One of the biggest highlight of Toyota’s booth at this year’s Paris Motor Show is this car, the new Verso. Now, back in the day Verso badge used to featured on family-oriented version of cars like Corolla or Yaris. But now its an independent 7-seat mini MPV designed mainly for the European market.
Compared to the last Verso, this new one is designed to be more stylish and desirable, without sacrificing any of the good practical stuff. It’s got a much improved interior and a revised 2.0 liter D4-D diesel engine with lower CO2 emissions. The 2013 Verso has 300 parts new or improved parts.
The Verso has a design Toyota refers to as “dual zone” styling featuring full length character line which, in profile view, divides the bonnet and cabin from the chassis and loadspace. We don’t know what they’re on about, but the car is quite a looker for family bus and that’s what matters. It adapts Toyota’s new corporate look at the front with an aggressive front bumper and distinctive headlights and grille.
The interior benefits from trim detail upgrades as well as new materials and color. It gets new satin black paint finish, soft-touch plastic for the upper glovebox and, on some versions, Nappa leather is used around the steering wheel, door trims and armrest. New satin chrome trim highlights add an air of quality, while new seat fabrics, colours and designs will give you more personalization options.
But the best feature of the cabin, as ever, is Toyota’s Easy Flat-7 seating system delivers excellent flexibility, with a possible 32 different seating combinations. Individual seats are fitted in the second and third rows and those in the second row have a 195mm sliding adjustment range.
The engine lineup, besdies the 130 g/km D4-D unit, comprises of a 2.2-litre D-CAT diesel with a choice of six-speed manual or automatic transmissions. The former develops 175bhp/131kW with 159g/km CO2 emissions, the latter 148bhp/110kW and 178g/km. As fro the petrol options you get the same 1.6 and 1.8-litre Valvematic petrol engines as before.
