What comes from afar is nice, even if that saying also applies to the all-new Toyota Urban Cruiser that has just made its digital debut in India.
The Toyota Urban Cruiser is back, but not quite the way you’d expect. The second generation Urban Cruiser is released purely in India on the market and the car itself is also much less Toyota than its name suggests.
Just a quick look back. In the Netherlands we know the Urban Cruiser mainly as the model launched in 2008 with which Toyota introduced a compact crossover to the market before Nissan (Juke). The Urban Cruiser shared its technical basis with the then current Yaris, but did not catch on in our country. Only 2,225 units were sold until 2014. The Urban Cruiser is now being continued, but that newcomer is ignoring Europe. The new Urban Cruiser is reserved for the Indian market and is in fact nothing but a modified version of the Suzuki Vitara Brezza.
Toyota Urban Cruiser (2008-2014)
The Vitara Brezza is a crossover developed by Maruti Suzuki, the Indian branch of Suzuki, based on our Vitara. The Vitara Brezza is on the same platform as the Vitara and even has the same wheelbase of 2.5 meters. With its limited car length of just under 4 meters due to tax benefits, the Vitara Brezza is, however, a lot shorter than the 4.18 meter long Vitara that you can buy in the Netherlands. The Urban Cruiser will have its own Toyota face. Extensive footage of the buttocks of the revived Urban Cruiser is not yet available, but it appears that the rear is identical to that of the Vitara Brezza. The modifications to the interior are limited to the installation of a steering wheel with Toyota logo. On the engine list is still one power source: a 105 hp 1.5 with mild-hybrid technology.
The new Urban Cruiser is the latest result of the cross-pollination between Toyota and Suzuki. In the form of the Glanza, Toyota in India has a hatchback on offer that is in fact nothing more than a Suzuki Baleno with Toyota emblems. In our part of the world, Suzuki will be launching the Across this year, in fact a Toyota RAV4 with a Suzuki front. As said, the new Urban Cruiser is not coming to the Netherlands. Should we regret that? The enthusiast of automotive curios may well, although the average consumer will probably be better off with the upcoming Yaris Cross.