There’s a new Toyota Yaris Zen advert that debuted on mass TV this past weekend. It’s the familiar plot of Buddy the dog and this time around a feline going by the name of Mr Miao-gi stars besides the middle-class reared Boxer. The scheme here is that Buddy, constantly the excitable and hyper-active, is taught how to obtain Zen by this long-moustached cat. Sounds familiar?
Yes, it’s the karate kid and it’s borrows flavour from this remake of the classic wax on/ wax off 1980s’ Karate Kid trilogy featuring the original, unshakable fly-busting Mr Miyagi. It’s a similar strategy that Toyota is actually going about repositioning its B-segment Yaris brand and placing it smack in the middle of the newly developed Sub-B Segment that’s made up mainly of return soldiers (cars of old day resurrected to pry money out of pockets. Think Polo Vivo and Ford Figo).
However Toyota’s strategy is somewhat different from the norm. It uses a currently sold model-the Yaris and is adding spice such as stickers to in order to appeal to the young of the nation which knows Jacky Chan. With this Yaris Zen however, as its name suggests, Toyota hasn’t gotten rid of the peace of mind-ZEN- HAYI! It’s not a stripped out version of the car and that means all the safety features such as airbags, ABS and EBD are retained while the price shifts down. HAYI! Great, how’d they do that?
According to Andrew Kirby senior Marketing guy and mean snooker player, the relooking of supplier costs and shuffling there, moving out here and leaving that there has achieved these lower costs. In simple, movie-goer terms, they shopped around for cheaper parts manufacturing prices. And it’s all good and dandy but isn’t this how quality-failure recalls actually begin? Toyota stands by the workmanship of its product and though and to really attract its over-sized eye-wear clad profile client, the company has sourced some fantastic finance packages.
The ad will hype-up the fact that it’s possible to spend slightly less than R2 000 a month in instalments for the car. This is what Buddy will not immediately make you aware of-the balloon payment, and the insurance, and the extra money you will pay for items such as air con. Incidentally, there are ten various Zen-levels, shared equally between the Yaris hatchback and sedan, so choosing your preferred spec is made easier.
Yet I can’t help question this otherwise positive move by Toyota SA. The local team could have, in my opinion, gotten really deep into the spirit of things and returned the Run-X model. It would in doubt be cheaper to assemble and make better sense to the archetypical sub-B-budget seeker while doubling Toyota’s profits and most of all, be immune to the many recalls plaguing the company.
Toyota Yaris Zen Pricing
Hatch
Zen1- 3-dr, 1.0-litre 3Cyl (R126 300)
Zen3 AC, five door (R135 900)
Zen3 ACS (R138 000)
Sedan
Zen3 (R137 000)
Zen3 ACS (R148 300)
Zen3 Plus (R158 900)
Zen3 Plus (R150 100)
Zen3 Plus AT (R162 600)
STORY BY PHUTI MPYANE OF KMR MEDIA
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