[bigman]

Always looked like a rounded metrocab to me.

[rider60]

Originally Posted by muke31

I did the road Test of Rhino today in Bangalore.
my observations...

Seating : Front/Rear seats THIGH support is very very less, not comfortable for long drive.

Quality of plastics: The dashboard quality is very bad, Rubber beedings and other plastic handles looks very bad and finishing is also bad, you can easily see the rubber beedings hanging outside the door panels.

AC : Air-conditioning is very good and chills really fast. top end model has rear AC also.

Paint Quality: paint quality is acceptable though not in the league of other suv's

Test drive experience:

Was eager to drive this vehicle, opened the front door, door opens wide and started the engine, rooooaaaarrrr is sound i hear and my whole body shakes hmmm, anyway was satisfied thinking myself that this is diesel engine and may take little time till it gets heated up..

Pressed the clutch oops, the clutch feels bad to operate and touched the gear lever and the gear handle was positioned at great position but moment i touched the gear lever it was like i am holding an electric vibrating body massager...(so much vibration...), now i know little bit of this vehicle, tried to put the first gear i had to battle it to put the first gear and even other gears while driving. The gear is not very precise and rough,dry and no action.

The steering is too big to hold and the position is like a MARUTI OMNI style of driving...

I slowly released the clutch with acceleration and the noise increases rapidly, noise insulation is very bad and i could hear only the engine noise even with my windows rolled UP. It strugles to move forward and at one time i thought i am driving a mini truck.
by this time i lost my interest on this vehicle but to complete the test drive i drove it from atleast 8 kms and touched 100 KPH, driving is not very much confidence inspiring may be due to its leaf spring at rear.

I felt steering is too light and is boon for city driving but not for highways due to its steering size and light steering. The brakes are good, it has disk at front and drum at rear.
I finished my test drive, but the dealer was very courtious and very attentive , he immediately arranged for test drive. but he mentioned a statement which is hard to digest.. he said the interior dashboard is like hond civic type and steering is like honda civic type..., i was thinking about the comparison.


The top end model is 8.42 lacs onroad which is not VFM looking at the quality of this vehicle,

hopefully ICML improves the overall quality of the vehicle and make it VFM.

-MUKE

this is pretty much what i expected on the engine's part to be raw and rough!, after all they are tractor makers, and a raw engine is plonked into this vehicle.

but i did see a say a good number of these in the kadapa-kurnool region, may be its selling due to qualis nostalgia or they have some really nice pricing and finance options on a few models, i mean atleast for the tractor owners i am guessing they have a few schemes.

well whats the cost of the starting model? and the others? any body?

[jkdas]

Originally Posted by ajmat

As Hormuzd stated on the Autocar show

It drives like a rhino
It is as dangerous as one
it also has one horn

bad brakes too? A Rhino following me had to steer away to avoid collsion as he couldnt slow down in time.

Saw some new pix of interiors. Looks wow in pix.

[greenhorn]

i think the interiors are a ford ripoff

[v12]

Although the Rhino maybe a good vehicle in its own ways, it will never match the success of the Qualis. As GTO mentioned, its just a vehicle to fill in the gap left by the Qualis. But the pricing is not justified at all. It should have been priced at around 5-5.5 to be a success even in the metros.

The body panels, though similar, are definitely not the same as the Qualis. Toyota would definitely not sell its dyes to a different company. Sonalika may have opted for Qualis like body panels since they dyes for these would have been cheaper (since they are flat panels).

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by v12

The body panels, though similar, are definitely not the same as the Qualis. Toyota would definitely not sell its dyes to a different company. Sonalika may have opted for Qualis like body panels since they dyes for these would have been cheaper (since they are flat panels).

Well, it could be chinese. There are chinese imitations of all Toyota vehicles, perhaps they bought the dies off the chaps who copied the Qualis?

[v12]

That may be a possibility. But I doubt there is a Chinese Qualis.

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by v12

That may be a possibility. But I doubt there is a Chinese Qualis.

They have over a 100 manufacturers. They've copied everything from the Daewoo Matiz to the Rolls Royce Phantom. Toyota vehicles are very very popular - why wouldnt they copy the Qualis if they've copied everything from the Yaris to the Hiace to the Avalon?

[condor]

v12 : Toyota would definitely not sell its dyes to a different company. Sonalika may have opted for Qualis like body panels since they dyes for these would have been cheaper (since they are flat panels).

Why Not ? The two are so damn similar that it's hard to distinguish from afar. It's very much possible that Toyota has sold the dies to Sonalika.

With so much similarity between the two, Toyota would have taken Sonalika to court. This isnt China.

[v12]

With so much similarity between the two, Toyota would have taken Sonalika to court. This isnt China.

By the time the Rhino was launched the Qualis production was stopped. So theres no way Toyota could have slapped a case against Sonalika. Anyways all these questions would be best answered by someone from Sonalika. I guess we had someone on Team-BHP who was related to the Sonalika group.

[greenhorn]

Originally Posted by condor

It's very much possible that Toyota has sold the dies to Sonalika.

Originally Posted by autopsyche

Well, i know the company's working very upclose, let me correct the fact that they are not using the same dye as the qualis.

Yes you can say that the design is "insipred" by the qualis.

he seemed to be pretty sure they weren't. even what I've been told is that they arent the same dies

[v12]

If the dyes were the same, the body panels would have been exactly similar to the Qualis. But they are not.
Look at the doors, the shape is different.
Also the crease along the side, there is more gap between the window and the crease in the Rhino than the Qualis.
The rear of the Qualis is more angular than the Rhino.

[Cyrus43]

Umm, Let me put all the confusion to rest. A VERY reliable Automotive source has confirmed that Toyota India sold its Entire Set of Dyes to Sonalika. Sonalike has just edited those Dyes A little bit to make the Rhino. Even the mountings are the same as the qualis.

[phamilyman]

Hmm, in which case, we have a winner on our hands. My own reliable source tells me that besides the fantastic engine and suspension, the rest is pretty much junk. Now if they were to offer a decent price (auto expo brochures mentioned close to 7) they would take over the taxi segment. Given the proliferatoin of Omnis in India, there's a large market for a quick taxicab that goes like stink. And yes, the Qualis resemblance helps.

[muneemmk]

While doing a carbon copy work of the Qualis , they could have had some dignity and made some kind of difference atleast in the paint jobs. saw to cars today with red/silver and Green/silver combination from the Qualis RS Running around cochin. What where they thinking ?