[rangarx]

Existing Innova is ridiculously overpriced and crude alright. But we Indians gobble up them, despite the master attitude and zero discounts from the showrooms.

My hunch is, Crysta would follow the existing Innova's path. Might be introduced at a little costlier than already premium priced Innova, and make it's way to glory, ridiculous overpricing over it's lifecycle. I would not pick Innova, no matter how super reliable it is, for this single reason of being stripped out as a customer. Thanks, Toyota, Give me Lodgy anyday. 80% of the features @ 60% of the price.

[harishpr]

Originally Posted by rangarx

Existing Innova is ridiculously overpriced and crude alright. But we Indians gobble up them, despite the master attitude and zero discounts from the showrooms.

My hunch is, Crysta would follow the existing Innova's path. Might be introduced at a little costlier than already premium priced Innova, and make it's way to glory, ridiculous overpricing over it's lifecycle. I would not pick Innova, no matter how super reliable it is, for this single reason of being stripped out as a customer. Thanks, Toyota, Give me Lodgy anyday. 80% of the features @ 60% of the price.

Not disagreeing, but an alternate view.
Innova ages well, and fetches very good resale value. I've seen even the 5 year old innovas holding their price in used car market versus the competition.
Lodgy offers VFM but is no where comparable to innova. Lodgy might come at 60% cost of innova, but it's a disaster in used car market even after a decade.

[landcruiser123]

It's high time that production stops.

We have and '07 model which has run only 68k kms. The only real disadvantage of the car is the lack of refinement. It also has average brakes, but hey, it's only meant to cruise. I feel sad for people who pick the same car later for over 1.5 times the price my dad paid for it.

Toyota have some good products which are currently being sold in the SE Asian market. I hope we get to see the Vios, Avanza and Yaris in the near future.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by mroptimist

Now I have the confirmation from my source that indeed Innova production has been stopped and an official send off given at the factory floor.

Here are the pictures to substantiate.

Thanks for sharing!

I have to admit, these pictures got me a bit emotional.

What a true legend, a car that ruled its space for a full decade! What's more, even at the time of retiring, it is still the best-in-class people mover. I can't think of too many products that were on top of the game at the time of retirement (its sibling - the Fortuner - certainly isn't).

Sayonara, 1st-gen Innova!

[himanshugoswami]

One positive fall out will be for Tata motors. Gives them the opportunity to seriously undercut the crysta on hexa pricing. Let's see if they rise to the occasion

[Motoringlover]

Wow - It truly has been a great run for the Innova in the indian market. Now if they are discontinuing the older version, this could also mean expect a significant variance between the starting spec and the upmarket spec (bada sahib spec), it does make sense to have a single platform of manufacturing, maintaining 2 lines of a product will be expensive and given a newer variant which has been launched, the existing platform will move towards a slow death.

Toyota knows the indian market well, they have done well when it comes to pricing with most of their cars, and are snobbish to never having to offer any discounts. I would expect the ex showroom to start around 12-13 (Starting spec) and 18-19 (Top spec), any more they will end canibalising high variant cars territory.

Thanks

[Thebat]

I had been to the Toyota plant in Bidadi as part of an industrial visit and as per an engineer there Toyota were forced to stop the production of the Qualis and they didn't have an option of continuing it's sale here. As per him this was because Toyotas plant in Indonesia or Thailand was phasing off the Qualis in their market and the outright decided to seize the production of shipments of the engines to the Indian plant, and at that time the plant in Bidadi didnt have the capability to manufacture engines. Because of this Toyota had to stop the production of Qualis and it was not some sort of daredevil management decision. Just offering my 2 cents.

[motorworks]

I'm personally not a fan of the Innova, however comfortable it is, I've always found the seating to be more upright than I prefer. However, I think this is a factor in most MUVs and the Innova was leaps ahead of competition in India. The xylo, Aria and many others failed miserably to match up to the Innova inspite of being way cheaper.

