Tours And Travel Operators Notice The HyCross

Toyota Innova is synonymous with comfortable and roomy road trips in the tours and travel circle. Prateek Pardeshi highlights the USPS of the one-up HyCross and its calling.

- Prateek Pardeshi

The Toyota MPVs are the flag bearers for the ferrying capacity, comfort and the legroom! They bridge the distance to luxury in the tours and travels segment with ease. Operators customise it further to make it their own. From the erstwhile bull bars to the luggage racks to the modern rooftop luggage carriers to the motor homes they’ve tried it all. The Innova is no wonder the flag bearer for Toyota Kirloskar Motors (TKM) in India. So much so, ask a driver and he will give you his own take on the series of Innova iterations (G1-G4) and how the yesteryear Innova differs from the recent Crysta on counts that matter. This is a 17-year journey of the Multi-Purpose Vehicle (MPV) that has left his mark and continues to evolve. It traces its roots back to the Qualis (quailty+service), essentially the ‘Kijang’ of the global market.

Launched at an ex-showroom price of Rs.18.30 lakh for the G 7S variant, the new Innova HyCross goes up to Rs.28.97 lakh for the top variant. An anticipated launch earlier this year, it had fleet operator RC Patil of Om Sai Fleet Management sit up and take notice too. He owns 22 Innovas with two owned and 20 leased by his company. Open to upgrading for better offerings, his first impression hints at his perception of it as an aspiration. For a fleet operator, the Total Cost of Operations (TCO) holds the highest significance over superficial inclusions, unlike a retail private customer. Understandably as he has a higher running at ~ 300500 kms per day and ~9,000-15,000 kms per month. With more than one million customers like Sharma in India alone and 2.6 million around the globe since 2004, TKM hopes to have got it right with wellthought-out considerations in the HyCross.