[procrastinator]

Toyota Q trust + one of the safest hatchbacks (over segment leaders) gives it an edge. When people have trust to put Rs. 1.5 Million on a Toyota product, they can surely buy your 0.5 Million product as well.

The design is boring ever since it was launched and now getting too long in tooth.

Instead of facelift please lift it from market to replace it with fresh stylish product.

[ysak]

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[Leoshashi]

I guess this is the only car below 20 lacs which gives 3 headrests for the rear seat?? Finally the third person in the middle is "safely" welcomed.

The weakest point of the Etios siblings has to be the poor design of dashboard, and with that remaining unchanged, this facelift is pointless.

Regards,
Shashi

[avingodb]

My brother has a 5 year old Liva G and his best friend has Etios G, both petrol cars, for 5 years now. Both cars have done 60,000 km, are easy to maintain and service experience has been good and have been rattle free despite being driven on really bad roads of Ambarnath-Ulhasnagar- and Mumbai. Plus a decent amount of runs to rural Maharashtra for work and family purposes. It has held well, aged well and has energy to for far longer. So I think the plastic look and feel rant is unfair.

In addition, Liva's backseat is more generously spacious than the segment leaders, cabin more airy and the central hump minimal allowing a comfortable ride for the 5th occupant.

One major irritant I feel it has is that, our Liva being the first generation, has the issue of excessive tyre noise into the cabin, particularly on the concrete roads, something that the subsequent versions have worked on I think. I drive that car whenever I am home, besides my Nano, so the dashboard position has never bothered me!

And I also must congratulate Toyota for brining safety equipment as part of the standard kit

[Avikbrio]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

Wow i am sure taxi operators would be delighted by the new facelift design. I bet they were bored of the same old look and the old fashioned instrument cluster. I think they will be pretty excited with the digital cluster.

Only the tachometer is digital it seems. Rest is still analogue. :(

[libranof1987]

What Toyota has essentially done, is create an (O) variant for each corresponding variant. And they want a customer to pay more than a lakh extra for these (O) variants and get some silly cosmetic enhancements and a few important features such as dual airbags, ABS and ISOFIX rear seats.

The "Platinum" versions won't convince private buyers; and the taxi segment doesn't miss anything in the existing models that the Platinum models offer. Overall, why this exercise?!

This has to be sillier than Maruti's sticker-facelifts.

It is hard to imagine Toyota's philosophy: put up a good, well-deserving product such as the Innova and then also come up with halfhearted attempts such as the Etios/Liva.

[i74js]

There is nothing bad or good about what the company is offering as this facelift. The Etios twins are made to cost and will remain considering the kind of margins Toyota expects from any of the products they are selling in India.

The moment they improve interiors and bring it close to Altis, Etios will start cannibalizing it. Because space and comfort offered in Etios Sedan is quite close to Altis (read for chauffeured cars).

Production economics are totally different. If there is a claim that Toyota is operating its unit at 50% capacity, well the losses are notional as the plan has depreciated in the books.

[Tornado]

Toyota had their own judgements which always proved them right in the Indian market. They withdrew Qualis when it was at the peak of its sales and introduced more costly vehicle Innova. Many were doubting the success of that strategy but finally Toyota's decision was proved right.(but as demanding customers there is no fault in expecting more ) Etios was introduced as 'non- luxury' vehicle with low maintenance costs. So expecting too much out of it would not be right.But yes, they should have given better interiors when other players are able to give better interiors at even cheaper price point.
Who can be blamed for their attitude??
Us only, when Toyota kept on increasing the price of Innova people kept on buying it. there were no proper safety equipments except in V variant, but we just wanted low maintenance cost.
For the exobitant price they charged, they should have given us ABS, EBD and Airbags as standard across all innovas. On top end they should have given ESP ( talking about old innova) . But people was not bothered about safety. So we have to just blame ourselves. We have to command respect. As ownership cycles increases along with increase in people's awareness I expect a change.
The sheer reliability of T badge will still pull many people towards it. Even I had owned a toyota Innova one point in time and feel that Etios Liva is a decent option for a middle class family as it helps to have a long term reliability with low maintenance costs.

Originally Posted by highwaypatrol

Are we the only country getting the same kind of interior plastic quality from toyota for its etios model? I dont have words to express my displeasure to toyota as i consider this as an insult to indian consumers. I always get the smell of cheap plastics when ever i enter any toyota vehicles sold here which makes me so uncomfortable especially for long travels. I do have few friends including me who always tends to puke whenever we travel on old gen innovas. Toyota really need to grow up on showing a bit of respect to us. We must thank VW and hyundai in this aspect as these are two brands who really taught us indians to travel in a quality atmosphere as far as interior quality is concerned.

[vsatish]

Looks like Toyota has missed an opportunity here by not introducing Automatic transmission options. Auto tranny coupled with improved soft touch plastics would have been really good. Liva especially has the potential to be hit among the private buyers with its small car status, perfect dimensions, spacious/comfortable interiors and Toyota fuss free customer service and reliability.

[StarrySky]

The price of the old Liva VxD was 7.37L ex-showroom Mumbai (from the website). The new Liva Premium diesel is priced at 7.44L. So why is there talk of 1.25L extra for the facelift? What am I missing?

