MIDDLE MANAGERS at Toyota are part of a new plan to revive sales and morale at the flagging car company.

Between now and March, some 2,200 of them will be urged to buy a new vehicle. Organisers of Toyota’s bucho no kai – a semi-formal fraternity of general managers, the highest non-executive rank in the company – devised the plan in response to a projected 15 per cent drop in sales this year.

Although technically voluntary, members said most of the group was likely to comply.

The show of solidarity in the face of hard times – the same managers had already seen their 2008 year-end bonuses cut by 10 per cent – comes as Toyota prepares to name a scion of the founding Toyoda family as its next chief executive.

Analysts said the selection of Akio Toyoda (52) seemed designed to evoke Toyota values like sacrifice during a period of painful change.

The Japanese carmaker expects to report its first operating loss in decades this year.