Freshly launched Toyota Urban Cruiser vs Kia Sonet vs Tata Nexon - here is how it stands

Toyota Urban Cruiser was just launched at a starting price of Rs 8.40 lakh and it competes against the likes of the Hyundai Venue, Kia Sonet, Ford EcoSport and Tata Nexon among others. But how does it stand against these rivals?

To be fair, we aren’t going to compare the Urban Cruiser to the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza seeing as how the SUV is a badge re-engineered Brezza.

First, taking dimensions into consideration, most of the SUVs need to fit into the sub-4 metre segment and hence have very little room for a difference in length with the average being 3,995 mm.

The wheelbase as well sits on similar lines of 2,500 mm with the differences only coming in in the width and height department, which again isn’t that much of a difference.

In the powertrain department, the Urban Cruiser, just like the Vitara Brezza, gets only a 1.5-litre petrol engine and at 105 PS isn’t the most powerful of the lot either. That glory goes to the Ford EcoSport with 123 PS while the Venue and the Sonet have two engines which produce 83 PS and 120 PS. Most of the other cars on this list also get diesel powertrains unlike the Brezza and the Urban Cruiser.

Transmission options are aplenty, as all three trims – Mid, High and Premium – get both the automatic and manual transmission. The Kia Sonet, however, gets the best choice list with a varied selection of options from manual to semi-manual (iMT) to two different fully automatics.

As for features, the Toyota SUV gets a fair amount of features even in the entry-level Mid spec which is akin to the Vitara Brezza’s mid-level VXi trim. Features such as LED headlamps, auto climate control may be standard, but the Kia Sonet gets a whole selection of technology right up for grabs from even the base variant.