota Corolla Cross, which is a surprisingly good and consistent handling car, and then the Yaris Cross, more lately. I have been trying to nail down how good these hybrid crossovers from Toyota can be for someone who has as heavy a foot as I do. 
The answer was, they are surprisingly efficient last getting double digits kilometer per liter readings from me. And I easily saw the mid-teens, which pretty much triples my mileage. That plus the ability to use them without thinking about the inanity of number coding makes these cars no-brainer choices.
So, when someone countered me and said he loved his Raize, even to the point of giving up the hybrid coding exemption I had to look into it.
And I had fun.
I still think the next choice for most people should be a hybrid mainly because of the coding disaster, but the Raize Turbo makes a strong case not just for value pricing or for the fuel efficiency of a one-liter turbo charged engine. Because it was fun.
The Raize has character, and this stems from the fact that it is put together with Toyota’s partner/subsidiary Daihatsu, which has always made somewhat quirky characterful but pretty robust little vehicles. It feels just a little… different, like it is trying to break out.
But the Turbo makes it fun. The best way to describe it is the little car is trying to hurtle forward when you get heavy on the throttle. It isn’t unbalanced but it isn’t exactly tethered to Mother Earth either. It is kind of how I feel about older Honda Civics, a joy to get some speed into. The other models available use a 1.2- liter normally aspirated (non-turbo) engine and are either CVT transmission (like the turbo) or a manual (which may be hugely interesting to try.) But they are lower in power (98hp to 88hp) than the turbo. I was getting lows of 8 to a liter to highs of 11 in daily drives, then even higher on highways. Not as good as forcing efficiency out of me as the hybrids, but still pretty impressive. One thing to note, I am really not used to small gas tanks, the Raize has a 36-liter tank and it surprised me when I needed to fill up. Having said that, it took about the same amount of time to get there as my 60 plus-liter fuel capacity cars. So, a week of hard use required a fill-up, but a fill-up at almost half the cost.
I guess what I liked most about the Toyota Raize Turbo was that I quite enjoyed it. It isn’t what you would call a luxury vehicle, but it was a car with identity. It is flexible and relatively efficient, tactile and analog enough to put you in touch with the car but not spoil you. It is utilitarian but with a little playfulness. I would like a fuller suite of Toyota Safety Sense systems, but if those are your interests, then some models of the Toyota Yaris Cross are within striking distance.
Surprising, really, how much variety there is now for consumers to be able to choose from, even within just Toyota. That is good because more people can choose something that fits their needs, desires, and pockets, and feel good about it.
