Toyota Introduces All New Corolla Altis Sport (Limited Edition)

Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd. today announced the introduction of the all new Corolla Altis Sport (Limited Edition) to target young car enthusiasts. The new Corolla Altis Sport has been designed to give customers the stylish image of a car which is youthful and sporty, and has exciting new features.

Adding to the stylish look of the car is an aerodynamic front and rear bumper spoiler, a classy headlamp garnish, sleek side skirts and exclusive rear LED spoilers. A contemporary dual tone seat fabric and wood finish rear cup holders heighten the feeling of luxury and elegance.


Commenting on the launch of the new limited edition, Mr. Hiroshi Nakagawa, Managing Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) said, “The Corolla Altis launched last year has been highly appreciated by our customers because of its advanced luxury and comfort features. We are now delighted to introduce the all new Corolla Altis Sport, which will offer sporty styling in combination with these features.”

Mr. Sandeep Singh, Deputy Managing Director (Marketing), TKM, added “Only 300 units of the new Limited Edition Corolla Altis Sport will be available for sales. Additionally, individual personalized logos for each of our customers will enhance the exclusivity of ownership of the Corolla Altis Sport. We look forward to bringing to our customers a limited edition of the widely appreciated Corolla Altis, which will offer exclusive ownership and sporty style. The new Corolla Altis Sport will be attractively priced at Rs 11.35 lakhs (ex-showroom, Delhi) and will be available at all Toyota dealerships from today.”

Mr. Singh added, “The new Corolla Altis Sport will be promoted extensively by an integrated marketing campaign, which leverages its association with active sports such as Tennis, Polo and Formula One, and is focused on young, urban customers. This will include web, print and magazine campaigns, direct marketing, SMS and e-DMs exclusively targeted at young professionals.”

The Corolla Altis has attracted customers from the corporate/executive segment and has been a true symbol of Toyota passenger cars in India. It has brought to the Indian market innovative luxury and exclusive comfort, designed to more than satisfy the auto consumer’s desire for perfection.


About ToyotaBharat

Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Limited (TKM) is a joint venture between Kirloskar Group and Toyota Motor Corporation. Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Limited (TKM) aims to play a major role in the development of the automotive industry and the creation of employment opportunities. TKM's growth since inception can be attributed to one simple, yet important aspect of its business philosophy - "Putting Customer First". TKM firmly believes that the success of this venture depends on providing high quality products and services to all valued customers through the efforts of its team members.

Chevrolet’s new Spark is coming to India!

If you ask around and mention the Matiz to anybody, the word cute is mostly blurted out instantly. The same holds true for its spiritual successor, the current Spark - even though General Motors India now runs the proceedings. And when GM decided to build the successor to the current Spark for the global markets, needless to say it will make it to India, but will co-exist with the Spark as we know it now.



This then is the new Spark. And before you ask how they will run Spark Sr and Spark Jr around at the same time, don’t fret. GM might just call it the Beat in India, since the concept at the 2007 New York Motor Show was called thus. And from what the specifications seem to suggest, it will take on cars like the Hyundai i10 Kappa and Maruti Suzuki’s upcoming Splash, nee Ritz, head on.

The Spark is GM’s global small car that will be sold not only in countries in Asia and Europe, but also become GM’s entry ticket into the growing small car space in North America. And the fact that the Beat concept was chosen from among three after 1.9 million people voted over the Internet means that the Spark is a good looking car. Keeping true to the concept, the Spark retains most of the lines, except that it now gains four doors. If you can’t spot the door handles for the rear doors, don’t worry, it had us stumped too. But as we spotted closer, we realised that the Spark has stolen a design cue from the famous Alfa Romeo 156. The door handles are hidden in the plastic cladding around the C-pillar. Neat indeed. Measuring in at 3640 mm, the Beat is some 75 mm longer than the i10. The new car of course can’t be called cute anymore, as it is rather aggressive and muscular.

On the inside, there are a few design elements that trace it back to the current Spark. Such as the encapsulated speakers on the dashboard or the AC louvers and even the manner in which the central console is designed. What is rather interesting is the way the instrument binnacle has moved from the centre console to the more traditional ‘behind the steering wheel’ position. It looks like it came off a space shuttle, sheathed in silver and a cleverly designed LCD interface. The funky blue centre console dials and the riot of colours make this a fairly lively place to be in. We suspect it will be comfortable too for four adults and their luggage.

Internationally, the Spark will be sold with a variant of the current 1.0-litre four-cylinder petrol that also powers the existing Spark and a new 1.2-litre four-cylinder double overhead petrol that probably traces back its roots to the U-VA mill. No power figures are available just yet, so expect a small bump in power for the 1.0-litre engine from the existing 65 bhp, while the 1.2-litre engine should make about 80-85 bhp. We expect the latter to be the engine of choice so that GM can differentiate between it and the Spark and U-VA. Given how the current Spark is a lightweight city scorcher, the new Spark too should be equally good around town with some ability to cruise on highways.

