Echo of Europe

Toyota's latest big-small car seems likely to continue the carmaker's tradition of big-volume sales, reports ALASTAIR SLOANE.

For the sake of this story Toyota can be a mountain and the European car buyer the wise prophet Muhammad.

Toyota builds a mountain of good cars each year and offers them at a price to followers all around the world, just like the original Muhammad did with his beliefs.

But Toyota didn't have enough believers in Europe, the home of the small car. So it hired a European designer, a Greek named Sotiris Kovos, who inherited wisdom from other gods, and asked him to come up with a smart little number that Europeans would buy.

It asked others in the know to find a handle based on European languages. This was vital. Japanese carmakers aren't strong on names. Back in the late 50s, Toyota called its first planned export car the Toyolet. Its American office warned sales would probably be slow.

The European wordsmiths compiled a list of hundreds of possible names and ran them past people in surveys in Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Spain. The names were whittled down to a shortlist of 12 and checked for copyright and meaning.

Toyota liked Yaris best, saying it appealed to younger people but suggested maturity and prestige. Then it built the car in Japan and launched it in Europe. Then it won the European Car of the Year, praised particularly for its innovation inside and out. Now Toyota is building a dedicated factory in France to produce it.

So, instead of expecting European buyers to continue to trek to its door in Japan, Toyota went to Europe, just like the mountain, in the form of devotees, went to Muhammad, although the wisdom of Muhammad's thinking was apparent 1400 years before that of Toyota's.

Now the Yaris is selling like crazy - 10,000 cars in three months, faster in Europe than any Toyota product before it. Same in Japan, where it is called the Vitz - 100,000 cars in six months, an all-time Toyota record.

But will the Echo be as big a hit? That's what the Yaris/Vitz is called in New Zealand and Australia. Nobody seems to know why it is called the Echo. There is no explanation in Toyota New Zealand's press kit. We will assume the name Echo has something to do with repeat sales.

Toyota NZ is preparing for plenty of these when the hatchback and sedan go on sale on January 1. Indeed, the company's product manager, Spencer Morris, reckons its success in Europe will rub off on New Zealanders. He expects to sell 110 Echos a month.

"As physically remote as we are from Europe, we still look to that market for our motoring inspiration. So the Echo, styled in Europe and engineered and made in Japan, has the potential to become a formidable force here."

Designer Kovos agrees. "Too many small cars are purposely bland and featureless. We did not want to build a refrigerator - an appliance. Instead we set out to devise a style that would create emotion, a warm feeling. We wanted people to either love it or hate it. That is at least better than being indifferent.

"For the Echo we chose a strong Germanic influence. In Germany, form follows function. In Italy, for example, it is often the other way round. Because Echo had to offer such functionality, a Germanic design represented the best balance of practicality and strength."

So, what it is this Japanese-European car and how much will it cost? It's a big-small car with an excellent ride and a wonderful interior easy on the eye, roomy and functional. The instruments, delightfully uncluttered, are housed in the centre of what used to be called a dashboard. On each side of the fascia are storage bins. There are also bins in the doors. The driver sits up nice and straight.

Two four-cylinder engines are available, of 1.3 and 1.5-litre capacity. Both have been reworked to produce more usable pulling power and return improved economy.

The entry-level three-door, five-speed manual hatchback Echo comes with air-conditioning, a driver's airbag, seatbelt pretensioner and costs $20,000. Passenger airbag and ABS anti-lock brakes will cost $1200 more. The five-door manual hatchback costs $22,500. The $1200 safety package and optional $1200 four-speed automatic transmission pushes up the price to $24,900.

The four-door sedan starts at $24,500, or $26,900, with the optional dual airbags, anti-lock brakes and automatic transmission.

Toyota says the Echo is the safest car in its class. European Car of the Year judges agreed.