Toyota Rumion MPV makes India debut; based on Ertiga

Toyota has debuted the new Maruti Suzuki Ertiga-based Rumion MPV in India, and will announce its prices and booking amount soon. This is the fourth badge-engineered model shared between the two brands, and with this, Toyota now has the widest MPV portfolio in the market – the Rumion at the entry-level, followed by the Innova Crysta, Innova Hycross and the Vellfire at the premium end. Like the Glanza, the Rumion will be built and supplied by Maruti Suzuki to Toyota. 

Toyota Rumion: differences over the Ertiga

Compared to the Ertiga, the Rumion sees very few styling changes to its plastic parts. It gets an all-new bumper with revised fog lamp surrounds, an Innova Crysta-like grille and new dual-tone alloy wheels. On the inside, it gets a blacked-out dashboard with wood-like inserts, and the upholstery, similar to the Ertiga, is finished in beige.

The equipment list and 7-seat configuration, too, has been carried over from the Ertiga. Incidentally, the Rumion is also exported to markets like South Africa where it’s sold in the exact same spec as it has been revealed here.

Toyota Rumion to get a sole petrol engine

Under the hood, the Toyota Rumion will continue with Maruti’s 103hp, 137Nm, 1.5-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine, and will come mated to a 5-speed manual or a 6-speed torque converter automatic gearbox. The Rumion is also offered with a factory-fitted CNG kit that produces 88hp and 121.5Nm in CNG mode. Toyota claims the petrol version has a fuel efficiency of 20.51kpl, while the CNG version returns 26.11km/kg.

Brand experience to be the key differentiator

In the MPV segment, brand loyalty is quite strong and products like the Innova have a faithful customer base; something that Maruti Suzuki enjoys in the entry-level MPV segment with the Ertiga. And with a package so similar, it would be difficult for Toyota to differentiate the Rumion to sway Ertiga loyalists.

Toyota’s plan is to bank on its brand and ownership experience to make the Rumion a more compelling buy than the Ertiga. Speaking to Autocar India, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) vice president of Sales and Strategic Marketing, Atul Sood, said, “We are very confident of our MPV legacy. It is what we’ve got our success by, whether it’s for the Crysta or the Hycross or even the Vellfire. At the end of the day, it’s the mobility which the customer is buying, it’s the experience which the customer is buying.”

‘First in, first out’ strategy of deliveries

Toyota has, for a while now, been facing customer flak for its unreasonably long waiting periods, which stretch to over a year for certain variants of the Hyryder and Innova Hycross. The Rumion will, of course, be built and supplied by Maruti, and as such, there will be a fixed number of allocations. However, to ensure that the Rumion does not become another model with lengthy wait times, Toyota will be adopting a ‘first in, first out’ strategy of deliveries, where bookings will be catalogued from an all-India perspective and prioritised as per the sequence of orders.

“We’re not setting targets as such when we start the launch activities. Our aim is to give a very transparent experience to our customers, over and above the other factors which are associated with the Toyota pre-sales experience. If you’ve booked earlier, you should get the delivery earlier. We’re going to prioritise that,” said Sood.

Also see:

New Toyota Vellfire launched at Rs 1.20 crore

New Toyota Land Cruiser Prado, Land Cruiser 70 revealed