Toyota Avanza 1.5G CVT: Humble beginnings

The last time I remember driving a Toyota Avanza felt like a lifetime ago: It was a ratty, tin-can feeling, nasty piece of work that felt both an indestructible contraption and a death trap at the same time. You felt everything on the road. It felt totally unpolished and unfinished—rough and uncouth as if waiting to fall apart anytime.

I felt it didn’t even deserve to be a taxi, for which it was frequently used as. It just felt horribly cheap, especially for a Toyota. And yet, many of these first-generation Avanzas that came out in 2006 in the Philippines are still alive, surviving as delivery vehicles, fleet vehicles, and service vehicles instead of private passenger cars.

It wouldn’t die no matter how hard you thrashed it. Those memories were such a far cry indeed, a stark contrast to this unit that Toyota delivered to me (the latest-generation Avanza) a few weeks ago. I had to take a double take, wondering whether it was indeed the new Avanza or not.