Toyota Urban Cruiser now in Zimbabwe


Toyota Zimbabwe recently enhanced their offering with a more affordable compact crossover to its line-up in the form of the Urban Cruiser. It is available from Toyota Zimbabwe and its dealer network namely Mike Harris, Motor City Toyota, South East Toyota, Croco Toyota Harare, Croco Toyota Mutare, Faramatsi, Gweru Toyota, Kadoma Toyota, Masvingo Toyota, and BR Toyota. The diminutive cute car is priced from US$24000

Toyota Zimbabwe has gone about transfiguring its so-called ‘small car’ line-up over the past year, with the introduction Toyota Starlet and now the Urban Cruiser. It meets the growing needs for SUVs in the African market. Built to be a fun, affordable and compact cross-over vehicle, the Urban Cruiser has been designed to play in the city during the week, while taking you on your next adventure over weekends.
As one of the most important vehicle segments within the local automotive sector, Toyota Zimbabwe anticipates to dominate the compact cross over segment locally. Let us take a look as some of the details surrounding the newcomer.
Styling
Its compact crossover silhouette and mild off-road-ready appearance means that as a compact segment contender, those in the market for the likes of the Ford EcoSport, the Renault Duster, Haval H1 and others, will find the Urban Cruiser appealing.
With wheel arch extensions, black plastic side skirts, roof rails, front and rear skid plates as well as the option of two-tone paintwork, the ‘baby’ Cruiser should appeal to a more youthful market versus the other Cruiser models within the line-up.
Interior and space
The interior is designed to offer a comfortable space with excellent ergonomics and great exterior visibility. The seats are black fabric and the rest of the interior is finished off in hard-wearing black. Large door pockets provide convenient storage spaces.
All Urban Cruiser models come with front and a rear electric window, rear Park Distance Control, LED headlights, cloth upholstery, electrically adjustable mirrors, keyless entry and start, a multi-function steering wheel, air-conditioning and a colour screen display that offers smartphone functionality, including Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, voice command, Bluetooth, and USB functionality. From a practicality perspective, the Urban Cruiser offers 328-litres of boot space along with a split-folding rear seat, seating for five and a braked towing capacity of 1 100kg.
It has a rugged-urban-styling appeal to it personified with a raised stance, textured side and wheel-arch moldings. The front features a large radiator grille along two horizontal slats with Toyota insignia, chrome accent strips and LED projector headlamps.
The side profile continues the ‘squared-off’ look, with short overhangs that are further accentuated by the black wheel moldings flowing into the lower bumper sections.
Moving to the rear, large rectangular taillights are complimented by a large tailgate garnish embossed with Urban Cruiser.
Engine
There is just one engine within the Urban Cruiser range, a 1.5-litre naturally aspirated motor that produces 77kW and 138Nm of torque, allowing for a claimed fuel consumption figure of 6.2 L/100km and a top speed of 165km/h for the automatic and 170km/h for the manual models. There are two gearbox options, a 5-speed manual as well as a 4-speed torque converter automatic.
Safety
As standard, the Urban Cruiser comes with 2 airbags, ABS with EBD/BAS and ISOFIX child seats anchor point on the outer side of the rear seats. It has side protection beams. An alarm and immobilizer system are also included in all models.
Verdict
From our research, Toyota Zimbabwe seem to be onto something good. South Africa is selling close to 900 units every month whilst India is selling slightly over 3000 units per month. We will give you more about the vehicle once we have test driven it and we will have a better idea of what the Urban Cruiser is like on the road. What we can deduce right now is that Toyota Zimbabwe now has a well-specified and competitively priced contender in one of the fastest-growing automotive segments, which should ensure that the product is a sales success.
Service plan and warranty
The Urban Cruiser range comes with a 3-year/100 000km warranty, with service intervals pegged at 15 000km.
Specifications
Length: 3995mm
Width: 1790mm
Height: 1640mm
Seating Capacity: 5
Engine Capacity: 1.5 litres
Maximum Outpiut:77 kw @ 6000rpm
Maximum Torque: 138/4400

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