raptor's Blog: It's Everything

Spotlight on Toyota Soluna Vios
Many know this car. Yup, we see a lot of them on our roads, more commonly known as the Toyota Vios. Toyota Malaysia has opted to exclude the Soluna nameplate for our roads. Perhaps because the original Soluna wasn't actually sold here. Other reasons might be to upmarket the vehicle (the Soluna was a cheap budget car introduced during the economic downturn, similar to the previous generation City) and to give it better resale value. But don't get confused, the vehicle is unmistakenably the Toyota Soluna Vios, the 2nd generation of the Soluna series. So here comes Toyota again, with a 2nd generation, head-to-head again with arch-rivals Honda and their City. The battle continues.

The 1st generation Soluna was actually a modified Toyota Tercel. The Tercel was an old Toyota built in the eighties, so they actually had a solid base to begin with. Toyota changed the lights, bumpers and some of the interior to produce a simple no-frills car.

Toyota Tercel

Toyota Tercel

The Soluna wasn't actually sold on our shores, but it was popular with our neighbours Singapore and Thailand. The Soluna was a solid basic form of transportation, and was rather bare in almost every sense. But even with the barest of forms, the Soluna had all the basic necessities that an average joe would need. It had simple styling, looking rather like it's bigger brother the Corolla. It was sort of a saviour in hard times, where people needed something simple and cheap as a means of transportation. In Malaysia, similar roles were played by the Toyota Unser, Honda City and Proton Saga Iswara circa 1998. Ok, enough with the old model, let's move on to the 2nd generation, the Soluna Vios.

Toyota Soluna (1st gen)

Side view

Basic dashboard

Rear view

The Soluna Vios is based on the platform of the previous generation Toyota Yaris (aka Echo or Vitz). So again, it had proven underpinings to begin with. The Yaris was a good budget car itself, but that's another story.

Toyota Yaris/Echo/Vitz

Central dashboard

Rear view

Featuring a totally new bodyshape that bears little in common with the Yaris/Echo/Vitz, the Soluna Vios was a universally accepted car. It wasn't offensive in a design sense, but it wasn't a breakthrough either. With a tagline "It's Everything", it resumed what the former model did, which was to provide a basic form of transportation for the masses, but this time it can afford to move a little upmarket, just like its rival the City. Times have changed and people are able to afford something a little better. The car was an instant hit, and since Malaysians had no knowledge whatsoever of the Soluna, Toyota Malaysia didn't need to go through the trouble of repositioning the car. They left out the Soluna name and stuck with the name Toyota Vios. Similar to what they did to the Corolla, by calling it only Altis (although the name Corolla stayed, with small type). The Vios outnumbered the City in sales, mainly because Malaysians were a conservative lot, and liked the more car-like look of the car compared to its main rival. But the Soluna Vios was in no way a bad car. It was actually up-to-date and was real value for money. It was equipped with a 1.5l engine and smart details like the central dashboard similar to the Yaris. With the help of pop sensation Britney Spears, Toyota enjoyed good sales.

Britney was the Spokesperson for the Soluna Vios

It also entered racing, as seen here with the (previous gen) City

Toyota Soluna Vios

A huge step forward from the previous model

Central dashboard

Closeup on the dash

Rear view

In 2005, Toyota introduced a subtle facelift for the Soluna Vios, introducing a new family grille, new bumpers, lights front and rear, as well as an updated interior. And so the car was again all set to be a winner. In many ways, the car would have actually done way better if not for the unforgiving nature of our tax structure. It was meant to be a car for the masses, but in our country, it was still not cheap enough. A problem also faced by its rival the honda City. However, it remains a success story for Toyota until today. It's still not know what would replace it in the near future, possibly a car based on the current Yaris or Belta.