We all know the Toyota Alphard as a plush, leather-lined luxury van. For those who want an even more opulent version, there’s the Lexus LM to go along with it. But over in Japan, the Alphard is a more mainstream model.
In its home market, one can think of the Alphard as its take on the Innova. It’s sensible, practical, seats many passengers, and pretty much the default choice in its segment. There’s even a base model available with rear bench seats and room for eight. Now that’s something that caught our interest.
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Aware that there are folks who’d prefer more seats in an Alphard, Toyota has introduced a new ‘X’ variant. It serves as the entry-level model of the lineup and comes with a price tag that makes us wish it was sold here. More on that later.
So, what does the Alphard X have to offer? As mentioned, it loses the captain chairs and replaces them with a 60:40 split bench seat in the second row. It might also surprise some folks that it comes manual seat adjusters, sans the driver’s side. It’s almost unimaginable for us here that the Alphard can be that ‘basic,’ but there are still neat features here and there.
For instance, it still comes with leather-suede combination upholstery. Rose gold trim is abound, and there are even wood cappings on the doors, dashboard. Toyota Safety Sense is standard, as one would expect from this segment. While it doesn’t get the vertical moonroof panels, it still comes with window shades on all rows of seats.
The infotainment system is identical to the top-spec variants, so customers aren’t shortchanged there. The same goes for the fully digital instrument cluster like what we get in our market. But most importantly, hybrid power is standard and all-wheel drive is even optional. Truth be told, the features it loses aren’t a huge deal, and the standard features it kept are the true essentials.
How much is the ‘basic’ Alphard, then? It starts at ¥5,100,000 or roughly P1.9-M. Yes, if you’re a local in Japan, you can get one of these for about the same price as an Innova Zenix. That said, it seems unlikely that Toyota Motor Philippines will ever bring this variant in given its positioning in the market. It’s not stopping us from wanting it, though.
