In the Indian car market, the sub-4-metre SUV segment is booming in popularity. These vehicles are extremely compact and affordable, yet offer a lot of interior space and impressive features. Toyota Kirloskar also entered this market space last month, with the launch of the new Urban Cruiser. Toyota’s latest crossover SUV is actually a rebadged Maruti Vitara Brezza, with a few minor changes here and there.
The Toyota Urban Cruiser has been positioned as a premium subcompact crossover, and is slightly more expensive than the Maruti Vitara Brezza. Although this might seem like a deal-breaker at first sight, Toyota is offering a 3-year (or 1 lakh km) warranty on the Urban Cruiser as standard, which is more than the Brezza’s 2-year (or 40,000 km) warranty.
The better warranty offered by Toyota easily justifies its higher price tag compared to the Brezza. Hyundai Venue and Kia Sonet also offer a three-year warranty as standard. Of course, warranty isn’t the sole reason why someone should buy an Urban Cruiser, and the Toyota has quite an impressive feature list as well.
It gets a 7-inch touchscreen infotainment system (with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity) and analogue instrument dials with an MID. Automatic climate control, integrated controls on the steering wheels (for audio and cruise control), rain-sensing wipers, auto-dimming inside rearview mirror, and electrically adjustable ORVMs are also available on the vehicle.
The Urban Cruiser features a slightly different styling compared to the donor car, limited only to the front end. The nose of the little Toyota crossover features a different front grille and a new bumper, both inspired from the Fortuner. The rest of the design, interior as well as exterior, remains unchanged.
The Toyota Urban Cruiser is powered by a 1.5-litre petrol engine, which generates 105 PS and 138 Nm. Transmission options include a 5-speed manual and a 4-speed automatic. The Automatic variants also get a mild hybrid system, to improve fuel economy. There are three trims levels on offer – Mid, High, and Premium – and the SUV is priced between Rs. 8.4 lakh and Rs. 11.3 lakh.
This isn’t the first time Toyota and Maruti Suzuki have partnered together. The former also sells the Glanza in the Indian market, which is a rebadged Baleno. The same is also shipped to South Africa by Toyota, and sold under the name ‘Starlet’. The rebadging happens both ways; in the international markets, the Suzuki ACross is a repurposed Toyota RAV4.
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