And cruise it will, but only after GM brings in the Cruze, its Honda Civic/Toyota Corolla competitor, sometime in May-June this year. This will be followed by a new small car before the end of the year, which we guess is nothing but the facelifted U-VA. With Europe being the first recipient of the new Spark in early 2010, we suspect India will be on the launch list of the Beat only by late 2010 or early 2011.

10th generation Corolla Altis

Whenever you talk about sport or politics or film stars or even cars, one tends to zero in on the two or three who keep on competing against each other making the competition even more fun and intriguing than the final outcome itself. In all these dogfights the one which has been played to a great extent continuously now for the past two decades has been the all-Japanese rivalry between the Honda Civic and the Toyota Corolla. These two have battled it out on their home turf, in the US (probably the largest and most important battlefield for this duo to perform on), in Asia and also in India.

It is a fight that not one single car ever wins comprehensively, the duo exchanging places at the forefront while continuously sparring at each other and in the process delighting the millions of users who flock to buy one or both of them!

This is exactly the impression I got when Toyota Kirloskar gave us the exclusive use of a preproduction 10th generation Corolla Altis which was launched yesterday in New Delhi. It comes just about two years after Honda's quantum Civic-leap and it promises to keep the executive segment slugfest simmering in all earnestness.

Being Toyota the all new 10th generation Corolla is all evolution where the Civic was a barking mad revolution. However it depends on one's point of view as whether evolution is the preferred taste of the hour or revolution is what is needed to light those latent desires. We'll leave the Civic out of the picture now and concentrate totally on evolution and why it is good and great for the Corolla.

One cannot fault Toyota for their planning and their intense creed for detail and perfection. This is what makes the Corolla one of the most refined automobiles on the planet and at the price point it is pegged at, it makes for terrific value. Many a time I have myself mentioned the Corolla being a very boring car because it does things so perfectly well. Clinically efficient with nary a whimper or protest and that's why it is the car of choice for the sensible and the staid. The 10th generation Corolla Altis is the modern face of the sensible and staid and you have to really look closely as to how it has advanced in generation.

The Corolla Altis is an all new car with a completely new chassis but with the changes so subtly wrought on the outside that you need to have a protractor and a tape measure to know that the A-pillar has been moved a bit forward at its base while the C-pillar has moved further aft so as to try and give a sportier line to the cabin and also enhance the aero efficiency of the overall automobile. There is a new look grille treatment and the head lamp lenses have been restyled both in shape and form and also what rests within them – HID lamps as standard on all but the base offering.

Step into the cabin though and it suddenly seems that you are into a larger and more lavishly equipped lounge. In fact the Corolla rides on the same 2600mm wheelbase as its predecessor but wait what's this, a near flat floor at the rear? Has the Undertaker been hammering away for the benefit of the back benchers? Whatever be the case this denotes a significant detail behind not just the all new chassis but also the revised floor which helps provide better comfort and luxury to those who would love to be driven. This is clearly the forte of the Corolla Altis for it is in entry and exit plus also in comfortable seating that it scores greatly over its illustrious rival, the Civic. Where the Civic has been reviled for its evil sink seats by many a owner's family, the Corolla Altis comes across as a paradigm of evolutionary brilliance.

I have always maintained that there are certain cars which delight in their own way and the Corolla Altis customer is a completely different piece of cake from the cookies who devour the Civic wholeheartedly. Two philosophies of car building are at play here and Toyota has adopted the more pragmatic, middle-of-theroad approach so as not to be offensive to any one. Showering everyone in sheer luxury is another aspect and in the interior it is the Corolla which sure whips up the emotions in a sporty and comprehensive manner given all the bells and whistles from both a luxury and an ergonomic point of view.

Multi-function steering wheel, great detailing on dashboard and centre console, finely crafted upholstery and trim all around make the interior of the Corolla a very welcome yet soothing place to be in.

Get down to the oomph zone and that fuel injected 1794cc twin cam 16-valve four-cylinder engine is stunningly smooth and silky, as long as it lasts in its universal operating range. I will elaborate on this as we go ahead but it's not for nothing that the Toyota V8s in F1 are quite clearly one of the most powerful on the Grand Prix circuits and Toyota is in no way behind on the engine front. The Corolla's four-cylinder mill proves that as does the fine short throw 5-speed gearbox (we couldn't lay our hands on the 4-speed automatic but will do so soon), the 132 horses start galloping as soon as you tweak the loud pedal and work the gearshifter enthusiastically.

