"Before, we made cars so as not to be disliked by anyone. In the future, out of 100 customers, we want to excite ten of them instead of not offending all 100." That's what Toyota Design Chief Tokuo Fukuichi said to Autoblog, and we're thrilled to hear this philosophy is taking root. Toyota is the company that gave us the MR-2, the Celica, the AE-86, the GT-Four RC, the 2000GT, and the Supra, so we know that the company has sex appeal, it has just been in storage for a while.
Speaking of the Supra, it has been confirmed to us on multiple occasions by Toyota personnel that a new one is being tested right now, but whenever we call for a comment the people picking up the phone pretend they have no idea what we're talking about. It's annoying.
Right now, Toyota considers the Toyota brand to be totally "market oriented," meaning that the cars are designed entirely based on what will sell well in various markets. The problem with this strategy is that it requires the company to develop a lot more platforms and individual cars to suit American tastes, European tastes, and Asian tastes. The Toyota brand will instead move towards being more "product oriented" meaning that the company is just going to make one really good compact car and sell it everywhere with minor changes to suit different markets.
Meanwhile, Lexus is getting much sportier, and Scion is going to move back to its original ethos of selling pseudo-concept cars. Yup, Scions will be experimental once more.
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[via Autoblog]
