New Toyota Corolla, Etios Cross at Auto Expo 2014

Toyota is looking to spice up its line-up in India with a few stylish cars at the Auto Expo, the most significant of which will be the new Toyota Corolla. Gone is the safe styling of the former model and in comes a more youthful look. Another big difference, especially for the chauffeur-driven, is that the wheelbase is now 100mm longer, and this has liberated a lot of space at the rear. Toyota has also worked on making the cabin feel more premium – so there’s a lot more equipment, and higher quality materials. The engines (a 1.8 petrol and a 1.4 diesel) though will continue.

Another car on display will be the Toyota Etios Cross. It’s a beefed up and butch looking version of the Toyota Etios Liva hatch and gets rugged looking front and rear bumpers, thick side body cladding, new 10-spoke alloys, and roof rails. There won’t be any mechanical changes, so it will be available with either a 1.4-litre diesel or the 89bhp 1.5-litre petrol from the Liva TRD Sportivo.

The Toyota Etios Cross may be a pseudo SUV but the Toyota stand will have the real McCoy as well. Yup, the Land Cruisers will be there. Toyota will display the Land Cruiser Prado and legendary LC200 at the Auto Expo. But to us, the real star of the stand will be the GT86. It’s got a 2.0-litre boxer engine and is said to drift at will.