And so, it has finally arrived on our shores – the 2008 brand new Toyota Altis, fresh off the factory floors of Thailand.

 

Thanks to fantastic pictures borrowed from ParisB, I too can finally review the new Toyota Altis 2008! We dropped by the Toyota showroom the day after we heard the Altis was out and open for viewing. They had 2 models there – the 1.6E and 1.8G Sporty. When I first saw it, I was actually surprised to see how small it seemed to look! For a minute, I actually got it mixed up with the 2008 Toyota Vios! I guess it was because both of them have that similar roundish shape that was inspired by the gorgeous new Toyota Camry that was launched in 2007. As there were people swarming all over the 1.8G, I first took a peep at the 1.6E. It was covered with fabric seats which was a bit let down from the previous model which upgraded to plush leather seats just before it was phased out. The dashboard looked very much like the Vios dashboard with similar round dials. Personally, I found the round dials quite difficult to manage as it actually make it difficult to see the levels of the air-conditioning temperature compared to the older version which used the more conventional arrow type dial. The steering wheel was similar to the new Vios with volume dials which was an upgrade from the old one. However, the brown shiny trim just didn’t do it for me. It somewhat cheapened the car. However, the worst was revealed in the form of flimsy plastic door handles and a really cheap plastic tray section on the front seat armrest. Those totally cheapened the car and I felt rather disappointed in Toyota’s abilities. Was this the best they could churn out for an over RM100k car?!

Luckily they redeemed themselves a little with the 1.8G. For a price differential of RM7,000, this had a lot more class and better finish compared to the 1.6E Toyota Altis. The dials were much better with a touch dial function. However, the squareness of the dashboard made it look very masculine so it was definitely not catered for women! Unfortunately, that was where it ended as the same plastic handles were used and cheap plastic compartments which was a really big disappointment. That plus still NO leather seats despite it being a Sporty model!

One thing I noticed about both the Toyota Altis cars was the fact that they still didn’t manage to recreate the flat floor feature at the back seats which Honda has perfected. I noticed that they experimented with it with the 2008 Toyota Vios model but evidently decided that it didn’t work as the 2008 Toyota Altis still had a slight hump in the middle of the back seat section. Another nay I found was that the car cabin had, for some reason, a cramped feeling and when two of us tried sitting in there, we felt as if the whole cabin was too small! It was definitely lacking the spaciousness of the old model.

I was pretty excited to view the new Toyota Altis when it came out. However, I have to admit that I left a little disappointed in the finishing and features of the car. It was really just a makeover of the previous model with a new and prettier body kit but inferior interior finishings. Just for reference, here are the prices of the 3 models available:

1.6E – RM102,900
1.8E – RM109,900
1.8G – RM117,900

Add on an additional RM3,000 for the 1.8G Sporty model just for some add-ons such as a full spoiler all around the car!

Unfortunately I didn’t get to test drive it. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to review that soon!