Toyota Urban Cruiser: Price In India, Specs & Review Of Newly Launched SUV

While the name 'Urban Cruiser' is in line with its famous 'Land Cruiser' nameplate, the SUV has also been re-designed to make it more fit within the Toyota range.

New Delhi: Toyota is known for its Innova Crysta and Fortuner but other than that maybe the Camry Hybrid or Land Cruiser also have some brand recall in India. However, all these cars are expensive and cater to the premium space which meant that Toyota needed something to tap into the compact SUV segment. Now it has, although with some help from Maruti Suzuki! The fact that both Toyota and Suzuki have entered into a major global alliance is already well known and the first car was the Glanza- a car which has done pretty well in terms of sales. Of course the Glanza is nothing but a Baleno with a Toyota badge however for the second product, Toyota has done a bit more to make it stand out from its Maruti sibling. While the name 'Urban Cruiser' is in line with its famous 'Land Cruiser' nameplate, the SUV has also been re-designed to make it more fit within the Toyota range. For starters it looks more like a Toyota from the front than the Glanza with the design being quite good looking. It is a proper SUV with its square lines and looks more butch over the Brezza. The front gets the majority of the changes with a new grille and also the front bumper being changed including the fog-lamp enclosures. It is more tough looking along with sharing some kind of familiarity with other Toyota SUVs. At the rear the lower part of the bumper is changed while it still has the chrome housing above the number plate with the name of the car. Unlike the Brezza, the extra badging is not there also. Amongst the colour options, the Urban Cruiser gets a new 'Rustic Brown' colour which is shown here and it is available with a dual-tone paint scheme as well. Inside, the Urban Cruiser gets a dark brown upholstery and also even the door pads get that. This adds a premium touch and it breaks the monotony of an all black look. The cabin quality is good too and it has a rugged feel while the features list contains the basics like a 7-inch touch screen with smartphone connectivity, rear camera with sensors, rain sensing wipers, cruise control, climate control, dual airbags, LED projector headlamps, cooled glovebox and more. However compared to some of its rivals it is missing features like a sunroof, connected car technology, air purifier or even rear ac vents and 6 airbags. Do note the automatic gets some extra safety features like hill-hold. One big advantage that the Urban Cruiser has is the abundance of space inside. The rear seat is spacious and it can easily sit three passengers which is something you cannot say of other cars in its class. The headroom and legroom is also excellent. Just like the Brezza, the Urban Cruiser gets a 1.5l petrol which makes 105 bhp. Standard is a 5-speed manual while we have the 4-speed automatic on test here. The automatic gets the mild hybrid set-up which has a lithium ion battery with a starter along with start/stop function and adding in more torque plus improving efficiency. The official figure is above 18kmpl but in real world also expect very good figures of about 13-14 kmpl. To drive, the petrol engine is refined and overall it is a smooth drive in the city. The automatic works well here and in stop-go traffic it makes driving very easy. The Urban Cruiser also beats some compact SUVs when it comes to handling rough roads and the suspension is tough for a compact SUV. It is more suited for our roads than some tarmac biased compact SUVs. However the automatic gearbox feels slow when driven hard against the more sophisticated gearboxes which its competition has. Prices start at Rs 8.4 lakh and goes till Rs 11.3 lakh for this top-spec automatic. Compared to the Brezza it has a longer warranty too. Unlike rivals the Urban Cruiser offers less engine options but the 1.5l petrol is a solid choice in terms of efficiency and also the automatic makes sense for city use. The space, looks and the tough suspension also make sense. So if you want a simple no-nonsense compact SUV then the Urban Cruiser does make a good buy in that respect.

Pros - Looks, space, tough suspension is suited for our roads.

Cons - Lacks a diesel engine, missing many features, 4-speed auto is not as hi-tech as rivals.