Toyota bZ4X Long Term Review

Muddy good

The car I’m running is the Vision trim and I asked for the all-wheel drive as it’s winter and my driveway is steep enough to make the postman complain most days. Unlike some so-called soft roaders, the bZ4X has some proper off road ability. I’ve taken a bZ4x on a trail which was surprisingly brave and it coped well. It’s no Land Cruiser, but if you need a bit more grip then it’s much more competent than I expected. Even the track I used for these photos got a little hairy in places, but the Toyota romped through, even on its road based tyres.

Off roading is easy too – you don’t have to pull big levers – you just set the X-Drive button and it crawls along, like a sort of low speed cruise control. The computers work out where to send the power and it all seems very calm. The farmer who owns the track was surprised to see us pop out the other end and said she was just getting the tractor ready to pull us out.

That 4WD also means you get an extra motor which is also fun when it isn’t muddy. Unlike other cars (including the Lexus version of the bZ4X), Toyota hasn’t made the AWD version more powerful – the two motors together produce just 215bhp. That’s plenty in reality and good enough for a surprisingly fast 6.9 second 0-60 time,  but a far cry from the 507bhp of an AWD Tesla Model Y. 

I must admit I was surprised at how much fun this is to drive though, with a much sportier feel than our long term Nissan Ariya. It’s really comfy on the motorway too.

Quality Treats

The comparison to the Ariya is interesting when it comes to quality too. Both cars have the same sort of equipment but the Nissan feels and looks like a much more luxurious car. 

Close your eyes and everything you touch in the Toyota feels great. And I think it still will feel great and be working in 20 years time, because it’s a Toyota. But you can’t close your eyes while you’re driving, because it upsets your passengers and the other drivers. So you have to look at it. Someone unkind on the Electrifying team said it looked like the sort of interior you’d get in a van.

I wouldn’t go that far, but it’s not terribly inspiring. The most interesting pattern is the one left by fingerprints on the ‘piano black’ trim. 

In fact, the whole interior is a bit random, with scattered switches which mean you have to read the manual to work out how to do things – and that’s upsetting for a middle aged man like me. We hate having to read manuals as it seems like admitting defeat. 

Some switches are more irritating than others though, and a special shout out goes to the door unlock button on the driver’s door. It's unlit, so if you need to let someone in the car when its dark, you have to either select ‘P’ to release the locks or stab around the switches in the hope of finding the right button. 

But the doors also give the greatest impression of quality. There is something about the solid, effortless clunk they make when you shut them that makes all the grey plastic and shonky ergonomics seem forgivable.

I’m starting to compile a few items of homework I’d like the Toyota engineers to do before they update the bZ4X. I’ll be adding to it in the coming weeks.

About our bZ4X

Our bZ4X is the Vision AWD, which costs £54,410. The Dark Blue costs an extra £645 and the Panoramic roof was an extra £540.