Premier Rio's donor car to get a facelift in China

The Premier Rio is nothing but a rebadged Chinese Zoyte 5008, which in turn is a rebadged Daihatsu Terios from a generation ago.

Indian automaker Premier Ltd. struck a deal with Zoyte to manufacture the 5008 mini SUV under license in 2009. Thus the Rio, India's first compact SUV, was born.

The Zoyte 5008 is going in for a facelift and the guys at Auto.sohu.com have managed to get their hands on the patents of the facelifted model. Since body panels for the Premier Rio are imported from China, it's most likely that the Rio too will get the facelift soon after this model's local launch.

From the patent sketches it's clear the compact SUV has got some minor visual upgrades. The front fascia gets the most of the changes.

The headlamp lost its curves and now follows straight lines which makes it a little larger. The new front grill has grown in size and has three horizontal stripes which are most likely to get chrome treatment.

The front bumper is new and the circular fog lamps are replaced by quadrilateral units. There is not much of a change to the side of the car.

Ar the rear, the roof mounted spoiler is wider and spans the entire width of the car. The tail lamps are elongated a little and the rear bumper is reprofiled. The interior is also expected to have some minor tweaks.

Premier has just added the popular 1.3 MultiJet diesel engine to the Rio's lineup which consists of a 64.8 bhp 1.4 litre diesel engine and a 76.6 bhp 1.2 litre petrol motor.

The Chinese Zoyte 5008 facelift is expected to be launched soon and shortly following which the Rio too is expected to sport the same changes.

[Source: Auto.sohu.com]