Dominating a particular segment and crushing the competition is nothing new for Toyota. The Japanese manufacturer has a knack of doing it across several automotive segments in many countries across the world. In India though, there is only one segment where Toyota’s domination is literally unchallenged, and that is in the MPV segment (Multi Purpose Vehicles). Toyota has been ruling this segment for more than a decade now starting with the erstwhile Qualis and continuing with the Innova. Competition came and went in the form of Tata Sumo, Chevrolet Tavera, Mahindra Xylo and more recently Tata Aria, but none of them were able to even slightly shake up the Innova.
Even though the Innova is still on top of its segment setting the sales charts on fire, Toyota always prefers to keep its models updated. And so, here comes the Innova Facelift. There are quite a lot of spy shots of the Innova Facelift that has popped out in the internet. Here are a few snaps from our side to add to the World Wide Web. This partly-camouflaged Innova test vehicle was spotted and snapped when it was negotiating stop-start traffic in Chennai city. This new model is already launched in many markets like Thailand and Indonesia as Kijang Innova and was also recently displayed at the Dubai Motor Show. The Indian version is going to be no different and the attached picture reveals the mystery of how it is going to look.
This is a strictly cosmetic facelift with the new Innova getting redesigned headlights, grille and bumper up front, new taillight lenses at the rear and nothing much beyond that. It is expected to come with the same set of engines as the existing model which means that the 2.5 liter common-rail diesel engine with a power output of 102 PS and the 2.0 liter gasoline engine churning out 132 PS of power will stay put. Reports suggest that the mechanical components are also going to be left untouched and the Innova will continue to come with the best-in-segment ride and handling that has endeared it to buyers all these years. All in all, the king of MPV segment is looking mighty good to continue its reign at the top for a few more years to come.
This does not look like a facelift at all. Toyota can continue with the existing Innova itself instead of this so-called facelift.
ReplyDelete@ Above - Though you are partly right about the new Innova looking very similar to the existing model, Toyota always prefers to keep their models fresh and updated.
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