[psankar]

If it is true that Airbags are going to be standard, if they introduce a diesel automatic, it will still be a niche for Toyota Liva. Why do most car companies assume that people who want automatic wouldn't want Airbags !? Yes, I am looking at you Maruti Celerio, Tata Zest, Hyundai Grand i10, etc.

[Desi Dybuk]

I saw the 'facelift' in person & I have to say that this slapdash work makes the car look even more ugly than before.

Toyota needs to get better designs out the door to stay relevant in this segment. With the stylish likes of Hyndai Xcent, Honda Amaze & Tata Zest, how can Toyota hope to compete?

Toyota needs a reboot.

[thesilentone]

The front now looks like a Renault, the steering wheel looks like it has come out of the age old Indica/Indigo and the instrument panel resembles a Chinese make game console. The rear always looked like the Logan. Toyota, are you expecting people to put their money on this? Come on. A school kid could give you a better design for a car.

[RavenAvi]

And here's the "refreshed" Etios Liva:

Same front grille as the Etios sedan but chrome-less.


SOURCE (and more pictures) - Gaadi Waadi Blog

[dZired]

That interior is the culprit behind Etios' failure. Come on Toyota, open your eyes and hire some sensible folks in your product strategy team.

The Etios twins desperately need a full fledged facelift to bring some changes in the sales figures. These sticker and chrome 'facelifts' wont do anything good.

[The Hurricane]

The product has surely improved a lot from the first time i happened to see it a few years back. But i feel the center meter console and the exterior looks are the culprit. Even Tata have changed the center console position in the current Tata Vista

I drove the diesel and was really impressed by the zero lag and drivability in city.

I hope Toyota can bring in some changes to the exteriors looks as well as the interior design.

[p'arth]

Why don't the Toyota guys think normal? If only they could replace this obnoxious looking central dashboard and the disastrous location of those air vents this would be a better selling car.

No car with Central location of meters has succeeded - ethos indica or spark. It's time to kill this concept altogether.

[anshul26]

I remember Toyota admitting it's failure in breaking the cost barrier.Considering that I feel they are doing a smart job.This is the second update in 2014.
The Kaizen approach adopted by Toyota will help keep the product alive and prevent Etios from becoming a dud. The big bang approach of drastically changing would not have suited Toyota.They are taking there own sweet time to capture this segment of market.
Etios is a fantastic car. Great engine and dynamics.In fact I find it better than Desire and Amaze. I am very happy that Toyota listens to market feed back to improve there cars and they are quick in it.

[venkyhere]

this is a seriously missed opportunity - toyota is still stuck to the idea that selling cosmetic updates (this one + the cross ) will make the customer go "wow" - this probably would have worked in the 90's or early 00's.
Even otherwise, the cosmetic changes are not 'respectable' in any way - they are trying to change the face of the vehicle left/right/centre without any 'characteristic' toyota identity - the innova, now the etios. This is like making a bad film with bad actors and trying to spruce the whole thing up on the editing table by adding more and more songs in exotic locales. It just does not work.

The indian customer is now more well 'connected' than ever to what automobiles sell in other parts of the world, and knows how toyota are hell bent to 'cost optimize' the product and sell it off piggybacking on the 'toyota means bulletproof reliability' image which they built up over many decades.

Come on toyota, don't look at short term gains and dig your own grave. Put in more quality parts (like you used to), hire some proper designers, and please for heavens sake, dont put coca-cola can material as your body panels - your margin may get lower per car, but you will sell more cars, definitely. And it will keep the toyota badge undiluted.

[puchoo]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

What a waste of a facelift!

Originally Posted by venkyhere

this is a seriously missed opportunity .

It might not be a lot and it might not make a difference but i will give some credit to Toyota in terms of atleast making some reasonably meaty upgrades rather than just pasting some stickers on , a new chrome badging at the back and then calling it new like we see with enough brands. What they are giving us is

Airbags
Reverse Sensor
6 speakers
Electric Mirror
Sound alerts

The dashboard layout is a bigger problem that they have an while i am not competent enough to remark on the amount of re-engineering it may require - and the change in vendor logistics i would think it might be a big enough job to skip it.

Agree with everyone on the new grill , absolutely garish, the non chrome one looks far better if that is any silver lining.

[kadanaJ]

Agreed that Toyota has not addressed the major problems with the Etios (the cheap looking dashboard, and flimsy build), but I don't think it's possible for them to do such major changes in a facelift (no car maker does anything more than a few cosmetic changes, and adding of some new features).

I think we'll have to wait for an "all-new" Etios in a couple of years to see the changes we want.

[thoma]

Originally Posted by PCS

New chrome grill. Looks awesome. Nissan Micra type if I can recollect.

In my personal view, the Micra has an overall design language, not just splashing chrome all over.



The biggest complaint of the Etios twins were the "cheap feeling" and Toyota did nothing much to improve on this. Such a big player in terms of service loosing out on meager issues. While Nissan did improve a lot on their Micra and still people are not buying just because of the ASC attitude at many places. Honda and Toyota just don't seem to learn the Hyundai way in terms of design language. At the same time, have to appreciate Hyundai coming a long way improving and incorporating changes for the better.

Originally Posted by RavenAvi

Same front grille as the Etios sedan but chrome-less.

Wow, such a relief from all the over-chrome on the Etios.

[Karthik_S]

Ugh! The chrome overdose makes an already eccentric car even worse. Do we Indians really love that much chrome?

The safety features are a welcome add on though.

[isiv]

Chocolate brown steering wheel with a center console? They got to be kidding. Looks like Toyota and Honda have outsourced Amaze & Etios interiors to the same service provider - with a typical bunch of fresh campus hires doing the typical copy-paste job across clients...

If relocating the console to the right is such an 'expensive' update, how did tata manage to do it? Excuse me, but exactly what is the engineering challenge in that?

I must admit though that I've never heard of any serious problems with this car - be it bad brakes (new swift and most marutis), hydrolocking (amaze), reliability/unreasonably high maintenance cost (VWs), inconsistent/non-existent quality (tatas/mahindras) hurried conversions from LHD to RHD (Renault), customer hating manufacturer and dealerhip network (Skoda) or being so delicate as to fail due to 'indian conditions' (most oh-so-desirable german brands - next they'll probably recommend wearing sterilized surgical gloves while driving lest the airbag might not deploy due to germs transferred from the drivers hands)

So why the Toyota bashing? Others have their (severe) problems too.

PS: I neither own a Toyota nor any of the above mentioned makes except one

[MadAbtCars]

This is only a temporary makeover that is being given to the Etios twins. The vios is expected in Indian market by 2016 and most likely the Etios twins would be discontinued. This information is as per a close friend who works with Toyota. He although said there was no plans to bring the Yaris or any other model to replace the Liva.

The Etios twins on an average sells ~ 3.5K to 4K a month. It seems inevitable that the production lines are freed up to make way for Vios. And if at all it turns out to be potent product it can surely see a 5K+ monthly sales on a regular basis.

And on the current makeover, the current Etios has actually started looking better after having a glimpse of the face lift model