Prior to assuming his post as chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation, Akio Toyoda has been a champion of the fun factor in cars made by the Japanese manufacturer, notably in his decree for it to stop making “boring cars”.
Having been succeeded by Koji Sato earlier this year as the company’s president and CEO, Toyoda walks the talk by driving the cars, such as in his racing exploits under the ‘Morizo’ pseudonym, which has since gone on to name a limited-edition GR Corolla, and before that, leading the charge in a revamp that brought driver-oriented models like the GR Supra, GR86 and the GR Yaris.
In a recent dialogue session at last month’s Japan Mobility Show, Toyoda however admitted to a delegation of dealers that he fears the company may fall back to its boring ways, according to the carmaker’s in-house publication, Toyota Times.
“I constantly fear that Toyota will go back to being an ordinary company. When that fear spreads to many people, it will be too late. Even with the title of president, it took me 14 years to change Toyota, but things could revert in a flash,” Toyoda said in recalling his shock at being told “Lexus is boring” at the debut of the fourth-generation Lexus GS.
“When I approached the engineering team’s ‘ivory tower’ to give my impressions of our cars, they shut down the conversation, saying ‘We’ve had no such data or any complaints’,” Toyoda recalled, adding when he asked them to drive something he thought was better for comparison, his engineers would say “they are the same on paper”.
Fast forward to the present day where Toyoda continues to be Master Driver at the carmaker, the Toyota chairman could spend more time developing cars under the Gazoo brand, Toyota CEO Sato said in May.
Beginning without a technical background, Toyoda initially faced an uphill battle in convincing the engineers of his findings, though with time spent driving and honing his skills, the team starting to bring development units for him to drive, and now his feedback is incorporated immediately and development cars are brought back to him within the week.
Toyoda resolves to ensure this approach is “shared with today’s carmaking contingent so that things don’t go back to the way they were,” to avoid going back to making decisions ‘on paper’, as it used to be.
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