If it seems obvious to you that Toyota is finally making better looking cars, well, then it’s finally on the right track, more so for a design-conscious market like ours. The person responsible for this pivotal emphasis on design is none other than Toyota’s president himself – Akio Toyoda.
According to Automotive News, a good chunk of this new vibe comes from Ian Cartabiano, a 43-year old Californian designer who penned the curvaceous C-HR and the all-new Camry. Cartabiano, who joined Toyota in 1997 is also heavily involved in styling the upcoming Supra (FT-1 Concept, pictured above), the FT-4X “casualcore” SUV and to some extent, the ornate Lexus LC. “The era of boring cars, of bland cars and anonymous design is over,” said Cartabiano.
The designer attributed this fervent pursuit of emotive styling to two key factors – the new TNGA modular platform and Toyoda’s decree to stop making “boring cars”. The idea is similar to Volkswagen Group’s approach with its MQB platform (which debuted on the the Golf Mk7), allowing for improved cost effectiveness via sharing of parts and powertrain.
The Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA) is specifically developed to do three things: induce higher levels of performance (the platform sits lower, reducing centre of gravity), promote greater styling flexibility and reduce expenses through commonalisation of parts and technology. In that, Toyota aims to build half of all its new models globally based on this platform by the year 2020. The first model to be built on TNGA is the fourth-gen Prius – the first ever Prius to receive independent double wishbones on all four corners.
Toyota executives also promised to channel the savings back into the design department. For the C-HR alone, the design budget was increased by 25%. “It has brought down cost in some areas, which allows more cost to be spent on more expressive design. It’s something that would not have happened in the old ways of doing things,” added Cartabiano. He also said “the side panel of the C-HR would look really cool hung on the wall as a piece of art”.
The C-HR’s massive success paved the way for more design risks to be taken with the new Camry. One salient styling point is the sharp kink in the C-pillar, which lets the rear window “curl” itself around each end of the car. This gives the Camry proportions akin to that of a rear-wheel drive sedan, said Cartabiano.
At first, the idea seemed like a pipe dream, but because more money was being spent on design, the engineers and designers finally figured a way to make it work. Believe it or not, even the door handles of the Camry took Cartabiano two months to design.
“It’s almost impossible to miss or ignore Toyota’s products anymore. It’s so difficult to get a large corporation to understand the importance of design as a strategic tool and a product differentiator. Apple understands this. Toyoda understands this and has unleashed Toyota’s designers to be as creative as possible,” said John Manoogian, former designer for General Motors turned professor of transportation design at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.
Ian Cartabiano comes from an artsy family; his mother is a painter and his father is a toy designer, most famous for devising My Little Pony figurines for Hasbro. As a child, Cartabiano was always fond of cars, and says that there’s no better time to be a designer at Toyota than now.
But will it work for a mass-market brand like Toyota? Not according to experts, citing poor sales from the new Prius due to the angular front face. The drastic move can alienate a core customer base looking for reliable cars, experts warn.
Cartabiano defends by saying that Toyota’s design renaissance is starting to grow on customers. “In the olden days, when we had brand identity, we would just throw it out the window with the next car. It frustrated a lot of us,” he said. “But now, we’re not throwing out what’s good. We’re evolving it. Often, when you design something, you can see the compromise when you see it on the road. But when I see these cars just driving around here, I don’t see compromise. I see purity.”
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Go Toyota! Forza Cartabiano!
Era of inferior safety specs, overpriced Toyotas is never over! Says PNB and UMWT.
Sapot UMWT, sapott KWSP. sapott PLUS
Toyota finally admitted and agreed their cars are boring.
Sampan handling included?
Ever heard of Supra? I guess u can only stick to ur Exora, which has ‘gud’ handling to u
Nice Subra body… underneath a BMW engine
now honda start to make boring looking car
nothing beats P1 nice design & 60k sales . Hu3
New design? Gimme a break. All the new Toyota fronts are a derivative of the Mit EVO6.
Ya just go and drive your persona while taking your break.
Agreed. Get a kimchi instead
Boring design is over, weird alien design takes over
Nothing beats Proton design….tidur oh tidur
Correction, lady gaga design took over
And the driver must be a weirdo, ouch!!
Agree, this is exactly how I feel
Stop joking Toyota. All the cosmetics dress up like skirting, enlarge lights and fancy big rims doesn’t equals to new exciting designs. Change all your existing designers, chief designer included and you could stand a chance of a new design philosophy.
Bravo to Toyoda! Enuff of boring toyotas. But they better dont over do it at this stage.. for most established models better to evolve the design.. only new models could be designed revolutionary.
Toyoda seems to take a leaf of PSA Peugeot Citroen recent efforts in coming out with beautifully designed cars (just look at their DS models) .. well.. the more the merrier.
Toyota is making better looking cars? Where???
There interior of the the chr still is a letdown. One USB port iinm and Toyota is reluctant to let Google and Apple in is annoying.
correct! from boring to ugly(except C-HR, next Supra)…. sad…. please bring back your boring car, please…
whatever it is.. differencd is there .. regardless is alient or derivative from what….compared to see still remain boring
The problem after Toyol introduced so called stylish aesthetic, they overdo it, put in thousands of man hour to make it attractive. Like the new facelift Altis, way too ugly than any average person can accept. Also, the new hilux and fortuner also ugly.
VW also has many boring looking cars.They have many boring “uncle” shape cars. Polo sedan looks like the old Saga. Jetta and Golf also boring conventional shape.
Get some inspiration from Honda Civic
which has 2 rear lights which looks like 2 prawns when lighted at night. Maybe our Malay friends called it Honda
Udang. Hyundai also has good looking, lots of curves and muscular.
I see like a boring old aunty trying to make up. But deep down is still old aunty. With slow response and conservative technology
Still boring
Man this is bad. Expect more people to buy new Korean Cars
All the design does not have identity. It look like Toyota are trying very hard to be cool & hip. By the way, if this design came in how can uncle and aunty match their ride with their age?
Looks like it is trying to copy Honda, badly. Looks like a cheap knockoff, no emotional character in reality, just a sporty design with a lot of bells and whistles.
Still like boring looking car, nothing change compare before.
Still 2 air bags, without ABS, VSC, HSA.
boring design over, overdesign starts.
design for the sake of design…no aerodynamic efficiency taken into account ^^
Agreed that the new cars designed by Ian Cartabiano like CHR, Camry, Lexus LC & Supra are no more boring but the normal bread & butter model like Altis & Vios are long overdue. Even the CHR take FOREVER to be sold in Malaysia.
HAHAHAHA
ok memang not boring…not pretty either though im not complaining
Boring design is over, yes very good; but old tech engine, 2 airbags, lousy spec should be over also.. barula ngam!!!
Nowadays, with the bad economy, lot of people just dont care about design. all they want is pay less get more(spec), thats it.
Do consider a used proton or korean ride since u dislike wat u cannot afford ya.. now be good and work harder…
Now they are plug ugly to go with boring!
They either look like roach or a reject from an anime cartoon