Srinivas Krishnan drives the car that Toyota has engineered specifically for us — the Etios.
It’s been four years in the making. It has made the second-largest automotive manufacturer in the world go back to the drawing board again and again. It has made them do things they have never done before. At the end of it, Toyota has this to show, the Etios sedan (the hatchback follows next year). This is the car they have pinned their hopes on, to get the volumes in a country where car sales have been shooting through the roof.
While Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Tata, Ford and even General Motors have accelerated their activities in the country, Toyota has been slow and late in bringing in a mass-market model. But try telling them that and they say that they cannot be hurried. They set their own pace. Well, that comes out of some sort of confidence, I would say. It’s the same sort of confidence they had when they introduced the Qualis in the country — all of us knew it was a dated vehicle, but that did not stop us from buying it, right? Even though it was a dinosaur in automotive terms, it was the best machine in its category. So: is the Etios worth the wait? Let’s find out what the Toyota for India is all about.
Oh, before we start, I would like to say that I didn’t get a chance to drive the car much. Toyota had organised the hatchback and the sedan to drive at a section of the Fuji Speedway in Japan and the time allotted for each journalist was the bare minimum. Plus, the controlled conditions on that rainy day meant it was just a brief feel of the car that we got. And apologies for the lousy pictures too. So you’ll have to wait for a proper road test in India to get a better idea of the Etios.
If you are working for Maruti Suzuki, you should be reading this whole report very carefully. That’s because both the Etios hatch and the sedan are aimed squarely at the Swift and Dzire. So what, you may say, considering the Nissan Micra, Ford Figo, Volkswagen Polo are all targeting the best-sellers? What’s another competitor to the formidable Swift and Dzire, right? Yes, but this is Toyota and despite the multi-billion car recalls, Indians are unaffected and attach a premium image to the brand. And when it comes to product specifics, the Etios sedan has quite a few things the Dzire does not have. So are you paying attention? (Let’s stick to the sedan now, as I cannot tell you about the hatch because there’s an embargo on it).
Many people who have seen the car at the Auto Expo have commented that it looks like the Mahindra-Renault Logan. And they are not entirely wrong — it has that feel about it, especially when seen from the rear three-quarters... those triangular tail-lamps are to blame. Plus the straightforward waistline and headlamps also contribute a bit to it. But the Toyota looks a wee bit more flamboyant than the under-designed French car. The front grille is more elaborate and seems to be designed to evoke the face of the best-selling Innova and a large chrome strip running at the top of the bare bootlid will be a hit with us Indians (cue the Maruti Suzuki Dzire). Yeah, but don’t expect the Etios to win any beauty contests — it looks sober and is designed to be inoffensive rather than cause strong reactions. Unlike the Dzire which looks like the Swift with a boot (which it is), the Etios looks more complete as a three-box car and looks bigger too.
And that’s the feeling you get when you sit inside the car and that's one of the points it gets against the Dzire. Scooped out headliners and the tall seating give you that sense of space, while leg room as well as shoulder room at the rear are pretty decent too. The drive tunnel has been flattened out, so it does not cause discomfort to the passenger at the middle of the rear seat. The entire dash layout is adventurous for Toyota, with the central instrument console placement. In the day, it looks all right, but in the night, when you put on the headlamps, it is vastly improved and cheerful. The controls are all analogue, which is a bit surprising — I would expect a digital climate control in the top end version at least.
The quality of plastics is something that’s a bit of a disappointment, mainly because this is a Toyota product. It would be acceptable in a Suzuki, but not in a Toyota — even if it is a model that competes with a Suzuki. The glovebox is large, there are plenty of bottle holders and then some more, it has additional and very prominent AC vents that can cool the glove box as well, the steering wheel is large though a bit plasticy and there is only a single wiper. Yes, long after the W124 Merc and the Uno have become history, the Etios has only a single wiper. Though it has been designed for maximum coverage of the windscreen, it still leaves an unclean gap near the driver’s side of the A-pillar (the one benefit of it being a rainy day in Japan!) and I wonder whether it can handle our monsoons. Net net, the Etios looks as if it’s been built to a cost. It’s perhaps the cheapest car that Toyota has built, still our expectations from Toyota are sky-high!
Powering the front wheels of the Etios sedan is a 1500cc four-cylinder 16-valve DOHC petrol engine that develops 88.8 bhp at 5600 rpm and 13.5 kgm at 3000 rpm, which is mated to a five-speed manual transmission. Yes, it is marginally more powerful than the Dzire petrol and torquey as well. The extra cubes means the engine is not stressed. Driving the car on the track, the benefits of the diesel-like torque come through — it is responsive at low revs and takes up the slack well, something which will make it driveable on our roads. The transmission is slick enough, but I didn’t have the chance to do some enthusiastic shifting, while gearing is yet to be seen. The engine noise and road surface noise are a bit intrusive, and I hope Toyota does something about insulating the Etios. The electric power steering setup is easy and offers adequate feedback. Because the surface was smooth, I have no idea how well the Etios can soak up the bumps, but knowing Toyota, they would have engineered that aspect into it very well. We slalomed at moderate speeds at the track and the handling came through as quite sorted and the 185/60 15-inch rubber offered decent grip. Still, I would wait for a proper road test in India to understand how good the ride and handling qualities of the Etios are.
Putting together the EFC platform, as Toyota calls it, which stands for ‘Emerging markets Frontier Concept,’ has been a learning process for them. They have cut down on non-essential parts and made it as simple and low-cost as possible. Still, they cannot compromise to the extent that they’d have to leave the Toyota badge off the car. So the Etios is a well-engineered and relevant product for our country. It will offer decent value, despite possibly being pricier than the Rs 5 to 6.5 lakh range of the Dzire petrol - as we go to press, the car is yet to be launched. So was it worth the wait?
Considering it’s been a virtual monopoly of the Swift and the Dzire in their respective segments, I would say about time too.
The writer was on a media invite from Toyota to drive the new Etios in Japan.
