Toyota Liva – review

After a fairly successful outing with its entry-level sedan, Toyota Etios, the world’s largest automobile manufacturer drives into our Indian roads Liva, Toyota’s small car made-for-India. The small car segment is quiet populated and each car maker, unleashing an array of models. It’s a tough market to crack where volume matters, let’s see if Liva can as their tag line goes “Liv Tmrrw 2day”

The first look…

When you look at the front, Liva looks familiar. It looks identical to its bigger sibling, Etios. So like the sedan,  Liva too has a conservative styling  and devoid of any radical lines and flamboyant designing. It’s a plain-Jane design and Toyota has kept it clean, simple and neat.

Come to the rear and it is where Liva comes on its own. Etios rear design has been chopped of and given a wonderful treatment. Shedding the big boot, Liva sports a well-proportioned silhouette.  Thanks to the rounded hatch, it looks more appealing and cute. Overall, the rear of Liva compliments with the front design, unlike the Etios rear. The mounted tail light makes the difference to the Liva.  The slight bulge and the mounted tail light gives a sporty and charming character to the car.  It blends well with the hatchback and also adds to the characteristics of the car.

Measuring 2460 mm, Liva has a huge wheelbase and good ground clearance.

The top two versions sports a 12 spoke alloy wheels.

The inside story…

Liva carries the Etios’s touch inside…

The dashboard is plucked straight from Etios.

cool glove box

So you have the same central instrument control, vertically mounted central air conditioning vents and the chilled glove box.  There are plenty of bottle and cup holders (I think I counted 7 of them) and the 13 litre glove box with the air-conditioning vents is a cool thought.

If you thought the centrally placed instrument console would be not practical, you are wrong. It is not only easy to read but also gives the car an interesting perspective and a cool quotient.  The console is pretty well stacked though the two of the starting base versions does not come with tachometer.

The top two variants come with a dual tone fabric upholstery – black and red in the top most variant and the other one in black and grey while the starting two variants comes in a single tone black upholstery which was quiet a boring sight. Again only the top two variants comes with fabric insert door trim. The front and rear door comes with pockets, which was quiet convenient to stuff papers, files  etc.

Liva is quiet spacious. It provides good legroom and headroom both in the front and rear, sitting inside is quiet a lively experience.

Open the hatch and you get a decent 251 litres of b00t space. The rear seat can be folded but there is no split option.

The engine,the heart and the ride…

As per ARAI, the car delivers 18.3 kmpl. But on a realistic note, expect 14 kmpl in city conditions and 16 kmpl in highways. This is the fine balance the Toyota engineers had worked on balancing the engine efficiency, acceleration and max power.

If you are looking for a diesel engine, sorry to say Liva comes with only a petrol version.

The colors…

Liva comes in 7 colors, apart from the 6 colors that was seen in Etios range, Liva has one added blue color which looks cool too.

The variants and pricing…

Liva comes in 4 variants – J, G, V and the fully loaded VX . The basic version is heavily stripped down and without even power steering, which we find is hugely disappointing and ridiculous.  The base model starts at Rs. 4,21,47 and it goes up to Rs. 6,08,684 for the top model  (Prices are ex-showroom price, Bangalore)

GingerChai verdict: Liva is a good city car  spacious and with decent looks, good ride quality and delivering a good mileage and more importantly its an affordable Toyota. It might not impress the speed demon within you but its a practical, no-nonsense, city car that is what Toyota has aimed and made for India.