GOLD RUSH
Toyota’s new Rush in Egoli
The gold rush of 1886 led to the establishment of Johannesburg and formed a key part of the Mineral Revolution. Currently, an Suv-revolution is sweeping through the auto industry, and while passing the Gauteng gold mine dumps, Ferdi de Vos wondered whether Toyota has struck gold with its new Rush ...
The gold rush of 1886 led to the establishment of Johannesburg and formed a key part of the Mineral Revolution. Currently, an Suv-revolution is sweeping through the auto industry, and while passing the Gauteng gold mine dumps, Ferdi de Vos wondered whether Toyota has struck gold with its new Rush ...
The major gold rushes that took place in the 19th century in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, the United States, and South Africa, helped change the course of history in these countries. It spurred huge immigration that often led to permanent settlement of new regions and defined aspects of the culture in these regions.
In the automotive world, the progression of the Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) from niche, speciality vehicle to a mainstream model has been a significant trend in the last two decades. The acronym has come to refer to any vehicle that fulfils a cross-functional role, possesses an elevated driving position, increased ride height and sufficient cargo/utility space.
As such, the Suv-revolution has infiltrated all sectors of the traditional car market. They are now offered in multiple shapes and sizes and have even pioneered entirely new segments.
It is against this background that Toyota South Africa decided to locally introduce the new second-generation Rush, Toyota’s version of the Daihatsu Terios that was available here up until March 2015 in its previous incarnation. Basically, the new Rush is a second-generation Toyota Avanza (Daihatsu Zenia) on some strong steroids.
The Rush is based on the same platform as the Avanza and built at the same Indonesian plant. While it was offered with four-wheel drive in its previous embodiment (like its Daihatsu counterpart), it is now only available with rear-wheel drive. However, the designers have done a great job in hiding its utilitarian Avanza origins and giving it a convincing Suvlook with a definite “mini-fortuner” feel
to it, entwined with some Avanza cues. It features a prominent angular design with pointed, upswept LED headlamps, and large trapezoidal grille. An inverted contour line separates the upper and lower air-dams and creates a triangular space, which house the fog lamps. A silver-hued skid plate and twin hood bulges round off the front façade. The side design emphasises its higher ground clearance (220 mm) and spaciousness, whilst black fender trim and lower panel garnishes, matching black roof rails and body-colour rear roof spoiler add a rugged element. The Led-equipped rear lamp clusters have strong horizontal lines like that of the Fortuner, and a similarly inverted contour line flow from the bumper to the rear diffuser area. Stylish 17-inch alloy wheels shod with sensible 215/60/R017 tyres completes the picture (and a full-size spare wheel is also provided).
Massive cargo space
The interior adopts a strong symmetrical design and feels solid. The upper dashboard houses a touchscreen audio system, equipped with Bluetooth, USB, and Android Auto Plus Show/apple Carplay functionality, while high-contrast taupe trim and chrome accents on the facia and door panels add some brightness to the cabin. The seats, finished in highly durable, patterned black fabric with complementing inlays on the door panels, was comfortable and the ample cup holders and storage compartments in the Rush were welcomed.
The touchscreen infotainment system not only offers Android Auto Plus Show, Miracast, and Carplay functionality, but also satellite navigation (rare in this class of vehicle), seamlessly navigating us along the N1 North past Pretoria on our way to the Waterberg.
With Toyota only making the five-seat version available locally, the cavernous 609-litre luggage area was a real boon, easily swallowing the belongings of four people. The rear seats can also be folded forward independently to further boost cargo space.
Noisy engine
The Rush uses the same 1.5-litre fourcylinder VVT-I engine as the Avanza, with outputs of 77 kw at 6,000 rpm and 136 Nm of torque at 4,200 rpm. Matched to a fivespeed manual transmission (a four-speed auto version is also available) with short gearing, the engine revved at nearly 4,000 rpm at 120 km/h in top gear. This made it quite noisy at cruising speed, and while not unpleasantly so, some extra sound insulation under the engine compartment would be welcomed. While Toyota quotes a consumption figure of 6,6 l/100 km, we never got our usage under 7 l/100 km, even on long highway stretches.
Even on very coarse tar surfaces, the ride quality of the Rush was surprisingly good, and it was compliant on mixed gravel and dirt surfaces in the private game reserve we visited. It also performed well on bad gravel roads, thanks to its generous ride height, combined with a 31-degree approach and 26.5-degree departure angle. But we did not test the 600 mm wading depth claimed by Toyota
Array of features
The Rush features a broad array of safety features, include Vehicle Stability Control (VSC), Anti-lock Braking System (ABS), and Hill Assist Control (HAC), six airbags, a smart entry system with door-handle mounted access button and push-start ignition, an alarm and immobiliser, integrated reverse camera, and Park Distance Control (PDC). This is quite comprehensive in its class, making it a strong competitor against the Honda BR-V, Mahindra TUV300, Haval H1, and refreshed Ford Ecosport. It also has a decent six-speaker sound system, and on our way back to Egoli, songs by Canadian rock band Rush (they disbanded earlier this year after a career spanning 40 years) such as ‘Tom Sawyer’ shortened the trip.
At just under R300k the Suv-like Rush, catering for the ‘new age’ urban adventurer, may prove fairly popular. But it probably would not cause a rush ...