Toyota Glanza Review, Road Test

The Toyota Glanza . The hatchback from the manufacturer that aims to take on the likes of heavyweight champion, the Hyundai i20, and Tata Altroz is finally here with us. Toyota has an aggressive strategy ahead and bringing out new Maruti rebadged models to make sure they stand out and grab sales numbers. This hatchback is going to do so for them as it is based on the sales segment king, Baleno. Be it on the inside and outside, it has what it takes to impress a set of consumers. Like always there are core strengths and weaknesses of any product that comes from the Toyota stable. We find out what the Toyota Glanza offers and doesn’t to its prospective buyers.

On the outside, the hatchback is a sub-four meter car and it is proportionate stance and very good design grab attention. The elements in facelifted version make the car stand out. The front grille, bumper, the rear badging is only what make it different. The diamond 16-inch wheels, LED head and tail lamps make it look good. The white and red color schemes on both our test cars did suit the car profile and there are most popular colors among customers after the blue of course.

On the inside, the build and quality are good, not great. The stowage is good, charging points are in plenty and overall a very practical cabin. The feature list, we have explained time and again in our launch reports. You get every feature possible in the top variants of the SUV apart from a sunroof, connectivity features, and other new age bits, while the rest of the variants are decently specced. The lack of rear a/c vents is seen here like the UC, but A/C works quite well from the front. The Rear gets 12V charging port to make things practical. Automatic lights and wipers to reversing cameras and projector lamps, Android Auto, and Apple Car play are here in the Glanza but not on all top-end variants together. The sound system is good too considering the premium price tag.

Space is quite good too. The shoulder, head, leg, and knee rooms are segment standard and more than adequate. The boot space is good by segment standards at 300 litres. Road and wind noise inside the cabin can be better controlled as it can get intrusive. Wind noise creeps in, but after 140 km/hr. The safety kit includes ABS and EBD with two airbags that come as standard. Overall, cabin experience is conventional and vanilla and can be better.

We drove both the petrol 1.2 litre engines making 90 PS and 113 Nm of torque in the hybrid and 83 PS and 113 Nm in the non-hybrid automatic version. The motor is a free-revving and low on NVH unit. Be it in any part of the rev range. Be it automatic or manual either it is easy to drive. Also, the clutch is light and so is the gearbox to operate.

Automatic is CVT which is fine for our insane traffic-ridden roads but feels short-changed when you demand more from it as the rubber band effect kicks when you go pedal to the metal. It still delivers spectacular fuel economy on the highway and city. Low and mid-range are good and the top-end is good enough as well and it cruises at legal speeds easily. This makes good enough for city and highway duties. 19 km/l on the highway and 14 km/l in the city is a very good number.

The low to medium ride quality is good, underlying stiffness means it takes bad roads well enough at all speeds. The high-speed ride can be a bit floaty. Body roll increases as speeds get higher while taking a corner or changing lanes at high speeds. Steering is light, barely precise, and has almost negligible feedback on offer which makes the car not so fun or 100% confidence-inspiring to push harder. The suspension only feels good at high speeds at legal speeds with un-demanding drivers are driving it sedately. Brakes are good with a well-done pedal bite but the overall power could be better. Overall, very easy to drive and live with it. Wish it was more fun to drive.

Toyota Glanza Review, Verdict

Glanza has a slightly expensive price over the Baleno and minimum variant list to choose from, that is what makes it the right choice for a lot of premium customers that Toyota already has. For them, this might be their second or third car in the garage. The extra warranty makes things sweeter. Toyota has adequate reach and quality when it comes to sales and after-sales service. With not so cheap spare parts but cheerful service on offer, Toyota customers can expect what they always do, quality. Toyota says that the customers are from the past either upgrading or downgrading. Not tasting similar success as Maruti, but it is clearly meeting expectations by a certain margin that Toyota has set making its India sales game stronger than ever before.