The views expressed in this opinion feature on Toyota cars in Kenya are purely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Bizna Kenya:
I’d like to engage you guys on vehicles. After the new shape Allion/Premio/Axio/Fielder etc, lots of people can agree the design is way appealing. Since I had already owned a Toyota car with no problems whatsoever, it was only natural to be loyal to the brand right?
I went ahead to look at the budget options from the Toyota cars in Kenya, having owned a 1500cc RunX, the Fielder/Axio/Allion/Premio weren’t any different.
What I learned after taking Sh. 300,000 loan to start chicken farming
The 2003 RunX is literally similar to the 2010 Fielder and the rest in all possible ways just for the CVT transmission. Same 1NZ motor with no improvement whatsoever, same DBA-NZ chassis, same suspension, even the dashboard hasn’t changed at all, same layout except that the Allion/Premio have a small LCD display to show fuel etc.
The vehicles with the 1800 or 2000cc option had a few slight differences like fog lamps or optional 4WD and keyless entries. All the vehicles mentioned do high speeds at such a worrying state, unstable, lean to the side greatly when cornering. 2 airbags and all the above have drums in the rear thus very poor breaking.
With all the above being mentioned, why does a Premio retail at 1.5M or the Axio at 1.2M while cars like the VW Jetta/Golf Variant at 1.2 or the BMW 320i at 1.6 are way better cars?
Although Toyota cars in Kenya are highly popular, why would one buy a Belta at 900k and leave way better options from Mazda like the Axela, Verissa, Nissan Bluebird, Tiida or Honda Airwave, Subaru. The spare issue is a fallacy and Toyota is now like Apple’s iPhone, the biggest scam in the Automaker industry. Toyota cars in Kenya.