The facelift of Toyota’s mid-size sedan Vios, better known in India by the name, Yaris, has been unveiled in the Philippines. The Toyota Vios was debuted in 2013 in the ASEAN market. However, it made its entry into the Indian market in 2018 with its facelifted version. Hence, this is the second major facelift update that Vios has received after its launch, while from the Indian market’s point of view, this will be the first update that the Toyota Sedan will get.
Toyota Yaris Facelift: What’s new?
Exterior
Changes are prominently visible on the exterior right from the face itself, thanks to a reworked edgier bumper, headlights that look sharper due to the LED treatment, and updated upper grille. Also, the DRLs now comes integrated with the headlight and certainly looks better now.
The restyled bumper draws inspiration from the signature Lexus setup as it gets a trapezoidal central air dam. The fog lamp housing has also been updated, with C-shape fog lamps inserts paced on either side of the central dam.
Even the design of the 15-inch alloy wheels have been updated, which now looks a lot more appealing than the ones offered with the current Yaris.
Interiors
As far as the cabin is concerned, it remains largely the same layout and the only major change is an updated application firmware offered with the touchscreen infotainment system. The updated infotainment system will now support the Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity.
Barring the updated infotainment system, everything else right from the dashboard layout to utility features on offer remains the same.
Same feature list
New Toyota Yaris will continue to offer the same equipment even with the update. It essentially means that the car will come packed with important features like keyless go, cruise control, automatic climate control, drive modes, and paddle shifters (offered with automatic variant). The stand out feature of the car, 7 airbags will be offered with the facelift as well, helping it to strike the claim of being one of the safest in the segment.
Will carry the same mechanicals
2021 Yaris is offered with a couple of petrol engine options overseas, a 1.3 L, four-cylinder engine that produces power equal to 98PS and torque output of 123 Nm. Yaris also gets a bigger 1.5 L, a four-cylinder unit that produces 106PS and 140Nm of torque.
The latter is the only engine option offered with the Yaris in India, and in all probability, it will be the only engine option carried forward with the facelift.
When will it come to India?
As of now, the company has not made any official announcement regarding this. It is not expected to be launched soon in India. The underwhelming sales figures, on the other hand, might tempt the Toyota to bring the facelift in India, to boost the sales figures.
Author’s Take
Although the car has roughly been around for sale in the Indian market for the past couple of years, the mid-sized Toyota sedan has not been able to leave a mark despite being a decent offering. The reason behind the below-par performance is the cut-throat competition with Honda City, Hyundai Verna, and Maruti Suzuki Ciaz. Even the Skoda Rapid and Volkswagen Vento have fared way better than Yaris.
Toyota though has recently launched the fleet Yaris variant and will be hoping that the car, on the back of its predecessor’s Etios brand image, manages to perform well.
