TOYOTA VELLFIRE
Experiencing The Thrill of Chilling in the most extravagant armchairs you will find in an automobile
WE ARE ALL ABOUT THE DRIVING but if you need to be driven around there are few back seats that can better those of the Innova. The Crysta — it has space, comfort, versatility, safety and is, above all, indestructible. It is the reason why over 900,000 Innovas have been sold over the past 15 years, a sizeable chunk to repeat buyers. After all what was there to upgrade to after you were done with your Innova, except for yet another Innova?
Now, though, there are options. Step down in price and there’s the Mahindra Marazzo. Step up and there’s the Kia Carnival. Rocket up and there’s the Mercedes-Benz V-Class. And now to keep Innova owners in the family, especially those who are doing really well in life, comes the Vellfire.
Velvet on fire, that’s what Vellfire stands for!
Another useless factoid is that Toyota wanted to bring in the Alphard, the name under which this 4.9-metre long MPV is sold in most Asian markets, but another manufacturer had already registered the name and refused to give it to Toyota. So we get the Vellfire and its horizontal acres of chrome, as opposed to the Alphard and its waterfall of chrome.
One thing is for sure, you will not miss it for the world. Not that long ago, we liberally
accused Toyota of being boring — no such criticism can be thrown the Vellfire’s way with its outrageous styling. Viewed head on it is like nothing else, vast slabs of chrome slapped across the width of the short and stubby nose, with a further protrusion of chrome in the centre that Toyota describes as a Samurai warrior’s crown. The chrome slabs are interspersed by full-LED headlights, sharply cut by said Samurai’s katana.
On the styling front, everything has been thrown at the nose because the profile is vast and slab-sided. It’s practicality over everything else, and of course more chrome — hyper chrome, as Toyota describes those 17-inch wheels. And the rear has another chrome slab across the width, so big and so shiny that all of Toyota’s test track was reflected in it. To repeat myself, this does look like nothing else, and is all the better for it. After all, nobody wants to fly under the radar these days.
I’ll get to the driving in a bit, because that really is secondary to the pampering the Vellfire subjects its occupants to. Unlike the V-Class, the Vellfire’s second row doesn’t swivel so your minions cannot grovel at your feet while you read them the riot act. That
The Vellfire's middle row is the most amazing thing stuck into an automobile
apart, the Vellfire’s middle row is the most amazing thing stuck into an automobile. We talk of business class seats in the S-Class and 7 Series; the Vellfire is first class. These are like the La-Z Boys at home, if you have a really, really high quality La-Z Boy. Let us first slide the front passenger seat out of the way via controls on its side and then sink into the wide, comfy and plush armchairs in the middle. These chairs slide, manually and individually, while the rest of the controls are electric. A missed trick is the lack of a massage function, you only get heating and cooling. It does recline to near-flat, the ottoman (leg rest) slides out and extends to support your feet and you can really, really stretch out within that three-metre wheelbase. There’s actually so much space that if you haven’t been needlessly greedy with the second row leg room, three people can fit in the third row. In fact, your two big burly bodyguards can comfortably sit in the third row with not just enough knee, head and shoulder room but more importantly enough hip room for the heat they’re packing.
Back in to the armchairs. Both the doors slide open electrically. The glass is insulated for both heat and noise and there is an added sunblind though you have to manually operate that. There’s a sun roof, both for you and for your driver. There’s a separate climate zone for the rear. There’s a smallish table that slides out from the arm rest, too small to be used for your laptop, and there isn’t a charging port either for the laptop. Leave actual work to the staff then while you whirr the TV down from the roof and cast stuff from your phone. Or you can just crank up the 17-speaker JBL sound system. I liked the Vellfire’s armchairs so much I had to be reminded about getting out on to the track to drive it.
Now there’s no diesel engine in the Vellfire and what we get for India is the 2.5-litre petrol that makes 115bhp and 198Nm, mated to a
The refinement is fantastic and sound insulation lovely; you're cocooned from the rest of the world
hybrid powertrain with a 105kW motor on the front axle and a 50kW motor on the rear axle. This is all-wheel drive, but the AWD is there not for any off-roading nor any WRC-like cornering but to ensure safety and stability. The total system output is 194bhp and that makes the 2.2 tonne, primarily front-wheel drive MPV, get a reasonable move on.
Like all Toyota hybrid powertrains, the Vellfire too gets a CVT gearbox and it gets moving silently on pure electric power. It will stay in electric mode if you’re very light with the throttle, though when the petrol engine does kick in you barely feel or hear it. The refinement is fantastic and sound insulation lovely; you’re absolutely cocooned from the rest of the world. And Toyota claims good fuel efficiency too, 16.35kmpl.
Get on the gas hard and the engine does become vocal though, and that typical rubberband effect of the CVT gearbox becomes all too apparent. This isn’t something to be hustled, the steering is light and lifeless, and there is ample body roll to warn you not to do anything silly. The Vellfire even has a predictive stability control system that doesn’t react to a slide but intervenes before said slide even happens.
That said, the Vellfire is rather easy to drive, despite its sizeable proportions. Visibility is good, you sit up high, and there’s not much in the way of a bonnet in front of you. I cannot really comment on the ride quality as we only drove it on the short test track at Toyota’s factory but I suspect it will be lovely and keeping in step with the positioning and purpose of the Vellfire — and that is to pamper the boss. By the time you read this, the first Vellfires will have been delivered with the expected pricing to be in the region of `80 lakh for the fully-imported MPV. Which is a fair bit of money. Then again if the Thrill of Chilling is more your thing then you can hardly do any better than the Vellfire. This is a Gulfstream on four wheels. ⌧