Toyota showcased their 10-seater Hiace at the 2014 Auto Expo and last month, at the Bus & Special Vehicle Expo they officially announced their intentions of launching Hiace in India.
Hiace is a 10 seater Multi-Purpose vehicle and could have acted as a fantastic option for large families and the commercial market as well. However, as per an article on Autocar India, the Japanese manufacturer might price it close to 40 lakhs, that is F-O-R-T-Y Lakhs!
Yes, it will come as a CBU (Completely Built Unit) initially and truck loads of other reasons but if this atrocious pricing indeed goes true, Toyota is just making a mockery of things here! They already have their overtly overpriced cars like Innova and Fortuner selling well in India and taking advantage of this, they feel they can sell anything at any price point they would like.
The starting price tag of Hiace in Indonesia, where Toyota has met with some success, is 394.6 million Indonesian Rupiah which translates to Rs 19.31 lakhs. A price tag of more than double of this sounds ridiculous.
The report says that the company will be targeting the premium fleet operating organisations with the Hiace and though the utility vehicle does come with lot of interesting features but 40 Lakhs……!
Just to make matters worse, Hiace produces a meager 136PS of power and 300Nm of torque from the same 3.0 Liter D-4D engine from Fortuner.
Even if it comes loaded with diamonds it is giggling at the buyers and if they can not price it sensibly, they should NOT launch it until they can produce it locally or at least follow the CKD route, if 40 Lakhs is what they are considering!
refreshing to see a motor journalist saying what needs to be said about the rip-off pricing the Indian customer is bludgeoned by. well done. the comparison with Indonesian pricing is a nice touch, as is the fact that we arw getting the same engine for a car sold here at abkut half this proposed price