It is without doubt that both Toyota's Vios and Honda's City compete head-to-head for market share, and having barely seen 24 hours since the newly face lifted Honda City was launched did Toyota reveal their new offerings for their ever-so popular Vios.
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A few changes have taken place, starting from the front with a pair of darkened head-lamps as well as a newly revised set of front fog lamp bezel that’s incorporated on the lower corners of the bumper. Also, all variants of the Vios will have the same front grille as the Vios 1.5G Limited to help standardise the looks of all Vios.
The Vios 1.5J variant stands to benefit the most from all these standardizations now receiving a sportier 12-spoke design but also a larger diameter set of 15” rims wrapped by 185/60 tyres, which is a marked difference over the previous steel rims and hubcaps being made available. Also, the seat material and fabric pattern has been changed to help freshen up its looks.
Should the unfortunate occur, Dual SRS airbags have been installed up front as well as pre-tensioner and force limiter for the passenger as well.
But UMW Toyota isn’t stopping there, there’s now a list of options being made available in the form of an optional aero kit that was only available for the Vios 1.5G Limited last year, is now available for both the 1.5E & J variants. The aero kit contains a 5-piece package which includes the front bumper spoiler, side skirts, rear trunk lid spoiler and rear bumper spoiler.
With the opportunity to make it look better, comes the opportunity for you to handle better with the ability of outfitting the Vios with the optional suspension kit with their new car that’s been specially developed for the Vios by TRD Asia and tuned for local conditions. The suspension kit (comprising of new coil-springs harder shock absorbers) brings the Vios 10mm lower, which helps reduce over-all body-roll.
In terms of infotainment, two types of systems (DVD-AVX and DVD-AVN) are available, both featuring a reverse camera which has a wide angle of view and its image is displayed on a full-colour Double-DIN 5.8-inch (DVD-AVX) and 6.1-inch (DVD-AVN) touchscreen with Bluetooth functionality an SD card slot (on DVD-AVX) and a remote control.
The DVD-AVN system includes a GPS route navigation system. This advanced system has a gyro speed sensor that allows tracking of the vehicle movement even when the GPS signal is lost (e.g. while travelling through a tunnel). Digital maps for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei are provided and customers are entitled to one time free map update. For convenience while travelling outstation, the locations of the Toyota Sales & Service Centre network have been pre-programmed into the maps.
Customers also continue to have a choice of five colours, namely Medium Silver Metallic, White, Deep Amethyst Mica Metallic with a new shade of Silver Metallic and Attitude Black (in place of the previous Coal Black).
In terms of warranty from UMW Toyota Motor, the face-lifted Toyota Vios comes with a 36-month/100,000 km (whichever comes first) warranty and if you’re keen to take a look, the revised Vios can be seen in all Toyota showrooms throughout Malaysia from 22nd June 2012.
Six grades available to suit different personal tastes, requirements and budgets:
- Vios 1.5 TRD Sportivo - RM92,013.50
- Vios 1.5G Limited - RM89,613.50
- Vios 1.5G - RM87,313.50
- Vios 1.5E - RM82,300.00
- Vios 1.5J Auto - RM77,300.00
- Vios 1.5J Manual - RM73,200.00
