A few years ago, the Japanese giant carmakers Toyota Motor Corporation and Suzuki Motor Corporation formed an alliance by signing an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) to jointly explore opportunities and share technologies. The global partnership of Toyota-Suzuki started showing its influence in the Indian market since last year as Toyota launched the rebranded version of Maruti Suzuki Baleno as Toyota Glanza. Now, it has been in news since a long time that Toyota is also developing its own version of Maruti Vitara Brezza and the compact SUV has now finally got its name. The upcoming compact SUV of Toyota will be christened as Toyota Urban Cruiser. Love the name? Share your opinion on our Whatsapp Group (CLICK TO JOIN)
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The Toyota-Suzuki alliance will have a positive influence in the Indian market as both the leading companies have joined hands to share models, platforms, and new-age technologies. Buoyed by the success of the rebadged Baleno, Toyota will now soon introduce the rebadged Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza in India. However, this time the company will give it a substantial nip and tuck to distinguish itself from the compact SUV of Maruti's. The fascia of the car shown in the picture attested in the article hints us how the upcoming Toyota's sub-compact SUV would look like in the flesh.
This Toyota's upcoming sub-compact SUV will be called the Toyota Urban Cruiser. If we discuss about its nomenclature, it seems that Toyota has used the name Urban Cruiser because the Japanese car manufacturer has a rich heritage of full-size luxury 4x4 SUVs like the Toyota Land Cruiser, Land Cruiser Prado, etc., and that's from where the second part 'Cruiser' has been taken. Also, this upcoming compact SUV will be a pseudo-SUV with no proper off-road tech & mechanicals and will be mostly used by the young audience for city runabouts and so this is wherefrom the word 'Urban' seems to emerge. Amalgamate both these words and the Toyota Urban Cruiser SUV is born.
The upcoming Toyota Urban Cruiser SUV will be based on Maruti Brezza's platform and will share its platform, equipment list, and powertrain options. It will be powered by Maruti's in-house developed 1.5-litre K15B petrol engine that churns out 105 PS of power and 138 Nm of torque, mated to a 5-speed manual or a 4-speed torque converter automatic gearbox. Toyota will tweak the looks of it to give it a unique identity distinct from Brezza. It will also get features like a touchscreen infotainment system, spacious cabin, etc.
The Toyota Urban Cruiser compact SUV will be the second product in India to be developed under the Suzuki-Toyota alliance. Talking about the launch timeline, the sub-compact SUV is expected to hit the Indian showrooms by the end of 2020. Like the Glanza, the Urban Cruiser will also be sold in limited but feature-loaded variants. Upon launch, we expect the crossover to cost around Rs. 8 lakhs - Rs. 11 lakhs, Ex-showroom and it will rival against Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, Hyundai Venue, Kia Sonet, Tata Nexon, and more.
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What do you think about the Toyota Urban Cruiser SUV? Do let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Note: This is not the first time Toyota has named an SUV as 'Urban Cruiser'. The same name has been used previously for a crossover that was sold only in Europe and Japan.
