5 Toyota Etios accessories you didn’t know you needed
Throughout its lifespan in South Africa, the Toyota Etios has appealed to sensible car buyers, a fact that was emphasised by its no-frills specifications. But, just because Toyota intended the Etios to be practical above all else, doesn’t mean you can’t add some personal touches to make it a little nicer to live with. Here are 5 accessories for the Toyota Etios that you didn’t know you needed.
1. Tinted smash-and-grab window film
While this add-on will work wonders for the Etios’s tall and stubby appearance, its real benefit will come in interior comfort: keeping the sun’s rays at bay will drop cabin temperatures, making the air-con work a little less and saving some fuel in the process. The other main benefit is that smash-and-grab film will make it a bit more difficult for criminals to gain access to your car, which may make it more difficult to hijack or steal (or to raid the glove box or boot for valuables).
2. Bigger alloy wheels
While some Etios variants were equipped with 15-inch alloy wheels ex-factory, even those (slightly) upsized wheels look lost in those big wheel arches. Aftermarket 16- or 17-inch alloy wheels (with up to 205/40R17 tyres) will not only make the Etios look a lot more appealing, but also improve its freeway stability, cornering, and braking abilities.
3. Audio system upgrade
The basic audio systems fitted to most Etioses is really quite hopeless for anything other than listening to traffic reports. But help is at hand: install a better (aftermarket) “double-DIN” head unit and a small amplifier, slide a slim-line 8- or 10-inch subwoofer beneath your seat, and upgrade the door-mounted speakers and dash-top tweeters, and you’ll finally get some real music to your ears.
Serious sound installers may want to skip the Etios hatchback, though, because fitting any speakers to its rear end will entail a lot of fabrication – the standard car has nowhere to mount rear speakers, except perhaps screwing a pair of 6x9s to the (flimsy) luggage cover.
4. Replacement headlamp globes
The Etios has fairly decent reflectors and lenses in its headlights, but the standard globes cannot fully take advantage of this fact. The easy solution is to fit a set of upgraded globes, such as the Philips WhiteVision bulbs (available from most spares outlets), which emit a lot more light than the factory-fitted globes. If you’re feeling adventurous, you could even replace the fog lap globes with LED units, although this option is quite pricey and of dubious practical value.
5. Some performance modifications
The 2NR-FE engine used in the Toyota Etios is an extremely tough little thing, and has been proven capable of reliably delivering quite a lot more power than it does ex-factory. This is where old-fashioned tuning can make a surprising difference to the overall performance, and liberate a fair bit more grunt for freeway cruising too.
A cold-air intake, free-flow exhaust and a piggyback control unit can, when done properly, liberate up to 86 kW and 150 Nm – handy increases of 20 kW and 17 Nm, respectively. And, not only will your Etios be quite a bit quicker than standard, but it may even end up lighter on petrol, because the engine’s efficiency will be rather higher. It’s a win-win-win situation all round!
Of course, along with added performance, you will need to enhance the Etios’s handling as well: the standard setup is up to the demands made by the stock engine, but giving it more power necessitates matching upgrades to the suspension (stiffer and lower springs) and tyres (the aforementioned 17-inch wheels and fatter rubber). In combination, this will become quite pricey, but the rewards will be well worth the extra outlay – and may even turn your boring old Etios into a warm-ish small car on a budget.
Related: Shop for used Toyota Etios cars for sale here.
