A quite revolution of a very pleasing sort will hit Indian roads on the form of the Toyota Etios, the first mass market sedan from the Japanese numero uno company. Impressive in its build and make-up, Adil Jal Darukhanawala was at the wheel as we put it to the test on our varied terrain to see whether it stacked up well in dynamic ability as well as in the overall drive experience.

he the Japanese are circumspect in most things, not to mention the term fastidious and it shows in their approach to automobiles in India. Toyota is renowned for not letting much out of the bag, infuriatingly so but the unflappable Japanese giant dismisses this with a smile hiding the steely resolve underneath it all. Many a time this has been masked under the "we take the step-by-step approach" and while it might sound a bit presumptuous trust me when I say it is anything but that for this is how Toyota plays the game.



The new Etios is a step the Japanese car maker should have taken at least three-four years ago but many a circumstance delayed it and that allowed many a carmaker, local and multi-national to establish their small car credentials and garner the spotlight. The time taken was not to delay but to rethink the very manner in which Toyota goes about conjuring up a new model series from concept to design to engineering and on to manufacture and marketing. Toyota needed to think out of the box, especially in terms of trying to meet aspirations of a new vibrant segment of Indian society wanting to acquire a car in keeping with their worldly wise aspirations.


This thought process of trying to undo certain Toyota tenets without compromising build integrity and minimum performance standards took some effort but it began to show in stark contrast to previous Toyota new model launches. Toyota took the wraps off the Etios concept almost a year ahead of series production – at the 2010 Auto Expo in Delhi this January. It wasn't a mock-up or such but two fully engineered prototypes of the sedan and hatchback were the highlights of the show. What wasn't so very well taken in was that their make-up and build were the result of thousands of hours of diligent customer research. If that wasn't all, Toyota's product planners and engineers brainstormed with customers at specially organized clinics where the company benchmarked many a rival car, both within the segment and also those which straddled it, to come up with a product that we managed to drive for the first time at the Toyota-owned Fuji Speedway in Japan in late October this year.


Not much seems to have changed on the exteriors since the unveiling at Auto Expo but now we have most of the details of what is truly the biggest challenge for Toyota ever, not just in India but also as a template for other demanding markets of a similar order elsewhere in the world. The basic floorpan was tooled to be flexible enough to do duty not just as a hatchback and a sedan but could also be employed to make a panel van or an MPV or also a mini-soft-roader. Both the sedan and the hatchback will see the light of day on December 1 when none other than Akio Toyoda, president and CEO, Toyota Motor Corporation, gives the symbolic green light to commence roll-out from the new manufacturing facility. This new unit has been set up at Bidadi itself and will have an installed capacity to build 70,000 units per year. Of course production ramp up will be in stages and that is the reason why Toyota will first begin selling the Etios saloon with the hatchback following suit around February-March 2011.



The Etios sedan is a pure and simple no-nonsense offering and it doesn't heighten peoples' expectations as much as it reinforces the belief in a product that will be right, in consumers' minds. What to many looked more like a Logan-proportioned and styled outfit remains the same but overall the fit and finish is top class. Much work has gone into making the monocoque as light as possible without sacrificing structural integrity and knowing how weight is the bugbear of fuel efficiency, performance and emissions, Toyota's engineers have got this aspect sussed just right.
 4,96,000 to 6,86,500