[theredliner]

While the price bump is kind of unreasonable, I'm going to applaud Toyota for introducing a proper 3 point seatbelt for the 5th passenger (a basic safety feature shockingly omitted by all manufacturers till now) and ISOFIX mounts for the first time in our market this side of D segment. Hopefully, this will lead to more manufacturers offering it.

The rear centre seat is both comfortable and safe now, thanks to the belt and the neck restraint.

At the same time, I don't understand the logic behind not giving it in the Liva

[amalji]

The good things

Safety upgrades

• 3 point seat belt for the rear centre passenger
• ABS/EBD standard across all variants
• Child seat locks

In fact, the child seat locks might increase the NCAP rating for child protection as well.
These additions compliments this Global NCAP 4 star rated car in India well.

Utility Upgrades

• Center arm rest and head rest for the center seat are good upgrades and should have been there from Day 1
• Rear seats made foldable is a welcome change. That makes this already huge 595 liter boot capable of holding literally anything that you have thoughts of carrying.

The not so good, not so bad changes

While I believe that the center is the ideal place for any speedometer for ergonomic, and utility reasons, the design of the speedo used in Etios was just plain cartoonish. This is one of the main reasons why people ran away from this other wise great package. The new speedo looks better than any of the speedo released yet for the Indian Etios. But, they should have just introduced the digital speedo they released in Brazil. That would have done it a world of good!
Maybe, Toyota will release it along with the automatic variant.

The Speedometer released in Brazil's platinum Etios


The speedometer released in India's platinum Etios


The gimmicks

• Electronically foldable ORVMs
• Central lock switch ( when the driver side lock already does that )

Glaring Misses

• No Automatic. Brazil Etios already have the automatic gearbox. So, it wouldn't have been hard for Toyota to introduce it.

Also, there seems to be a slight decrease in boot space from 595 liters to 592 liters due to the center arm rest for rear seat.

[rajshenoy]

Originally Posted by amalji

The good things

The Speedometer released in Brazil's platinum Etios
Attachment 1554101

The speedometer released in India's platinum Etios
Attachment 1554102

Cabbies dont need that digital console (Toyota will only hike the price if they offer digital console isnt it ?)

I think Toyota is clearly looking at selling these for Fleets and the rural markets only, and earn revenue from the sales of new Innova(huge margins there !!)

[amalji]

Originally Posted by rajshenoy

Cabbies dont need that digital console (Toyota will only hike the price if they offer digital console isnt it ?)

I think Toyota is clearly looking at selling these for Fleets and the rural markets only, and earn revenue from the sales of new Innova(huge margins there !!)

Could be. But, when they take effort to release TRD variants and Cross variants of the Etios & Liva, they could have given this as an option atleast in the V variants of both Petrol & Diesel. Cabbies anyways don't go for the V variants. And the factory already manufactures cars for Brazil with the same speedo. Even thinking from a business perspective, a private car owner who thinks about the G variant would have automatically switched to V for this one reason because we Indians in general care about what our neighbours think of our car regardless of how utilitarian, comfortable, safe, VFM, durable and practical the car otherwise is.

[GTO]

These cars are taking away the premium'ness that was once associated with Toyota's brand name, in the same way that Honda isn't Honda anymore (compromised quality, niggles etc.). It's shocking how both the Japanese companies let go of their core values in the sub-10 lakh segment.

But all said and done, if I had to buy a self-driven petrol economy sedan, it would be the Etios 1.5L petrol. Superb motor, very quick and excellent road manners. I've enjoyed pushing her on my favourite roads.

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

Given how bland the interior continues to be, they should've probably re-launched the 1.5P version. Some may have ended up buying it just for that sweet petrol motor (amid the general lack of good petrol motors in the budget hatchback space).

I wholeheartedly agree! I'd buy the Liva 1.5L over the Polo GT TSI.

Originally Posted by procrastinator

Instead of facelift please lift it from market to replace it with fresh stylish product.

Originally Posted by avingodb

Both cars have done 60,000 km, are easy to maintain and service experience has been good and have been rattle free despite being driven on really bad roads of Ambarnath-Ulhasnagar- and Mumbai. Plus a decent amount of runs to rural Maharashtra for work and family purposes. It has held well, aged well and has energy to for far longer.

That's the thing. The Liva & Etios are mechanically sorted, but where they fail is in the aesthetics department. They need better, more contemporary clothes (inside out).

Originally Posted by Tornado

Us only, when Toyota kept on increasing the price of Innova people kept on buying it.

The Innova has a legendary reputation and the new Crysta really doesn't have a direct competitor.

That's a different situation from what the Liva & Etios face in the brutally competitive economy segment. Toyota has shown it can fight in the 15+ lakh segments (Altis, Camry, Innova Crysta, Fortuner)....however, their performance in the sub-10 lakh segment is awful. The flop Liva is barely selling over 1,000 units / month.

Originally Posted by amalji

Also, there seems to be a slight decrease in boot space from 595 liters to 592 liters due to the center arm rest for rear seat.

I wouldn't think so as the seatback would be the same. Has to do with the spare tyre (is it bigger now?), thicker boot floor or a calculation variance.