NEWBIE CLUB

Which one of the two newest compact SUVs on the market is worth your money?

- TUHIN GUHA

We seem to have now reached a stage where just saying you want a compact SUV isn’t enough. There’s an insatiable appetite for SUVs to be filled, and carmakers have been going about filling every niche. The newest entrant to the scene, the Nissan Magnite, is the best example of this. It aims to recreate all the aura around owning a compact SUV but at a more affordable price point. But what is it like when pitted against the segment yardstick, or at least a proxy for it, in the form of the equally new Toyota Urban Cruiser?

Styling

With the Urban Cruiser, Toyota has brought some more individuality to its version of the Vitara Brezza. Where the Glanza just swapped badges, the Urban Cruiser features a new front-end. The clearly Fortuner-inspired twin-slat grille between the carried over LED headlamps and the large triangular foglamp housings in the bull-bar effect bumper make for the typically butch face that someone shopping in this segment might take a liking to.

We only wish Toyota had done a bit more to the rear, even a more distinguishable revised bumper design would have let the Urban Cruiser stand out from the swarms of Vitara Brezzas already on our roads. But it helps that the Vitara Brezza tows such a straight forward line with its looks, the changes to the Urban Cruiser are effective and seem quite cohesive with the blocky, upright shape of the donor car.