Which of the big volume car manufacturers is the most vibrant? Undoubtedly it has to be Toyota - in the European context, it is drawing up ambitious targets which would see it passing out Citroën and Mercedes-Benz to become Europe's number eight marque. Andrew Hamilton reports
Toyota is reputedly aiming for European sales of 1.2 million units - half as much again as its current target - and it expects to achieve this objective by 2010.
But Toyota sales are soaring in other parts of the world too, notably North America. This is the reason it was able to announce that consolidated net profit for the first six months of this year rose 90.2 per cent compared with the same period last year. The profit leap was from $2.4 billion to $4.5 billion.
While Toyota's good news was coming out of an otherwise depressed Japan, Toyota was showing off some fun-to-drive cars for European and Irish customers. The marque has long laboured under an image that most of its products are well-engineered, exceptionally competent but somehow lacking in glamour. It's an image that changed somewhat when the radical and chic Yaris supermini was elected European Car of the Year two years ago.
Toyota's "fun" is principally represented by Celica and MR2, the former getting "a bolder, sportier style" and the latter "a fresh new look for 2003". Both badges have actually been around for a long time. The first Celica came out 32 years ago while the first MR2 debuted in 1984. Toyota's first sports car was the Sports 800 built in 1962. "It aimed to be an affordable and fun-to-drive two-seater, in many ways the predecessor of the current MR2," says James Rosenstein, Toyota's European public affairs director.
The 2003 Celica is still the seventh generation version that was launched in 2000. For the 2003 car, Toyota claims "a wide range of performance and safety enhancements, with a greater sense of perceived quality in switchgear and instrumentation, a new interior colour and a more relaxed and responsive driving position." Celica comes with two 1.8 litre VVTi engines of 140 and 189bhp, the latter going into the T Sport high performance model which also boasts Traction Control, Vehicle Stability Control and Brake Assist as standard.
The current mid-engined MR2 that also came out in 2000, as well as getting styling changes, has a new six-speed manual transmission, a faster shift on the six-speed sequential transmission and new 16-inch rear tyres for greater traction. The MR2 uses the 140 bhp 1.8 litre unit.
Toyota Ireland expects to sell 25 MR2s and between 40 and 50 Celicas next year. The MR2 basic price of €35,795 ex-works remains unchanged, but the sequential gearbox version at €40,100 ex-works is €2,100 up on the previous model. The Celica in non T Sport form is €37,600 (up €70) while the T Sport is €44,400 (up €2,500), both ex-works.
Toyota thinks that its sportiness can't be sustained by two cars alone. That's why it has put the T Sport appellation on two other top-selling models, the Yaris and Corolla. The T Sport Yaris with its 105 bhp 1.5 litre VVTi is, in Toyota terms, "a power-packed hot hatch", while the aforementioned 189 bhp 1.8 litre engine, in the Corolla is "the refined hot hatch". The Yaris is €20,770 and the Corolla is €29,225.