Here ‘Ist’ A New Toyota Model

Like virtually all automakers, Toyota is concerned about the demographics of its buyers. Traditionally, Japan’s No. 1 automaker has enjoyed a strong following among older customers and has oriented many of its model designs to suit such buyers, who have been a bit more conservative in tastes. However, this segment which has been large, is going to decline in coming years and there is a huge new group of buyers who are younger and have very different tastes and expectations. How to grab the attention of this new segment of customers is a major focus of product planners in car companies nowadays.

This weekend, Toyota will start domestic sales of the ist, a new-generation compact car designed to support the mobile lifestyles of today’s younger crowd. The world first saw the ist at last year’s Tokyo Motorshow where it was presented as a ‘prototype concept’… but everyone knew it was going to be production model anyway. More recently, it has been rumoured that this new model will also be the basis for one of the offerings in the new youth-oriented Scion brand for the US market.

While it is clear that this will be an export model – especially for Europe – sales forecasts outside Japan have not been indicated. However, Toyota expects to sell 7,000 units a month through its Netz and Toyopet dealer channels in Japan.

“The ‘ist’ is a top-class compact car that meets just about any need active young people may have, and it is sure to please anyone for whom conventional ‘two-box’ vehicles are just not enough,” said Chief Engineer Soichiro Okudaira. According to him, the name ‘ist’ is derived from the suffix of such words as ‘stylist’ and ‘artist’, indicating someone who creates or performs.

Top-notch quality and a new approach to interior and exterior styling define the ist. On the outside, its side windows stretch smoothly around to the rear to emphasize a solid silhouette, while SUV cues come in the form of a wide front grille and flared wheel arches (over 15-inch wheels) that extend to the car’s four corners.

Inside, a sense of fun amid an air of distinction is created by boldly rounded edges with the meters mounted on the top middle section of the dashboard. However, unlike the Prius and Yaris which also have centre-mounted instrument panels, the ist does not have a shifter mounted at steering column level. The shifter for the ist is in its usual place on the floor between the front seats.

A centre cluster “illuminated multi-box” storage compartment – which takes on an orange glow from within – makes storing items fun and injects a sense of light-heartedness into the interior elegance. Semi-transparent lids on storage compartments that allow stowed items to be cheerfully displayed.

There is plenty of room inside the 3855 mm long ist for four adults and luggage, and utility is enhanced by a 60:40-split folding bench-type seat in the rear and versatile below-floor storage space. The adoption of a curved panel in the front floor and effective deployment of acoustic and insulating materials make for more cabin quietness claimed to be on par with a higher-grade vehicle.

Even in basic form, the ist is said ‘to strive for the best among compact cars’. Its lightweight body can come with a 1.5-litre or 1.3-litre VVT-i all-aluminium NZ-type engine mated to a Super ECT 4-speed automatic transmission.

Attention to omni-directional protection represents further evolution of the GOA (Global Outstanding Assessment – Toyota’s tough in-house safety standard) body construction. The effectiveness of the GOA body was improved by incorporating the concept of compatibility, which considers the fate and crash safety of vehicles of a different weight in a two-vehicle collision.

In the ist, this assumed a collision with a heavier vehicle in the 2-ton range. Omni-directional collision tests carried out using the Lexus LS400 sedan to reproduce a collision between the ist and a heavier car (50% offset frontal collision test at 50 km/h, car-on-car lateral collision test at 50 km/h, 50% offset car-on-car rear-end collision test at 50 km/h) produced survival space and crash dummy results that cleared in-house standards.

A large area of reinforcement is fitted at the front to prevent a smaller vehicle from slipping under the ist in a frontal two-car collision, thereby lessening the potential for injury to occupants of the smaller vehicle. The body structure also takes into consideration pedestrian protection, with the aim toward reducing head and chest injuries to pedestrians in the event of a collision. Internal furnishings, such as the pillars and roof side rails, contain built-in ribs to absorb impact, offering safety equal to that outlined in U.S. head impact-protection standards.

Standard on all models are ABS with EBD (electronic brake force distribution) and Brake Assist. Vision-enhancing discharge headlights (low beam), said to be twice as bright as conventional halogen lights, and with a longer and wider beam, are also available.

Exhaust emissions are 25% lower than the standards for 2000, while variants with FWD meet fuel efficiency standards that will only come into effect in 2010 in Japan.

The front suspension uses MacPherson struts with steering gear and sub-frame attached, while the rear suspension uses a torsion beam with a toe correcting function on the FWD variants, or a 4 link-type with lateral rod on the 4WD variants. The 4WD system is a “flex full-time” type which provides torque distribution that approaches that of a FWD vehicle (ie 100% from the front wheels) during normal forward movement on surfaces with good grip, and distributes torque optimally between the front and rear wheels while driving on slippery surfaces and when cornering.

Local distributors UMW Toyota Motor Sdn Bhd have no plans to assemble the ist in Malaysia although CBU imports cannot be ruled out. After all, the company has begun to offer the RAV4 as a regular showroom model (at around RM160,000) and is believed to be looking at other possible CBU models to enhance its line-up. In fact, before the economic recession, UMW Toyota Motor was quite actively importing CBU models to sell but the depreciation of the ringgit in 1998 bumped up prices excessively and the company felt there was no point selling CBUs.