2012 Toyota Yaris - Not for Thailand or Malaysia

We have seen images of the European marker 2012 Toyota Yaris. The Yaris has never been a popular car in Malaysia, and was quietly dropped by the local distributor UMW Toyota back in 2010. Even in Thailand, where the Yaris is assembled, sales never quite matched up to Honda's Jazz. When the Japanese market Yaris (Vitz) was introduced, sources from Thailand hinted that the model will not be made available in Thailand, and as Thailand is the ASEAN region's only source of Yaris, it would also mean that the Yaris will effectively be discontinued after the current model generation reaches the end of its lifecycle.

However, sources within Toyota's Thai office later hinted that the there will be a replacement for the Yaris, although it will not be the same Yaris / Vitz model sold in Japan or Europe. One of the main problems with the current generation Yaris was its high price point, which Toyota could do little about because the car is pretty much designed with the European market in mind and the cost structure is optimized for European assembly plants. Also, its low sales volume here meant that it could never achieve the same economy of scale as its stronger selling sedan cousin Vios. While Toyota remained coy about the details, we only infer that there will be a hatchback model to fill the void left by the discontinued Yaris. Logically the new hatchback will address two key problems afflicting the current generation Yaris - price and size.

We also know that Toyota developed a low cost hatchback for the Indian market, called the Etios Liva, which will be launched by June-27 next week. The Etios Liva is targetted at India's best selling car, the Maruti Suzuki Swift. We think the Etios Liva will be a much better candidate for the local B-segment hatchback market. The current generation Honda Jazz has seen significant increase in its price, making it pretty much irrelevant in this segment anymore. We will have to wait until June-27 for further details on the Etios Liva's overseas market plan.