Toyota’s official Cat A small MPV, the Sienta Hybrid, is a people mover MVP for Singapore’s urban car league

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SINGAPORE
Toyota’s new Sienta Hybrid flips the table on its official history, but stands taller by doing so. It’s an efficient hybrid that packs the best bits of a full-sized MPV in a package that’s very right-sized for Singapore, which is why you could well be looking at the affordable MPV MVP for the current era.

This Sienta small MPV has always been popular here as our review of the second-gen model from 2016 shows, but in officially-imported terms, this is the first time we’re seeing the hybrid.

With Toyota’s product offerings increasingly on-point for Singapore, and offering a full-range of hybrids to mainstream sedans, big sedans, and even whacking great MPVs. As dealer Borneo Motors claims, it’s the only hybrid MPV in this segment that’s eligible for the cheaper Category A COE, and with a VES A2 band (-S$15k) the price shrinks even further.

As covered in our launch story, there are two models on sale here: The base Standard and the more expensive Elegance, which also comes with optional two-tone paint for $2,000 more. The Standard model is undergoing homologation now, and has no price yet, but if you check CarBuyer’s Marketplace it will have the most current info. We expect it to be around S$10k cheaper than the Elegance model. 

With this being the all-new third-gen model, with TNGA underpinnings, a revised hybrid powertrain, so we’re expecting great things of it – could it offer Most Value (To The) Payer?

Design and Appearance

Electrified vehicles are your friend, or so Japanese carmakers want you to think. The Honda Jazz and Suzuki Ignis (one a full hybrid, the other mild) are birthed from this design school, and it seems Toyota opted for a similar tack with the third-gen Sienta.

Observers we straw-polled during our time with the car came to a toss-up between it being boxy and van-like and friendly-looking, while the flat-gray paintjob was hailed as ‘fashionable’ (again, see the Honda and Suzuki for examples).

The vibe we’re getting is ‘friendly robot helper’, but we’re pleased with the way the new car looks. That’s because the previous car tried to hide its boxiness and van-ness, but this one embraces it, and differentiates itself enough for casual viewers to know it’s not a commercial vehicle. There’s also a far greater visual ancestry with the OG, the first-gen Sienta, in the round headlights and tall taillights.

Page 2: Where the Sienta really delivers – the inside

1. Introduction/ Design and Appearance
2.Interior and Features / Space and Practicality
3.Driving Experience / Competition and Pricing

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