Glanza

Overview

The Glanza does not try to be exciting. It is a 1.2-litre, four-cylinder hatchback with 88 bhp, and the entire argument for buying one is that it is smooth where the turbo-petrol alternatives are gritty, cheap to keep where they are clever, and sold through Toyota dealerships where the service booking is easy to get. The engine pulls from low revs without vibration, the manual is light, and the claimed 21 kmpl is the kind of number a steady right foot really can reach on an expressway.

Equipment is the part that quietly impressed us in this listing: six airbags on every variant from day one, a large touchscreen on mid trims upward, and a boot that at 311 litres makes most hatchbacks look stingy. The cabin is the same generous, slightly plain space as its better-known mechanical twin, which means the front seats are wide, the rear bench takes two adults properly, and the dashboard plastics will survive five monsoons.

The cons are the flip side of the same coin. The three-star crash score is inherited, not earned on its own terms, and the structure does not out-perform the safer cars in this price band; the automatic is smooth but blunts an already modest engine; and outside the metros Toyota’s hatchback service footprint is thinner than the market leader’s. Buy a mid-spec Glanza manual and it is one of the most rational ₹8-lakh cars on this list; buy the top automatic and you are paying for comfort over ability.

• Six airbags standard on every variant
• 311-litre boot in a hatchback
• Claimed 21 kmpl from the 1.2 petrol