Toyota Rumion 1,5 TX
South African automotive showrooms have become increasingly reflective of the country’s hyper-skewed Gini coefficient.
Through the grandest selection of sports cars, luxury SUVs and limousines, upper-income earners are handsomely catered for. Then, signifying the slow death of the middle class, the exchange rate, inflation and evolving consumer habits have decimated demand for C-segment hatches and sedans.
At the bottom end of the scale, the entry-level segment is now every bit as flooded as its premium polar opposite, comprising a raft of compact-engined Second World-style offerings tailored to struggling household budgets. Few of these, however, cater for large families.
For Toyota, which had been selling the rear-driven Daihatsubased Avanza for nearly two decades in South Africa, the discontinuation of the latter (along with the silent offing of the poor-selling Rush) at the end of last year left the marque with just one option to
