GIIAS 2015: Daihatsu Xenia – facelifted Avanza’s sister

The Toyota Avanza has a lesser known twin sister in Indonesia and it’s called the Daihatsu Xenia. The best-selling MPV for the masses recently received a facelift in the republic, and following the “Grand New Avanza” is the “Great New Xenia”. Launched on August 12, the Xenia was on display at Daihatsu’s GIIAS 2015 booth.

The Daihatsu Xenia facelift follows the look of the standard Avanza facelift, not the facelifted Avanza Veloz, which is a sportier variant and has a unique face plus projector headlamps. There are slight differences in the lower front bumper and grille treatment, plus a D-badge of course, but the face is largely similar. The top “R Sporty” variant gets fog lamps and DRLs.

Same story at the back – the Xenia also gets red reflectors that join the tail lamps to the number plate recess. The lower bumper is largely similar to the regular Avanza facelift’s – the Avanza Veloz has a shapelier rump with two additional round reflectors.

Inside, the latest Xenia is pictured here in Deluxe form with a brown-black two-tone cabin and a 2-DIN Kenwood head unit plus front parking sensors. Compared to the Avanza, it lacks a centre headrest in the middle row. The third row now split folds 50:50.

As detailed last week, the Xenia is the first Daihatsu product in Indonesia to use the new Dual VVT-i “NR” series engine co-developed with Toyota. The 1.3 litre 1NR-VE with 97 hp and 121 Nm is also used in the Avanza; as the car with the senior brand, the Avanza also gets a 1.5 litre 2NR-VE engine with 104 PS and 139 Nm.

Plenty of new tech, which you can read about more here. The new engines, which are more economical (up to 15%) and quiet (by 14%), will be coming to Malaysia via Perodua next year. P2 is currently constructing a RM600 million engine plant in Sendayan TechValley near Seremban.

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