The Toyota Rush compact SUV has been spotted in India wearing heavy camouflage. It is possible that Tata Motors or Volkswagen is using the vehicle for benchmark testing.
The Toyota Rush is a compact SUV that is sold in overseas markets. The vehicle gets only a petrol engine and it is not designed for oil burners. The current generation has been on sale since 2006 and hence it makes no sense for Toyota to plonk a diesel engine in it since the next generation Rush will be hitting the markets in the near future. The Rush is powered by a 1.5-litre petrol engine producing 109 PS of power and 141 Nm of torque. The engine is mated to either a 5-speed manual transmission or a 4-speed automatic tranny.
Since Toyota India has its plant in Bangalore, Karnataka, all of their test mules are KA registered. It is a common norm followed by every manufacturer, eg – Maruti Suzuki – HR; Nissan and Hyundai – TN; Tata Motors and Volkswagen – MH 14, etc. Now we see that the Toyota Rush test mule is also MH 14 (Chakan) registered which means that it is not Toyota who has brought down the SUV. According to us, it could be either Tata Motors or Volkswagen who has imported the compact SUV, probably for benchmarking purpose.
Tata Motors will be launching the Nexon compact SUV in 2016 and is highly likely that the Indian manufacturer has brought down the Rush to benchmark it for quality, ride, handling, etc. When we visited the Tata Motors plant last year, we saw a range of rival models at its test centre, all of which were being used for benchmarking. Even Volkswagen is coming up with an India-centric compact SUV so the German automaker too could be using the Rush to check what all could be done for better reliability and cost effectiveness. Meanwhile, Toyota is planning to launch a compact SUV based on the Etios platform.
Spy Picture Source – IndianAutosBlog.com
