Toyota Avanza

Toyota has given the 7-seater Toyota Avanza a second facelift, after the first facelift that also debuted the 1.5 liter model in Malaysia, and it will be coming to Malaysia almost immediately right after the Indonesian launch this morning.

Five spec levels will be available in Malaysia – the 1.5S (RM78.5k), the 1.5G (RM74.5k), the 1.5E (RM70k), the 1.3E automatic (RM65.8k) and the 1.3E manual (RM62.5k). All the 1.5 liter versions only come with automatic transmissions. These are estimated prices for Peninsular Malaysia private registration.

The changes on the exterior are mostly aesthetic, while on the interior you get a new dashboard colour that is a mixture of grey and beige that Toyota calls “greige”. The 3-spoke steering wheel is also now a 4-spoke design while the center dash area where the air cond controls and head unit are is now done up in a colour called “smoke silver”.

It seems that the ceiling of the car also gets slightly reshaped with little guidelines that help guide the air conditioning from the front blowers to the third row. There is also added insulation in the roof to reduce the noise that raindrops make when it hits the car’s roof.

In Indonesia, the S-spec model gets a 2-DIN head unit instead of a 1-DIN versions as well as a gated shifter, but a quick glance at the preview specs of the facelifted Avanza posted up on UMW Toyota’s website shows we still get a 1-DIN version. However, all of the automatic models in Malaysia get the gated shifter, not just the S-spec model.

Another change that’s quite obvious from the photo above is a new colour – white. It’s a very basic facelift, minor changes that are done just to extend the lifespan of this model that has been around since 2004 and facelifted once in 2006. If you follow a 5 year model lifespan it should be retiring next year but it looks like the Avanza will be around for quite sometime.