Living With It – Toyota Urban Cruiser 1,5 XR manual [Update]

Some cars serve more as driving experiences rather than everyday A-to-B appliances. The Urban Cruiser aligns itself with the latter and does so with aplomb.

Time spent: 2 of 3 months

Distance covered to date: 2 560 km

Driver: Ryan de Villiers

Average fuel consumption: 7,1 L/100 km

We like: Comfortable ride and long-travel suspension

We don’t like: Fuel consumption higher than expected and engine roar at highway speeds

Although Toyota doesn’t claim it to be, the new Urban Cruiser is not heart-rate elevating or a pulse-pounding driving experience. Quite the opposite. Toyota’s Urban Cruiser is simply a stylish means of reaching A to B with as much comfort as a R350 000 crossover could offer. But in this segment of the market that’s by no means not a bad thing.

In case you missed it: Living With it – Toyota Urban Cruiser 1,5 XR manual introduction

After it joined our long-term test fleet, the Urban Cruiser evolved into my household’s school transport mainstay. Every morning, without fail, a gaggle of matriculants and their heaps of baggage load into the Urban Cruiser at the crack of dawn ahead of a gruelling two-hour commute to school before heading to the CARmag office some 25 km away. These trips consisted of some traffic dodging that meant nipping in and out of residential roads followed by a sluggish trawl through jammed main routes, before finding some calmer suburban streets towards the office.

I’m glad to report that nothing worked against me during these trips thanks to the purpose-built Urban Cruiser. The steering is well-weighted, light enough to not strain yourself during longer drives, but not overly light to a point where you would lose the precision required to ever-so-gently slip by someone in bumper-to-bumper traffic. The engine, although raspy once on the M5 highway, is more than capable of performing a quick overtake and has enough oomph to make merging with main road traffic a breeze provided that you’ve selected to correct gear.

In terms of gripes my initial comments only mentioned the high revs at higher speeds as the main chink in the Urban Cruiser’s armour, its fuel consumption over time has become a growing concern as the mileage has increased. Sure, 7,1 L/100 km is an improved figure considering that last month it sat at 7,4 L/100 km. That is still a relatively lofty figure considering that a 77 kW naturally aspirated 1,5-litre four-cylinder motivates the Urban Cruiser. Toyota claims can reach 6,1 L/100 km and in past experience with the K15B engine in the Toyota Rumion and Suzuki Baleno we know that it is possible. I know that the higher fuel consumption is by way of the constant bumper-to-bumper traffic and perhaps a longer open road trip should be on the cards to see if this figure can decrease.

After two months with us, it seems fitting that the Urban Cruiser’s role has evolved into the one it now plays as the design and appeal are geared towards city-bound family-focused consumers.

Keyword: Living With It – Toyota Urban Cruiser 1,5 XR manual [Update]