However to borrow a reflection from F1 yet again and the Toyota TF108s, while they may have the power, it is in the chassis dynamics where some work is needed. The Corolla Altis is yet hung in super soft mode so it is not handling which is given its due (at the top end of the performance spectrum) but the ride quality and the road holding which is tailored to deliver comfort to kids and moms and family.

Not a bad case this because given our road surface, this line of thought might alienate certain automotive journos and boy racers but will delight a whole host of those who have been damned and shamed by Jeremy Clarkson. On the flip side, were Toyota to tighten up the underpinnings and hook up a better set of low-pro and wider rubber, the Corolla could deliver a stunning blow to the nay sayers. And it also has disc brakes all around to take care of quick and safe retardation.

Build quality is typically Toyota efficient and attention to detail is terrific. The car comes with the latest generation ABS coupled with EBD (electronic brake force distribution system) while the company's GOA body structure is intelligently designed for best impact dissipation should the car be involved in a mishap.

The new Corolla Altis is typical of the way Toyota does cars – subtle and unhurried but with ample substance packed into it. It is not a fire breather in any way but some might have hoped that it could have an element to make the rabble rouser in the meekest of homo sapiens to sometimes surface when behind the wheel. It is a classy no-fuss no-nonsense car that just keeps on going and going. No wonder then that it is cars like the Corolla that has seen Toyota go a long way towards snatching the crown of the world's largest car maker from GM.

Toyota to launch hybrid sedan Prius in India

Toyota Motor Corp plans to introduce its hybrid sedan Prius in India as an answer to soaring fuel prices and growing concerns over emissions, a top official at its Indian joint venture said.

"We are preparing to bring Prius into the Indian market though we have not set any timeline yet," Toyota Kirloskar Motor Ltd vice-chairman Vikram Kirloskar told IANS in an interview.

"In the run-up, we have to develop skills to service it and make spare parts available across the country," he added.

The 2008 version of Prius has been adjudged the most fuel-efficient midsize carUS. Sold in over 40 countries across regions, the hybrid variant has also been rated as the third least carbon dioxide emitting vehicle in Britain. in the

Kirloskar described Prius as a "great car" but admitted it was "expensive upfront".

"In the long-run, it is economical, with higher mileage and lower maintenance cost. We are confident of its acceptability in the Indian market as it runs both on electricity and fuel."

Positioned between Toyota's Corolla and Camry in the luxury segment, Prius uses an all-electric compressor for cooling. Classified as a super ultra low emission vehicle, the eco-friendly car can be propelled by either petrol and electric power.

"We are aware that Honda is launching its hybrid variant in the Indian market soon despite high import tariff. We can also do it with due preparation. As I said earlier, we have to gear up to service such a premium car by training our personnel and stocking enough spare parts with the dealer network," Kirloskar said.

As the first commercially mass-produced gas-electric hybrid, one million Prius vehicles were sold by April worldwide, including 592,000 units in the US and 315,000 units in Japan.

In India, Toyota Kirloskar already markets Corolla and Camry in the premium segment, besides Innova in the multi-utility and Prado in the sports utility segments.

Corolla and Innova are manufactured at its Bidadi plant, about 40km from India's technology hub of Bangalore, while Camry and Prado are shipped from Toyota's production facilities in Japan in completely knocked down form and assembled here.

"Though we entered the Indian market over a decade ago, we chose to be in niche and premium segments. As a marketing strategy, we first introduced Qualis, which was a run-away success in the multi-utility segment," Kirloskar said.

"We launched Innova by discontinuing Qualis and yet maintained market leadership in the segment. In the second-hand or used car market, Toyota brands commands highest price even today because of their value and durability," he said.

Denying that Toyota "missed the bus" or lost market space to global rivals such as Honda, Hyundai, Suzuki, Ford and General Motors by not being present across segments in India, especially in the dominant compact segment, Kirloskar said there was enough room to grow in a developing country where the automobile industry was maturing.

In the passenger car segment, the combined installed capacity of Indian automobile sector is about two million as against Toyota's annual worldwide capacity of 10 million units.

"With the Indian economy poised to grow over eight-nine percent, we see immense potential to grow, thanks to increasing purchasing power, higher aspirations among the generation next, better road connectivity and migrant-driven urbanization," Kirloskar said.

Toyota Kirloskar is setting up a second plant with an upfront investment of Rs.14 billion ($329 million) at Bidadi to manufacture a range of models, including its long-awaited compact car to take on dominant players like Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Tata Motors.

With an installed capacity of 100,000 units per annum, the new modular multi-platform plant is set to commence production in 2010.

The small car will be different from Toyota's existing models in the same segment, as it is being designed exclusively for the Indian market, Kirloskar said.