The Toyota-Suzuki global alliance has already given birth to the likes of the Toyota Glanza and Toyota Urban Cruiser in India, essentially rebadged versions of the Maruti Baleno and Vitara Brezza respectively. Following this, there will also be rebadged Toyota versions of the Maruti Ciaz and the Ertiga coming up in the months ahead. Interestingly, about 40-45% of Toyota's monthly sales are coming from these rebadged Maruti Suzuki models. Since Toyota never quite had success in the small car segment in India, their partnership with Maruti Suzuki, who particularly dominates this segment, has indeed come to fruition quite well.
Going ahead, there could be yet another car that is likely to join the list of Toyota rebadged Maruti models. We are talking about the Maruti Wagon R. Over the past many months, there have been numerous sightings of a camouflaged WagonR-Like model on test, which was initially thought to be the Maruti XL5 - a more premium version of the WagonR, just like what Maruti did with the Ertiga and XL6. However, the supposed Maruti XL5 has now been spied completely uncamouflaged, revealing that this could be a rebadged Toyota version of the Maruti WagonR.
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As you can see in the video above, credit to MRD cars, the spied test mule does not wear any company logo on either the front or back end, but the only give away that this could be a Toyota rebadged WagonR are the wheels that bear the Toyota logo. Interestingly, these are the same wheels that are found on the Maruti Ignis, only with a Toyota badge here. In contrast, the Maruti WagonR rides on 14-inch steel wheels with silver wheel caps. Look past the wheels, and you will see several other notable updates to the design as well. In fact, if this indeed is a Toyota rebadged Maruti WagonR, it distinguishes itself very well from its donor car.
The biggest updates are to the design of the bumpers. The rear bumper gets new reflector elements and a black plastic cladding as opposed to the completely plain bumper on the WagonR. It is also interesting to note that the chrome garnish over the license plate - which is where the WagonR gets its badging - has been sealed with tape, possibly to hide the new name of the upcoming vehicle. While there are not many changes in profile, the front end is again completely new. It gets a completely new bumper with a split headlamp setup, new grille, new fog lamp housings and more black plastic cladding. The bonnet, however, is identical to the WagonR.
Incidentally, the long rumored Maruti XL5 was also thought be an electric version of the WagonR, which too has been in the pipeline for a long time. While there's still no official word about the latter, it is understood that the upcoming Toyota badged WagonR will indeed be an EV. Technical details are sparse at the moment, but that alone if a huge differentiation factor from the WagonR. This also inevitably means that the Toyota badged WagonR will be positioned completely differently in the market. It would be interesting to see how this space develops as we await more information on this.
Stay tuned to IndianAutosBlog.com for more Toyota updates and other four-wheeler news.
