Toyota iQ
Recent Toyota IQ premiere was a big success. All car media were talking about it. The car is said to revolutionize the way people look at city cars. And I almost believed that. The car is perfectly designed for this one purpose. Its about 180 inches long (less than 3 m) and is a 4-seater. Toyota did everything possible to make the people space the biggest possible in the car this size.
In this post let’s take a look at Toyota logo. First impression: it looks good, has all the “good logo” aspects: simple, easy to draw, and nice looking. IMHO better than Hyundai or Mazda. It has more weight… But there’s more explanation from company about it’s “meaning”.
Lets start with some competition and look at their logos and their meanings…
Recently I wrote a little “aggressive” comment about Prius, not being Eco friendly and expensive and ugly etc (link). I think that I had a bad day and the post didn’t sound as it should have:) I wasn’t against Toyota in this one. Well… excluding it’s ugliness… The topic was about Prius, but You can compare it to all this class Hybrid solutions that are branded as Eco. Ofc not including luxury cars like Lexus “h” models, which use electric engines to deliver extra power 
You don’t talk about ecology when You have 3 liter gasoline powered engine In this case: electric means fun.
But in this post I would like to think about the big picture: Diesel vs Hybrid. To find that “Vs” word, doesn’t actually fit here. These two are not actually against each other. I believe that soon enough we will see a diesel powered hybrid cars, which will make the best of these two.
However terrifying this post title may sound – it’s not so scary. It’s about ranking of car producers, based on some Supplier Working Relations Index. Toyota lost a top place for Honda. So the news are good I don’t believe that Toyota’s market share, will drop significantly in US in the longer run. Probably just after many years of raising in all charts, there must be some corrective fall.
But it still makes me happy If I was a supplier, I wouldn’t sell to them Go Honda…
However there are some signals from the markets, that American buyers are turning to homemade products – including cars. It’s probably the crisis-caused local patriotism. Let’s see how it turns out in the future…
Here You can find a full article – Source: Bloomberg
To be fair with Toyota, I need to mention the Supra model. As a Toyota anti fan, I have to admit that some time ago they actually made a good car (and not only this one)! And as blog cannot be only “against”, I decided to write few “pro” words about this great car.
What is a good car?
For me: car that represents something – has the “xfactor”. Is a niche, a good a value for money etc. Shows the capability of a producer to make a fun car, and not be overwhelmed by the accountants that will try to cancel the project.
1994 Supra Targa
Supra had these values. I want to focus especially on Supra Mark IV.
Looks like latest posts are quite one way Commercials only.
But this one I find to hit the point – it’s exaclty what I’m about:
TDI vs hybrid – and of course the owner of Prius who is “unaware”, and proudly says: “I got a hybrid, you know…”. LOL
Below You can find the most recent Prius commercial. Hopefully it wont be aired in Poland… Luckily nobody buys this ugliness in here…
I have to admit that Prius is getting prettier. That of course wasn’t difficult to achieve, as it couldn’t be any worse. The commercial is pretty OK.
When I drive my 2006 “old-fashioned” diesel, I make flowers grow also And the deer are coming to breathe from my exhaust
I just noticed in this ad, that they don’t scream about ecology so much. They talk about CO2 emissions… Put some cool motto: “Harmony of men, nature and machine” It’s just I don’t find this harmony any where in Prius, but it’s just me… (checkout some latest post)
Below You can find my favourite Prius tv ad. Where Toyota puts itself among the greatest breakthroughs in history: discovering the earth was not flat… Human flights… Electric car! Fuel cell!
Quiz question: did Prius invent the electric engine supporting regular combustion engine?
Few words about my favourite marketing product: Toyota Prius. I want to underline the marketing word as in opposite to Eco. I have to admit that it was the first of a kind (or at lease one of the firsts) – hybrid sold in numbers. And despite it’s ugliness – it was successful here and there. You can treat is as a regular car to drive everyday. Everything would be ok if it wasn’t for the aura of greatness, innovation and Eco label – that are being sticked to this piece of metal. The truth is this is not an “eco car”. It is sold as one, so California citizens can calm their conscience of having 6 liter Corvette as a husbands/sons/aunts second car
To the point… I would like to divide this post:
I know that we have a global crisis. So they say. And according to this fact, this news is nothing shocking etc. All companies are in trouble…
But after reading this article I somehow feel better It makes me smile And there is even more “smile” to come in next year quarters.
