There have been so many publishings mentioning the vehicles particularly dedicated to emergent markets in the past few years that everyone with a minimum interest in the car world now can give a brief explanation of this very young concept. However, these cars keep showing differences after the initial release, which makes interesting to observe how each one deals with the aging process. After reading about Dacia Logan’s update, now it’s time to know Etios’ plans of staying attractive without getting too expensive.
The previous sentence actually sums up the biggest barrier faced by the “emergent cars”. Low cost is their top priority from the project’s very beginning to the final car’s withdrawal. That’s what stimulates the Engineering department of all those automakers to come up with clever solutions such as keeping old platforms like the current Brazilian Ford Ka, using simple styling to obtain cheaper sheetmetal like the first Dacia Logan, and/or using simplified technology like Etios, compared to its European sibling Yaris. But that’s just the first part of the complete strategy. These vehicles are always expected to have big sales because they compete on the top-seller categories of countries such as China, India or Turkey. Therefore, selling so many of them requires special attention at first to car service’s quality, but later to less obvious aspects such as the used market. These customers usually have small purchasing power, which makes them care very much about devaluation. The best way for an automaker to avoid problems with this matter is building good reputation in a given market. Besides releasing good cars, it’s even more important to provide high-quality service and even paying attention to the frequency with which a car is updated. After all, nobody likes to buy a new car today and see a new model arriving few months later.
When it comes to Etios, this time’s previous sentence could be used to sum up an answer to what Jerry Seinfeld, after reading such a large introduction as the paragraph you’ve just read, would ask as “But what’s the deal with the car of the title?”. Toyota’s intention of keeping the costs to a minimum really deserves respect, but not this resulting attempt of “changing without changing”. The deepest external updates were new front bumper for the sedan and, new internal styling for the tail lights, turn signals at the rearview mirrors and 15” wheels for both. Everything else is a succession of additioned accessories which makes already poorly-inspired cars look worse. An aerodynamic kit doesn’t go with a family sedan. Adding a chrome line below each and every light leaves the overall look too heavy, specially combined to such old-fashioned rain deflectors over the windows and the ridiculous tiny rubber protectors seen at the gray hatch of these pictures – some of Etios’ criticism goes for they looking like 1990s cars, which makes at least curious to observe that the items added by Toyota are nothing but what was fashionable for that time’s cars. With such a “particular” outside, it becomes easy to overlook the interior’s combination of wooden door details right next to the futuristic central dashboard. That’s the way of getting to the good news of the new Etios, which are redesigned buttons, new blue lights and improvements at soundproofing and vibration.
