New Toyota Urban Cruiser touches down! SA prices and line-up confirmed

By: CAR magazine

The new Toyota Urban Cruiser has officially touched down in South Africa, with the local range comprising five derivatives at launch.

As a reminder, the Indian-built, sub-four-metre small crossover is based on the recently launched Suzuki Vitara Brezza. Unlike the Baleno-based Starlet, though, the Urban Cruiser features front-end styling distinct from that of its Suzuki cousin.

Of course, we published a pricing scoop story in February 2021, sharing all the initial details of the Urban Cruiser range before they were supposed to be public. Now, however, Toyota SA Motors has officially confirmed the line-up, which kicks off at R247 900 and runs through to R315 700 (see full range pricing below). For the record, the four-strong Vitara Brezza range starts at R244 900 and tops out at R309 900.

The latest addition to Toyota SA Motors’ crossover stable employs Suzuki’s familiar K15B naturally aspirated 1,5-litre, four-cylinder petrol engine, delivering some 77 kW and 138 N.m to the front axle via either a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic transmission.

As with the Vitara Brezza, the Urban Cruiser offer LED projector headlamps as standard across the range, along with ABS, dual front airbags, Isofix child-seat anchors and rear parking sensors. Inside, you’ll find the same black upholstery as used by the Suzuki (rather than the brown colour scheme offered on the Urban Cruiser in India) as well as a seven-inch touchscreen system.

The base Xi model features the aforementioned infotainment system, manual air-conditioning, smart entry, a start button, 16-inch steel wheels and a single-piece folding rear bench. The Xs trim, meanwhile, adds items such as automatic air-conditioning, a reversing camera, height adjustment for the driver’s seat, a rear armrest, power-retractable side mirrors, a rear wiper, black roof rails, 16-inch alloys and a 60/40 split folding rear bench.

Finally, the flagship Xr specification upgrades to cruise control, a sliding front armrest, a 12 V socket for the boot, extra speakers for the sound system, the option of two-tone paint, LED foglamps, automatic headlamps, rain-sensing wipers, silver roof rails, a cooled upper cubby hole, an electro-chromatic rear-view mirror and a leather-wrapped steering wheel.

The Toyota-badged newcomer measures 3 995 mm long, 1 790 mm wide and 1 640 mm tall, with a wheelbase of 2 500 mm. It slots into Toyota’s expanding local crossover range below the C-HR, with the new Corolla Cross – which is scheduled to go into production at Prospecton in KwaZulu-Natal in October 2021 – set to be positioned above the C-HR (but below the RAV4).

Like the Vitara Brezza, the Urban Cruiser take on the likes of the Hyundai VenueKia SonetNissan Magnite and Renault Kiger.

The Urban Cruiser ships standard with a three-year/100 000 km warranty as well as a three-service/45 000 km service plan (as opposed to the Vitara Brezza’s five-year/200 000 km promotional warranty and four-year/60 000 km service plan).

Pricing:
Toyota Urban Cruiser 1,5 Xi: R247 900
Toyota Urban Cruiser 1,5 XS: R267 800
Toyota Urban Cruiser 1,5 XS AT: R289 000
Toyota Urban Cruiser 1,5 XR: R294 500
Toyota Urban Cruiser 1,5 XR AT: R315 700

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