News from the stable of Toyota India – Toyota Urban Cruiser is no longer available on the brand’s official website. The Urban Cruiser was basically a rebadged version of the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza. It was a product of the joint venture between Suzuki and Toyota. Under this, both companies shared the same product with different names. We understand Toyota will most likely not update the Urban Cruiser with a new model based on the facelift Brezza that debuted earlier this year.
What Was The Toyota Urban Cruiser?
The Urban Cruiser was the first rebadged and restyled model launched under the Maruti Suzuki-Toyota partnership. The SUV had its fair share of success as well. It was averaging around 2,200 units of sales per month.
Reasons For Calling Off Urban Cruiser
One of the main reasons for dropping the SUV from the line-up is the price. With premium pricing, Toyota feels the new Urban Cruiser will find itself in close proximity to the larger and more premium Urban Cruiser Hyryder. For your reference, the now-discontinued Urban Cruiser was priced at a premium of Rs 5,000-15,000 over the then-Vitara Brezza.
The new Brezza has also moved up much higher in price and positioning. The pricing currently falls in the range of INR 7.99 lakh – INR 13.80 lakh (ex-showroom). In fact, top-end variants are a good INR 2.50 lakh pricier than its predecessor. And so, Toyota’s version, after paying Suzuki a royalty, would create a much more expensive price tag. This will tread close to the mid-spec variants of the Hyryder.
As it stands, we may not get a direct Urban Cruiser replacement. But, Toyota has kept the brand name alive by using it to prefix the Hyryder’s name. The carmaker could also use the name on future upcoming products.
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