Toyota, the world’s largest selling car manufacturers, hasn’t had any real success in India in anything under Innova. Their approach for entry cars is flawed. The initial batches of Etios had terrible cost cutting the most glaring of them was the rain water seeping inside because there was no rubber on the doors!
However, the recent Etios twins are slightly better but that impression of built to cost cars is always there. Apart from Etios sedan and Liva hatchback, Toyota has recently launched their pseudo crossover hatch Etios Cross which looks uninspiring and if it fails, Toyota should not blame the market!
Moving on, apart from this, the latest speculations emanating from Zigwheels.com suggest that Toyota is considering launching a higher C-segment mid-size sedan against the likes of City, Verna and upcoming Ciaz among others.
This naturally takes our attention to the Vios sedan that Toyota sells in some Asia Pacific markets and may just be the right fit for the company. However, Zigwheels quashes this possibility and says that the company will not indulge in any car which will be based on a new platform for all the business reasons.
They say, Toyota is, instead, considering developing a new car in India based on the Etios platform which will be a lot more cost effective for the company.
The upcoming C segmenter will be placed between the Etios and the Corolla. The company also wants to shift from an image of a customer base in their mid and late 30s, which it has developed, thanks to its products appealing to a mature public, to a younger customer base which prefer cars which are sporty and performance oriented. Well, Toyota you can’t do that by plonking a puny 1.4L motor on a D-segment sedan and hope for miracles!
Let us see what Toyota finally comes up with, but for God’s sake from the scratch design a car with proper driver-side instrument cluster!
Related: Toyota to Launch Entry Level Fortuner With Smaller 2.5L Diesel Engine Soon
