Toyota unveiled the Vios manual in Malaysia.
Well thou generally it's a good move as too manufacturers had abandoned manual transmission in favor of auto, and marketing autoboxes as 'premium' and 'manual' as a poor man's forced-choice.
Wheels Weekly would still have to condemn that RM70,000 (Malaysia currency); approximately $21,000 USD is still alot of money to pay and when it comes with rear drum brakes and no airbags; it only suggests that Toyota as the number 1 manufacturer in the world; disregards the safety of their customers.
In our humble opinion, the manual version should be positioned as a 'Performance' model, and allows customers to option up airbags and disc brakes.
Malaysia have one of the highest import car tax in the world, to protect Proton, the local, government linked auto manufacturer who owns Lotus, which had recently caught headlines by firstly inviting Volkswagen to merge them up, however denied by Government officials when Volkswagen decided not to budge when suggested to 'only' get suppliers appointed by Malaysia's governments.
Well, Toyota Vios is still made in Thailand, a member of ASEAN where trade tax's are much lower than Japan, and much much lower than European countries.
Still $21,000 USD could get one a Ford Mustang - Poor Malaysians.
