What a year it has been so far for Pakistan’s automotive industry; after years of silence, things have finally started to move in the right direction as multiple car launches, decisions for local production resumption and prospective new brands showed interest in our market. Special thanks to the Auto Development Policy of 2016-21.
Following the leaked images of Datsun GO and GO+ testing near Lahore, Indus Motor Company, the brand responsible for Toyota Cars in Pakistan, has officially made the face-lifted Avanza ready for our market. The availability of the new Toyota Avanza comes around a month after IMC made the new Toyota Land Cruiser available with warranty and full after-sales backup in Pakistan. Like the Land Cruiser, the all new Avanza acts as a mid-cycle refresh to its second generation. Talking about the launch-lag (which is a term I use to define the time it takes for a car to launch in Pakistan after its global debut), if we see the track record of Toyota Indus in the recent times, Avanza’s facelift launch-lag is almost on par with the recently introduced Land Cruiser in Pakistan, as both of them saw their global debut in August of 2015.
Also Read: Toyota Land Cruiser Facelift Launched by Indus Motors In Pakistan
So What’s New?
Exterior
As with nearly every other face-lift, the new Avanza focuses on bringing some aesthetic cosmetic changes to its design. Overall, Toyota Avanza’s front sees the greatest amount of alterations, as it now houses a broader and more aggressive looking grille, which has a tweaked chrome garnish distinguishing it from the bonnet. Along with that, it now has wider and larger headlights coupled with a curvier front bumper. Other than that, Avanza’s refresh comes with new shoes aka “rims.”
Things are a little too standard when you see the rear end of the new Avanza as it remains pre-dominantly the same as it was, prior to the facelift; with the only differences coming in the form of a chrome garnish on tail-gate handle and a slightly tinkered tail-lamp’s bulb configuration. This also means that, just like many other countries, we did not get the tail-lights of the Grand Avanza, which came in Indonesia.
Have a Look: 2015 Toyota Avanza Facelift Brochures Leaked
Interior
Interior of the updated Toyota Avanza sees minor modifications, as the color scheme is now a tad darker than it was before. The other noticeable change is a new information cluster. However despite it being labelled as “new” it is still a far cry from the ones, which come inside the various variants of Corolla in Pakistan.
Price
Moving on, as with the pre-facelift Avanza, Toyota Indus will continue selling it in the form of an imported CBU (completely built unit) which means that its price is now steeper, after the facelift as it sees an increase of over PKR 150,000 to round its price tag at PKR 2,999,000. And like every other officially imported CBU, Avanza carries a 2 year and 50,000 KM standard warranty that is covered by Indus Motor Company’s 3-S dealerships across the country.
Back in time: 2015 Toyota Avanza Facelift Will Be Unveiled In Indonesia
In a nutshell, Avanza’s facelift is a welcome refresh to one of the only two officially available MPVs of Pakistan (the other one being Suzuki APV). However, is a price hike of PKR 150,000 justified along with that is Avanza worth the PKR 3 million price-tag? Enough said show us what you think in the comments section below.
Powerful governmental regulation and the implementation of laws leads to restructuring of the market.
Here we see 7 people stuffed into Corolla which is 5 seater. On the other hand nobody buys MPVs like APV, Avanza and Sirius X80.
Only when the traffic police starts enforcing the seating capacity laws will Avanza start to sell properly. Then Indus may find an incentive to produce it locally too.
What about FAW Sirius Grand 1.5 L ? Is that of same QUALITY ?
To me FAW Sirius Grand is the best MPV option for Pakistan it costs a million rupees less than an Avanza and around half a million less than APV…. if you aren’t brand conscious and value for money is important to you then go for Sirius Grand!
Daku motor company
Actually I believe there should be only 10 years car life cycle in Pakistan as in developed world. Only then we can see cheaper pricing and good quality in local vehicles.
It’s not about seat capacity, it is all about madness of 100% tax on local and 200% on imported vehicles. The day that is modified things will improve.
Ever quantified the cost of 10 year life cycle?
it can be much cheaper if 100 % tax on local and 200 percent for foreign made vehicles could be overhauled.
It isn’ t about the tax as tax is applied on all the cars unequivocally. That tax is to discourage imports blah blah blah economy yada yada yada (No lectures on the economy and the impact of imports, that has already been said by myself and Guest a zillion times) Fact is, unless the police enforce seating capacity laws there won’t be much demand for 7 seaters. How many APVs or Sirius Grand or Avanzas do you see? Next to none (Unless you count PIA’s private fleet of Avanzas for their staff commute).
Well how come u stop people standing on tractors? you can’t. Pakistani police is not interested to stop anyone among them and nor is govt interested to make a good auto policy due to fear of big ones. it is mush govts decision that u at least have Japan imports while jamhuri govts always looked the other way.
It isn’t just tractors – you can see 3-5 people on motorcycles too. In fact, anything that is driveable or rideable is more or less overladen. We also overload commercial vehicles likes trucks and vans, which break down in the middle of the road, especially on inclines and then the traffic gets stuck. It is our primary responsibility to obey the laws, rather than asking the police to enforce the laws. The Police is working, but it can only do so much if every person is intent on breaking one law or the other. Sometimes, it is just due to ignorance of the law and other times we will willfully break the law to suit our convenience.
Credit where due, the current Govt came up with a new Auto policy that levels the playing field instead of favoring the big three and is enforcing it too. So your statement is just rhetoric, the way I see it.
Musharraf’s govt? Hahaha, I’m guessing you haven’t been around in the 90’s during Nawaz Sharif’s tenure, or the last government. Or conveniently ignoring the current one’s trend.
Why not Prius Alpha?
PIA owns few vans but I rarely spot any other Avanza on roads