The Sportio edition of the Etios Liva hatchback has been discontinued by Toyota. The petrol version of the car had a 1.5-litre engine that was more powerful with the diesel also featuring some cosmetic changes that made it look sportier.
The idea behind the launch of the Sportio models was to have stronger accessories vertical at company dealerships and the cars had additional body kits, decals as well as a special badging.
The Sportio edition had been designed in conjunction with Toyota Racing Development (TRD) and was meant to showcase the various accessories that could be picked up at the showrooms by customers. However, the hatchback didn’t meet the success that the company had planned for it and it is likely that this was the reason for the company to stop sales for this particular model. In addition to this, the fact that the Sportio petrol version had a bigger engine, meaning it attracted more duty, made it more expensive and therefore quite unpopular with customers.
The Liva though will continue to be available in its four petrol as well as four diesel models and will continue to be Toyota’s primary hatchback offering in India for a while to come. The car has airbags as standard on all models and there is also an ABS-EBD which is added on the base level variant of the diesel model.