Yes it's overpriced and Toyota might have really high margins on this. It's one of those cars which has had one of the highest price increase from inception until it's end of cycle. But the blame lies in competition not having been string enough. If there ever was a commendable rival to the Innova by say Maruti or Honda or even Hyundai, Toyota would have never been able to take the prices to these heights. Sure they made a killing, but if the customer is not complaining then there is nothing to ponder over.

[satz581993Mille]

This is simply Toyota being Toyota. Only they have the guts to end the production of a legendry people mover like the Innova and hats off to that. This can be both good and bad for Toyota given their current scenario in the market. Only the Innova and Fortuner kept the company going for quite a while now from a consumer market perspective since the etios twins eventually became the taxi market offering. Now, given that the new Innova crysta will be more than likely priced on the above 20lacs side, it would have been wise to keep the old one for taxi segment alone so as to make some profits. And quite frankly, the old gen Innova itself was overpriced way too much and the new one performing numbers with even more exorbitant pricing is something we will have to wait and see. If the crysta fails to do numbers like the old one did, Toyota will be at the risk of losing a lot in market share given the current competetion to the Fortuner as well due to the Endeavour. But, stopping the old gen Innova and the new one being on the expensive side, might reduce its consumption in the taxi segment which will make the car more consumer focused and some people won't have to stay away from it because of its taxi image. Can Toyota do the same magic they did back when they ended the qualis? Only time will tell!

[geotracks]

I have always said in my earlier posts; Toyota has an intentional strategy (for various reasons) of not brining the main stream successful worldwide products to the Indian consumer. My guess is that for Toyota, India is a relatively 'small' and 'unimportant' market that is also very price conscious. Hence home grown products like Etios etc. have are being marketed here to keep costs low. The Innova is a successful product in India, but if you look at the entire Toyota stable starting with the Sienna, Rav-4, Forerunner, Corolla (not Corolla Altis), Yaris etc. none of these products are making the Indian market.

I cannot comment on the Innova Crysta since the Indian version is not yet officially launched. But the current Innova for the cost, had 'bland' interiors. No wonder so many went in for the XUV 500 in recent times. So much market opportunity lost for Toyota. Try selling the Innova 'as is' in the markets worldwide where Toyota has their other products and one will soon realize it will not be a hot product for those markets. I mean until recently; the Toyota did not even give all the safety features on the Innova for the cost they were demanding. At the time, Honda India was giving all safety features even on the lowest end variant. It is only later that Toyota started giving dual air bags etc. on the Innova and for which they advertised so extensively. This shows the commitment that Toyota has for it’s Indian customers – not really on top of their list.

Having said this, have to agree that the Toyota Innova is comfortable, perfectly sized, has an impeccable engine, great after sales service, servicing costs are competitive etc. Let’s wait and watch how Toyota does on their pricing strategy for the new Innova Crysta.

Toyota knows that there is still no direct competition to the Innova in the Indian market. If I were to think of the Innova “comparable” to the Toyota Sienna sold in the US, following this logic, in my opinion the closest competitor, if it ever happens, would have to be a variant of the Honda Odyssey, which is also successfully sold in the US market. If Honda decides to get the Odyssey or equivalent to the Indian market, that in my view will give a fair competition to the Toyota Innova. Until then, the other products (e.g. Ertiga, Mobilio Lodgy, Evalia etc.) are really not a fair match to the Innova today.

[Dhanu@DJ]

Originally Posted by Motoringlover

Wow - It truly has been a great run for the Innova in the indian market. Now if they are discontinuing the older version, this could also mean expect a significant variance between the starting spec and the upmarket spec (bada sahib spec), it does make sense to have a single platform of manufacturing, maintaining 2 lines of a product will be expensive and given a newer variant which has been launched, the existing platform will move towards a slow death.

This is the main reason they stopped Qualis and this would be the main reason again to stop the 1st Gen Innova.

