On the Road

Toyota – safe, reliable, family-man, inexpensive, buy and forget, appliance-like, the default choice.

That’s more or less been the mantra for Toyota, and its dealer here Borneo Motors, for a long time. Why? It’s because of these qualities that Toyota cars have consistently been best-sellers here, and around the world, for the longest time.

But the competition is catching up – most notably Kia and Hyundai, who are now offering exciting lifestyle products like the Kia Koup coupe, and funky Soul hatchback. Overseas Hyundai has its Genesis coupe, a rear-wheel drive sports car which has been getting rave reviews from the overseas press.

Delivering products people expect is a good middle ground to hold, but as the recession and the destruction of the U.S. pickup truck market shows, it’s those who make the trends (or ‘niches equal riches’) that lead.

After all, Toyota’s official line-up here has four (count ‘em) mu

lti-purpose vehicles (MPVs) to choose from, and the last wholly-novel sports car from the company was the MR-S roadster released nine years ago. Where’s the excitement, you might ask?

There’s hope for the world’s biggest car company though. Akio Toyoda – the recently-installed president of Toyota is the grandson of its founder and a racing fanatic. He’s even taken part in the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring.

And the first fruits of his regime are showing already:

At the Tokyo Motorshow, Toyota unveiled its Lexus LFA supercar (a carbonfibre-bodied beauty with a 500bhp V10 engine, perhaps Japan’s first true exotic sports car) and, in concept form, the FT-86, successor to the AE 86 Corolla of manga fame.

It’s a welcome change for a brand that has been dying for some non-familial excitement. Toyota is a leader in more staid pursuits like manufacturing processes and hybrids, but here’s to it getting its mojo back in a big way.