Toyota entered the mid-size sedan segment in India for the first time with the launch of the Yaris. The sedan that competes with the likes of Honda City, Maruti Ciaz and Hyundai Verna in the segment is outselling the much cheaper Toyota Etios sedan. While the Etios comes with a much lower price tag, its popularity in the taxi segment keeps many private car buyers away from it. What are the main reasons for the Toyota Yaris outselling the Etios? Let’s find out.
Looks stylish
The Toyota Yaris looks stylish and modern in the market. The Yaris gets an aggressive styling with a large blacked-out air dam and a sleek body. A stylish set of headlamps that smoothly integrates into the grille makes the Yaris much better looking when compared to the Etios. Overall, the Yaris looks much more proportionate and premium too.
Fresher face in the market
The Yaris is an all-new car in the market and looks very very modern. Style-wise, the Yaris turns a lot of heads on the road. It is relatively unseen and surprises people. The Etios, on the other hand, has lost that edge. Toyota has not updated the Etios for a long time now and the compact sedan looks a bit outdated when compared to the rivals.
Loaded to the brim
Toyota Yaris offers quite a few first-in-class features that make it an attractive choice. The mid-size sedan comes with an electrically adjustable driver seat, gesture-controlled touchscreen infotainment system, ambient lighting, roof-mounted AC vents, tyre pressure monitoring system and 7-airbags including a driver knee airbag. The car also gets a 60:40 split rear seat, front and rear parking sensors, vehicle stability control system, hill assist, rear sunshade, paddle shifters and much more. The Toyota Etios misses out on all these features, which make the interiors dull and unattractive for new car buyers.
Loaded base variant
Even the base variant of the Toyota Yaris, which is priced at Rs. 8.75 lakhs, ex-showroom, Delhi, gets a long list of features. The J trim of the Yaris comes with halogen projector headlamps, electrically adjustable ORVMs, shark fin antenna, Infrared cut windshield, keyless entry, driver seat height adjustment, all four-power windows, cooled glove box, 60:40 split seats, audio system, 7 airbags, ABS with EBD and BA, central lock and power steering with tilt adjustment. Many of these features are missing from even the top variant of the Etios, which is priced at 8.81 lakhs (petrol version), which is higher than the base Yaris.
Attractive loan offers
The Toyota Yaris, being a new car on the market, is offered with attractive loan offers. Many banks are even offering up to 100% of the car price on loans, which is making the sedan much more accessible. The monthly difference in the EMI comes down only a couple of thousands, which pushes the customers towards the bigger, better equipped and newer Yaris than the Etios.
Do watch our detailed review of the Yaris below