Originally Posted by Motoringlover

Toyota knows the indian market well, they have done well when it comes to pricing with most of their cars, and are snobbish to never having to offer any discounts. I would expect the ex showroom to start around 12-13 (Starting spec) and 18-19 (Top spec), any more they will end canibalising high variant cars territory.

Since top of the line spec comes with the Innova clothes but the Fortuner 2WD AT mechanicals (2.8L AT with same IMV chassis) the top spec is going to cost significantly close to 20 lakhs bringing it close to 25 lakhs OTR in Bangalore. May be they would increase the price after volumes settles down.

Also remember that there were lot of parts imported for current gen Innova from Thailand. This is changing big time with new Innova and Fortuner since engine, transmission etc, almost everything manufactured here locally (They have a new plant for engines which started about 8 months back). TAP was functional for more than 5 years now.

Also per my source from plant the delay in launching is to do with Toyota was not happy with some supplier part quality in initial phases.

We were suppling CO2 liquid that is used during the welding process to TKM some time back and one of my friend supplies now days.

With the level of localization they have achieved they can actually under cut the current Innova Pricing!!! I would not be surprised if they launch a Taxi version with power steering, ABS, Airbags and Dual A/c at current base model price.

Originally Posted by Thebat

I had been to the Toyota plant in Bidadi as part of an industrial visit and as per an engineer there Toyota were forced to stop the production of the Qualis and they didn't have an option of continuing it's sale here. As per him this was because Toyotas plant in Indonesia or Thailand was phasing off the Qualis in their market and the outright decided to seize the production of shipments of the engines to the Indian plant, and at that time the plant in Bidadi didnt have the capability to manufacture engines. Because of this Toyota had to stop the production of Qualis and it was not some sort of daredevil management decision. Just offering my 2 cents.

This will be the case again for the 1st gen Innova as well. Except the Toyota Auto parts which is building Gear Box and few more parts of the Transmission there is lot of dependency on the CKD for current Gen Innova.

Pricing is going to be very sensible!!

[rr_zen]

With the curtains officially down on the Innova now, I was quite surprised to see an ad in TOI this morning for the Innova with discounts upto 40K INR. Maybe, it is for the final stock that is to be cleared up before the new gen Innova makes it way to the showrooms.

[abhishek46]

Originally Posted by hkollar

Innova was Toyota's cash cow in India. If this news is true, then it'll seriously dent the volume for Toyota. Toyota doesn't have a competent offering in Sub 20L space. Corolla or Etios are not appreciated by people. And Innova/crysta anyway have bad mileage especially in Petrol segment.

To price that product at 25L+ OTR will be suicidal for Toyota.

Few points from my side.

Note that the "new" fortuner costs 1229000Baht in thailand with is 25lac INR. So, 25+ OTR is not at all expected for the new Innova.

[sasi@8689]

Didn't see this coming. Based on multiple reports on and off this forum, i was always thinking that the existing innova would co-exist with the new one. Infact, couple of weeks back, had an innova for three days on an outstation trip and was arguing with its driver that the existing innova will continue to be sold when he was pretty confident based on the updates from his dealer, that it is going to be stopped.

A bit sad because i like the vehicle and fondly remember the multiple journeys i had in it. A golden beige top variant innova with middle row captain seats would be my default pick if i am looking for a vehicle in this price range. Even though we are a family of four adults and one kid and don't need the third row seats, the sheer comfort of travelling in an innova is unbeatable. Hope the new innova stands upto the task just like how the present innova performed against the then outgoing qualis.

Originally Posted by GTO

I can't think of too many products that were on top of the game at the time of retirement (its sibling - the Fortuner - certainly isn't)

Why is it so, isn't fortuner still the leader sales wise or did i not understand your remark correctly?

[diyguy]

Saw an ad in Chennai TOI on 40k benefits on the Innova today...