Toyota Coaster

Giving the aspect of function a higher priority over form, the Toyota Coaster has a versatile cabin which might lack a lot in terms of modern equipment, but is highly practical and ergonomic for a people carrier.

Talking about the driver’s cockpit, the Toyota Coaster has a slanted steering wheel with an all analogue instrument console. The middle portion of the dashboard has two rectangular panels which face towards the driver – while the farthest one houses a rectangular navigation screen, the inner one gets a 1-DIN audio system with manual AC controls below it.

There are multiple storage spaces below the navigation screen to store small things in the cabin. The Toyota Coaster might appear small on the outside, but has a seating capacity of 29 people at most, which makes it a hit among fleet carriers.

Expecting groundbreaking design and visual appeal from a people carrier is something which is not common, and one can have the same impression about the Toyota Coaster. The mini-bus from Toyota has little focus on visual aesthetics, and gets a boxy design with minimum design elements, making it look a bit drab.

The Toyota Coaster looks almost flat from the front, with a large rectangular windscreen, which is curved from the sides, taking the majority of the area here. The windscreen gets a blackened garnish above it, which has a sleek horizontal air vent running in its middle. Just below the lower edges of the front windscreen, the front apron has outside rearview mirrors mounted on them.

The front grille is segmented into three parts – the uppermost part being a sleek trapezoidal one with Toyota logo in the middle, a rectangular portion in the middle and two partitioned trapezoidal parts at the bottom. The big rectangular headlamps with tapered lower inner edges look simple but do get thin strips of LED daytime running lamps at the bottom of them. What looks a bit surprising here is the presence of a snorkel emerging from the left bottom of the front bumper.

The side profile of the Toyota Coaster looks like a typical bus, with large window panels having black surrounds. The left side portion of the Toyota Coaster gets the doors for getting into it, which open on the inside. The wheels on the sides get rounded bulging wheel arches above them. 

The rear profile of the Toyota Coaster has the simplest design in the entire vehicle, with a large rear windscreen and a rectangular license plate housing in the middle, which gets a black bar above it and ‘Coaster’ logo at the top of it. 

The Toyota Coaster, being a 29-seater vehicle, aims at ferrying people from point A to point B in utmost comfort, and for that, it does come with a suspension setup of double wishbone at the front and rigid leaf springs at the rear. This makes it quite sturdy for heavy-duty long runs.

The Toyota Coaster sources its power from a quite large 4.0-litre four-cylinder diesel engine, which makes 135 PS of maximum power output and 390 Nm of peak torque output. The engine gets a 5-speed manual transmission as the only gearbox option available with the vehicle.

Being a basic people carrier, the Toyota Coaster misses out on a lot of crucial safety features, but it does get the compulsory addition of ABS. Apart from it, the Toyota Coaster also gets a fire extinguisher, anti-theft alarm system and three-point seat belts for the front passengers.

For a people carrier, the Toyota Coaster ticks most of the boxes as an accomplished vehicle in terms of the ride quality, comfort, ease of maintenance and good after-sales support the brand Toyota ensures.