All-new Toyota Innova first drive: a level-up leap

THE ALL-NEW Innova as well as the Hilux and Fortuner were unveiled to dealers and media in Panglao, Bohol.

Text and photos by Ardie O. Lopez

DON’T fix it if it ain’t broke, says the old adage. And old as it is, automotive leviathan Toyota seems to have never heard of it.

The Toyota Innova has been around virtually forever (as it basically is an upgraded permutation of Toyota’s long line of Tamaraw FX and Revo AUVs), and if you toss a handful of ping-pong balls from a flyover down to a big bunch of vehicles waiting for a green light, chances are half of them would end up bouncing off Innovas.

That’s how popular the nameplate is, and how it’s the undisputed symbol of the Filipino family ride.

With the all-new Innova, Toyota is in no way giving up that honor. It’s instead giving the Filipino family, and all the rest of the market that’ll get a kick out of the Innova, quite a significant upgrade.

Reclassification please

By now, all traces of the Innova’s Asian utility vehicle (AUV) roots have faded. In fact, if its previous generation was occasionally called a premium AUV, calling the all-new Innova that would be a travesty.

The Innova has been redesigned from the ground up as part of Toyota’s potent new triumvirate of all-new IMV nameplates, destined to break local sales records once again.

The Toyota-coined acronym IMV stands for Innovative Multi-Purpose Vehicle (MPV), and the new Hilux and Fortuner join the Innova in the brand’s major salvo for 2016—all upgraded, and all gunning to excite and exhilarate.

This time around the Innova doesn’t need an apple box to be of equal stature with its siblings, as it is now every inch an MPV.

Better experience

We had been given the opportunity to drive the Innova around Clark Speedway’s manicured racetrack a few weeks ago, back to back with the new Fortuner.

While we were more excited to get behind the wheel of the Fortuner, it was a pleasant surprise to find the Innova’s improvements to be beyond expectation.

TOYOTA Motor Philippines president Satoru Suzuki

Racetracks may be a lot smoother than your typical road and highway, but the ride on Bohol’s provincial roads felt plush with the independent coil spring, quad-link double wishbone with stabilizer suspension. Especially with the top V variant, the interior appointment was undoubtedly premium.

Seated in one of the Innovas’ comfortable second row Captain seats (in the top variant), I must say the Innova has come a long way.

It has a four-spoke leather steering wheel that’s tilt and telescopic-adjustable (which is a big deal for me, to be able to get the best driving position possible), two-DIN six-speaker audio/video/info system with navigation via a large LCD display, and tasteful wood and silver trim on a great new dashboard design that’s elegant and very to-date.

Its second-row roof-mounted air-conditioner panel where the vents are situated are near-flush mounted, as opposed to having thickly padded ducting that’s so third-world.

I wasn’t so fond of the embossed pattern on the seat fabric, a cross between a zebra’s stripes and ocean waves, but it’s easy to get used to.

But the exterior! The all-new Innova’s aesthetics, compared to the previous generation’s front end, is like comparing Taylor Swift’s face with a matron’s that went through a budget facelift.

Its well-designed fascia is sporty yet smart-looking, thanks to the new LED headlamp clusters.

Viewed from the side, its sleeker profile no longer broadcasts “family ride.”

The 16-inch alloy wheels on 65-series tires are standard across all variants.

THREE variants of the all-new Innova with the church of St. Augustine in Panglao, Bohol, in the background

SEAT back tables are standard in the new Innova.

AN HD MULTI-INFORMATION display and capacitive touchscreen audio with navigation give the Innova a class boost.

Jive from drive

Once you’ve gotten over the exterior changes, the next glaringly obvious change would be the significant jump in power of the diesel engine.

TOYOTA Motor Co. executive chief engineer Hiroki Nakajima

Toyota just had to upgrade the engine, otherwise the Innova’s reinvention wouldn’t be complete.

Two engine types are available: the 1GD-FTV 2.8-liter CRDI diesel engine, and the 1TR-FE 2.0-L dual-VVTi gasoline engine that comes mated to either a six-speed gated automatic transmission with sequential control, or an enhanced five-speed manual transmission.

The gasoline variant was the smoother runner among the two, despite noticeable improvements on NVH (noise/vibration/harshness) for both, but I’d pick the diesel in a heartbeat.

The 300-cubic-centimeter bump in displacement from the previous, along with the numerous other technical enhancements, gives the 2.8-L diesel engine a 169-HP and 360-Newton-meter output that kicks in on the lower register of the rev range.

So now, the Innova has become more power sufficient, fuel efficient, and Euro-4 compliant.

And to complete the overall upgrade, driver and passenger safety was given a boost as well.

The new Innova comes with side and curtain airbags, aside from the standard front and driver knee airbags.

This is complemented by the stock ABS with EBD, and now with Vehicle Stability Control.

The all-new Toyota Innova’s pricing starts at P919,000 for the base gasoline model, all the way up to P1.46 million for the top diesel variant.

Toyota took the term “all-new” quite literally, and even went a step further by redefining the Innova in every respect.

It’s a bona fide MPV beyond technical terms, and it has transcended its former image to become an exceptional one at that.