Another day, another Gazoo Racing model for Toyota. This time, it’s the Rush SUV that gets the racy treatment.
Toyota seems to be rushing (pardon the pun) the roll out of GR versions of their products that in a span of a day, they’ve unveiled the Rush GR Sport along with the Wigo (Agya) GR Sport and Avanza Veloz GR Sport.
Like other GR Sport variants, the Rush GR Sport is basically an aesthetic makeover that gives the small 7-seater SUV a dark chrome grille along with a more angular front bumper and a rear bumper that happens to integrate both an overrider and a diffuser. Seems Toyota is confused on whether they wanted a more rugged or a sportier look so they decided to give this Rush variant both. A Gazoo Racing badge completes the exterior transformation.
Inside, the Rush GR Sport gets a two-tone cabin with while detailing on the dashboard and door trim as well as a revised instrument cluster, automatic climate control, and a tweaked infotainment system with eight speakers.
Once again, there have been no mechanical changes here so the Rush GR Sport continues with the 1.5-liter 2NR-VE engine making 104 horsepower and 136 Nm of torque. It does, however, add an idle start/stop function to further improve its fuel economy.
Toyota’s decision to expand the Gazoo Racing family to pretty much their entire line-up will no doubt attract those who want a bit more pizzazz to their everyday cars. However, their quick and seemingly overexpanded offering also threatens the GR branding itself. If Toyota isn’t careful, it might start to affect even their halo products such as the GR Supra, GR Yaris, and GR 86 rather than uplifting their mass market line-up. Unless, of course, that’s what they wanted all along.
With the launch of the GR branding a few years ago, I thought Toyota would finally be able to create better distinction between looks fast and actually fast. TRD was a mess between actual performance upgrades and aethetics. But with GR, I thought they could finally differentiate performance (GR) and aesthetics (TRD). But these new GR and GR Sport models look like the TRDs of the past.
ReplyDeleteHowever, this marketing strategy will work really well for Toyota, inticing regular buyers into getting more expensive supposedly 'high performance' versions of normal cars (look, my car says GR! It means fast and cool). The enthusiasts will still know the true value of the real GR models (GR Yaris, GR 86, GR Supra), so I highly doubt that market will be affected by the mass-market GR Sport kits.