Toyota expands with a new compact crossover. Toyota’s youngest also gets a well-known name: Urban Cruiser. Then the bad news: the new Toyota Urban Cruiser is not coming to the Netherlands.
In August 2020, Techzle received the first sounds about the arrival of a new Toyota Urban Cruiser. Toyota presents that new Urban Cruiser to daylight today, although the compact crossover is less new than you might think. The new Urban Cruiser is a new fruit of the increasingly close cooperation between Toyota and Suzuki. In the Netherlands, Suzuki already sells its own variant of the Toyota Corolla TS with the Swace and the Across is in fact a Toyota RAV4 on which Suzuki has pasted its own logos. Furthermore, Toyota in India has the Glanza on the menu, actually nothing more than a Suzuki Baleno with Toyota logos. The new Toyota, which is now making its debut, is also entering the market far beyond the Dutch borders and shares almost everything with a Suzuki model.
Toyota Urban Cruiser
The new Toyota Urban Cruiser is in fact a Suzuki Vitara Brezza. The Vitara Brezza is the little brother of the car that we in Europe simply know as Vitara, developed by Maruti Suzuki, the Indian branch of Suzuki. The Vitara Brezza shares its platform with the Vitara known here and even the wheelbase corresponds to 2.5 meters. However, the Vitara Brezza is eighteen centimeters shorter than the Vitara. In India this is for tax reasons, but the South African branch of Toyota has decided to start using the cheaper Vitara variant as an Urban Cruiser. In South Africa, the Urban Cruiser is the second Toyota to be in fact a Suzuki. The brand also sells the Starlet, just like the Indian Glanza, a Suzuki Baleno with Toyota badges.
Toyota Urban Cruiser
Back to the Urban Cruiser. Barely four meters long, the new Urban Cruiser stands out from the Vitara Brezza with its grille, headlights and bumpers. At the rear, the Toyota Urban Cruiser is identical to its Suzuki brother. LED headlights are standard, the same applies to things like air conditioning, electric windows, keyless entry and rear parking sensors. Under the hood is a 105 hp and 138 Nm strong 1.6, a turbo-free four-cylinder that helps the Urban Cruiser to a top speed of 170 km / h. Toyota supplies the Urban Cruiser in South Africa with a manual five-speed gearbox, but also with a four-speed automatic. The starting price of the Toyota Urban Cruiser is converted at € 13,435.
As said, the new Urban Cruiser is not coming to the Netherlands. That does not have to be too great a loss, as Toyota is launching the Yaris Cross in our part of the world this year.
Urban Cruiser in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands, we know the Urban Cruiser model name from a car that appeared on the market in 2009 and left our country in 2014 after limited success. The Urban Cruiser was, in fact, one of the earlier compact crossovers. The model was presented a little earlier than the first generation Nissan Juke. Only 2,225 copies have been sold in the Netherlands.
Toyota Urban Cruiser (2009-2014)