Toyota finds a car guy?

Reading the following article I realize the world has, in fact, turned upside down. Jaguar is at the top of JD Power for reliability, and Toyota is going to make interesting cars? Toyota practically invented the idea of "the car as an appliance", and through attempted competition with Toyota and other similar car companies, and a good dose of poor management GM ended up the company they are today.

This brings around one of my biggest points on cars. Very rarely will people avoid a car because it's too interesting. It's just that for a great majority of the population a car is just a way to move yourself and your stuff around. A mass market car company (like GM for instance) needs to pin down the principles of efficient and reliable transportation, and then add the interest factor. It seems they are (slowly) moving this direction but it's hard to tell.

Of course you can always exist as a niche brand by building something interesting and exciting that finds a unique role in the automotive world (for instance BMW and "sport sedans").


"Hans Greimel
Automotive News
November 16, 2009 - 12:01 am ET

TOKYO -- Akio Toyoda has appointed himself supreme automotive taste tester for Toyota Motor Corp., a kind of master chef overseeing ingredients that go into the automaker's vehicles. But what seasonings will he be pulling from the spice rack to zest up his cars?

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His favorite buzz words: "fun to drive."

From a personal point of view, Toyoda the car guy clearly favors high-performance, responsive, sporty cars. Look no further than the Lexus IS-F sedan and LFA sports car, two of the new president's pet projects.

"Cars are not a mere means of mobility," Toyoda blogs under his pseudonym, Morizo, on the company's Japanese-language marketing Web site www.gazoo.com. "They respond to the driver's will; they turn, speed up, slow down. Naturally, there's a need for excitement."

The fuel-efficient, dependable cars that made Toyota famous don't tingle all his taste buds. Blogging about the plethora of environmentally friendly cars at last month's Tokyo Motor Show, Morizo complained: "It was all green. But I wonder how many inspired people to get excited."

He added: "Of course, eco-friendly cars are a prerequisite for the future, but there must be more than that."

One car that set Toyoda's heart revving was the latest Volkswagen Scirocco.

"I'm jealous!" he blogged in July after test driving one. Besides having "cool styling," Toyoda wrote, "It runs incredibly well, to the extent I can't believe it is a 2000cc engine."

Toyoda's conclusion: "Morizo cannot afford to lose. I will tackle the challenge of creating a car with even more splendid flavor than the Scirocco."

Toyoda's quest to inject excitement, style and emotion into his company's lineup adds a new flavoring to the company's long-successful recipe of delivering sensible, reliable, affordable - though sometimes boring - automobiles. It may be a tough balancing act.

"For a lot of people, their first priority is not having a fun-to-drive car," says Chris Richter, an auto analyst at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets in Tokyo. "It's simply getting from A to B."

Chieko Tsuneoka contributed to this report

Morizo on motoring

Here are some blog comments from Morizo, Akio Toyoda's online alter ego.

On the Volkswagen Scirocco: "The steering wheel doesn't look good, but once you swing it, it feels good. I also wondered if the A-pillar was too thick, but once I started driving, it didn't bother me."

On fun-to-drive cars: "In order to have cars that inspire dreams and admiration in everyone from children to adults, it is important to appeal to people's sensitivities through the 'flavor' of a car."

On his penchant for racing: "An escape from reality? A hobby? I, Morizo, know many things have been said about my racing. But I have simply loved cars since I was little."

On the value of driving at Nurburgring: "I want more people to understand that cars are forged in racing, and, at the same time, it's a wonderful environment to nurture people.""