Let me start by telling you all that I do not own a Toyota Innova. It?s my maternal uncle who is the over-proud (to the point of being annoying) owner of a white CRDI version of the Toyota Innova that has two seats in the middle. At the first glance I wasn?t able to recognize it, I thought it is one of the sleek minivans imported from Germany or elsewhere. One look at the front and the truth dawned upon me; this is Innova.
I can?t believe that Toyota has replaced the Qualis with the Innova. This is a minivan through and through (from outside). Where the Qualis felt slightly classy (when compared to the Tata Sumo or the Bolero) and conservative to the hilt, this one feels futuristic and has a Singapore / Kuala Lumpur feel to it. I guess I am still suffering from a Qualis (my transport to office) hangover and I am sure that I am not the only one.
Ok, back to the place where I am standing in front of the Innova. My uncle?s excitement was pretty infectious and annoying at the same time? he wasn?t letting even my aunt sit in the driver?s seat and asked me and the kids to wash and dry the feet and then hold the slippers in the hand before getting into the van. We are going for a ride on the Palm Beach Marg ? a smooth 6-lane road that stretches from Vashi to Belapur (Navi Mumbai), he said.
The interior is superb to say the least, the seats are extremely comfortable and on a whole feels like a car that has grown tall from the inside. I have to say that the ride was a damn smooth one as well and I didn?t feel some of the bumps that I may have felt in a Sumo or a Maruti 800. And, for a vehicle filled with 10 people (mostly fat?. except 2 kids and me), it felt pretty agile. This is impressive ?cause my uncle is the worse driver under the sun, and has been driving a Daewoo Ceilo (automatic transmission) for a while.
The cabin was very quiet and sadly didn’t interrupr the chattering of the kids and my aunt. I wanted to drive this baby but my uncle ignored all the hints that I was dropping. ?Better luck next time or when you buy one yourself?, is what he must have thought, I?m sure.
The owner/driver of the Qualis that has been leased by my office was very gleeful. He had felt that the resale value his Qualis that he had purchased last Jan was going to drop once the new Toyota people carrier comes into the market. But after one look at the Innova, he is sure that it?s a different class of vehicle and is not going to affect his Qualis?s value.
So has Toyota made a very critical error here? I think so. To rub Chevrolet Tavera into the ground, and keep production cost low by building only one type of the people carrier, they have chosen to ignore customers who may still have a liking for the Qualis. But I for one am not one of them, I will purchase the Innova when I have the money to spare? but by that time there will be flying cars and Mars would be an hour?s ride from my house.