Prior to assuming his post as chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation, Akio Toyoda has been a champion of the fun factor in cars made by the Japanese manufacturer, notably in his decree for it to stop making “boring cars”.
Having been succeeded by Koji Sato earlier this year as the company’s president and CEO, Toyoda walks the talk by driving the cars, such as in his racing exploits under the ‘Morizo’ pseudonym, which has since gone on to name a limited-edition GR Corolla, and before that, leading the charge in a revamp that brought driver-oriented models like the GR Supra, GR86 and the GR Yaris.
In a recent dialogue session at last month’s Japan Mobility Show, Toyoda however admitted to a delegation of dealers that he fears the company may fall back to its boring ways, according to the carmaker’s in-house publication, Toyota Times.
“I constantly fear that Toyota will go back to being an ordinary company. When that fear spreads to many people, it will be too late. Even with the title of president, it took me 14 years to change Toyota, but things could revert in a flash,” Toyoda said in recalling his shock at being told “Lexus is boring” at the debut of the fourth-generation Lexus GS.
“When I approached the engineering team’s ‘ivory tower’ to give my impressions of our cars, they shut down the conversation, saying ‘We’ve had no such data or any complaints’,” Toyoda recalled, adding when he asked them to drive something he thought was better for comparison, his engineers would say “they are the same on paper”.
Fast forward to the present day where Toyoda continues to be Master Driver at the carmaker, the Toyota chairman could spend more time developing cars under the Gazoo brand, Toyota CEO Sato said in May.
Beginning without a technical background, Toyoda initially faced an uphill battle in convincing the engineers of his findings, though with time spent driving and honing his skills, the team starting to bring development units for him to drive, and now his feedback is incorporated immediately and development cars are brought back to him within the week.
Toyoda resolves to ensure this approach is “shared with today’s carmaking contingent so that things don’t go back to the way they were,” to avoid going back to making decisions ‘on paper’, as it used to be.
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Personally I don’t mind boring, so long as the car is reliable, dependable and sensible. Not too fancy or trendy, but more evergreen. One Toyota model comes to mind: Camry XV40 from 2007. That model was perhaps the perfect family car at one time. On a separate note of similar vein, I do wish Volvo would bring back their 240 series.
Perdana V6 more superior then same era Camry.
I agree in the same way that Mercedes should ride W126 and BMW to handle like the E36. Not all of us wants a Nurburgring spec hard suspension and thin cushioned cars
I can totally agree with you that there is no substitute for reliability in a car. It is also my most important criteria when choosing my car.
But the Toyota in the 90s was very exciting and gave us cars like the Sera, Celica, MR2, “whale-tail” Supra. and I was a proud owner of the first gen 3 door Rav4. That thing was fun and also bullet proof at the same time.
So it showed that Toyota can make fun products. They just need the leadership to push more and take abit more risk.
Different people got different taste
Then being rich is the most reliable solution. U can have as many fun cars as U can own without worry of breakdown.
Same can be achieved by taking public transport or Grab
No ICE cars can be more reliable than EV la. No with the battery pack getting so much cheaper and battery lasting more than 10 years, ICE car is out la.Hari hari leaking minyak, coolant, thermostat, alternator dan lain lain. ICE car buat pening dan miskin.
10 years? How bout 20? There’s plenty of 20+ years ICE cars being passed down and still moving on the road. Periodic maintenance is a lot easier on wallet than replacing a shrinking energy storage that never loose weight. No car is more boring than an EV
Haha.. u sure EV no coolant or refrigerant? That also can leak like ICE car if unlucky.. moreover if that coolant leaking at battery packs or motors .
Zak ingat dia pandai. Hahahahaha. You thought the coolant in EV car is as hot as ICE cars??? Hahahahahaha. You think EV coolant system is under same pressure as ICE cars? Hahahahahahaha. Hahahahaha. LMAO. Go balik sekolah la. Brownian motion simple basic pun tak tahu. Hahahahahaha.
The problem with boring car is, they kill desirability. This is very evident even in our country. We got “Bangsa Honda”, and there’s a lot of Honda haters too, “menantu pakai Honda”, etc. Toyota however, there’s little to no such thing associated with Toyota.
The hot selling Civic not only driven by it’s well rounded package. I’d argue the Halo Car effect of Type-R made more people desire the Civic even if they don’t know a thing about car. It also help propel other Honda models, just like how the introduction of Proton X70 made a boost in sale of their local designed lower tier models, even though X70 not a Halo car. Toyota has no direct Halo car to their models selling in MY.
Sporty look. You call it “ah beng” look bcos TRD is trying to makeup the fundamentally boring uncle design. While Honda look sportier even without body kits. People just love sportier design, even by simply changing rims.
Even for local Proton, people still clinging to their old Wira, Putra, Satria GTI, and Neo, because of the association with Mitsubishi EVO and Lotus Handling. But not much for Perodua other than it’s quirky Daihatsu originated car.
Toyota has long way to go correcting it’s image of boring car company, especially in terms of design and authentic Halo Car like the GR Yaris.
this is the same what has happened to Ford, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, BMW, Benz and many other chinese brands.
alot boring cars.
Fun car is self custom by theDrivers, not the Kilang.
Funny chairman. He fear things that already happened. Toyota is long boring already.
It’s a competitive world now unlike the 80s and 90s. Look at the new Alphard and Vellfire, same old boring fridge on wheels from inside out.
Toyota should introduce a sport/performance model lineup. Not just cosmetics TRD body kits.
Toyota is boring so they don’t need to fear that. But the car just does what it meant to do so for most people that isn’t a racing enthusiasts so there’s that.
Since when Toyota not boring?
Isn’t Toyota already “boring”? No faults, just reliability.
Conti car all “exciting” and you get excited visiting SC twelve times a year.
Better boring than p1p2 Volvo tech la Mitsu tech la Diehardsue tech la all stripped down 3rd world car, TCM are the master scammers follow closely behind by others. Only Subaru is a legit car practical the rest are toys for retards.