Last month, UMW Toyota Motor (UMWT) announced the
Toyota Avanza 1.5X, a new range-topping variant of the seven-seater MPV. Going
for RM 82,700 on-the-road without insurance, the Avanza X wears tougher styling
for a pseudo SUV look. That’s the trick used by Honda for the BR-V, although
that one was designed from the ground-up to look “rugged”.
The Avanza 1.5X’s defining cosmetic add-on is the
black cladding on the entire lower portion of the car – front, back and sides
including the wheel arches. There are silver sections in the front and rear
lower bumper to simulate skid plates. The matte black cladding is mixed with
some gloss black bits higher up, and there are LED daytime running lights below
the fog lamps.
All the above lower body add-ons are matched with
blacked-out D pillars for the “floating roof” effect. There are also ‘X’ badges
on the front wings and the rear gets extra red reflectors next to the vertical
tail lights.
Optional kit shown here include two-tone multi-spoke
16-inch alloy wheels and a “roof ornament”, which we presume to mean that the
roof rails are merely decorative. As usual for UMWT models, customers can
upgrade the head unit to DVD-AVX or DVD-AVN systems, both with touchscreens.
