Toyota Urban Cruiser Hyryder Hybrid Road Test
After a couple of rebadging schemes, the Urban Cruiser Hyryder is the first product born out of the collaboration between two automotive giants. It was co-developed alongside the Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara and this collaboration brought together the best of many worlds – hybrid, mild-hybrid, AWD, CNG alternative, the option of an automatic gearbox, new-age features, safety, and a blend of performance and frugality. But is it enough to take on the fight against the well-established Hyundai Creta and Kia Seltos?
Right Rear Three Quarter
We first experienced the Hyryder Hybrid in September 2022. Now, let us take a finer look at Toyota’s C-segment SUV with a hybrid powertrain and find out whether it has what it takes to compete in a fierce segment.
Design and Dimensions
Left Front Three Quarter
With European-esque styling going for it, the Hyryder looks even more handsome in darker shades. Catching attention is it’s the sleek-split headlamp design while the rest of the fascia is also fresh to the eyes and looks appeasing, if not too flashy or too poignant. In profile, the contrast roof adds a necessary character to the silhouette, which otherwise looks quite plane-jane in single-tone.
Right Side View
What’d have done wonders to the overall stance of the Hyryder is a taller height. A taller bodyshell would not only have credited the Hyryder more street presence, but it would have also helped with second-row headroom. Otherwise, the long-nose, squared-off wheel arches, missing shoulder line, and upright tailgate with an abrupt cut at the tail lamp level gives the Hyryder a unique silhouette.
Right Rear Three Quarter
At the back, the sleek pair of tail lamps is brilliantly designed to accommodate two C-section crab-pincer-like illuminations. Apart from them, the vertically-stacked rear reflectors integrating into the body’s creases are notable design elements at the back.
Interior Look and Quality
Dashboard
Highlighting its hybrid nature on the inside is a ‘blue’-finished start/stop button. There’s an all-digital instrument cluster here which gives out loads of information, but we’d have preferred slightly better graphics/interface as this one starts to look boring after a while. Next up, with the nine-inch touchscreen unit stacked atop you get the newest interface from Maruti. It inherently wears a dark theme, which would be preferable to those who run similar dark themes on their phones.
Gear Shifter/Gear Shifter Stalk
Next, the brown-black dual-tone cabin gets soft-touch finishes cleverly used on the brown colour inserts, and these won’t be soiled easily compared to, say, white/beige interior. Then, their combination with silver inserts feels nice too. And the ergonomics all around won’t give a reason to complain either. All the buttons are easy to reach and although not the finest, they feel built to last.
Center Console/Centre Console Storage
On the flip side, plastic in some areas – like on and around the gear lever, the lower half of the dashboard, and dead buttons on the centre console – doesn’t feel at home in a car asking over Rs 18-20 lakh.
