When walking down the street in Japan, you never know what you’re going to see next. Like this oddly shaped car for example. I have never seen this shape in Europe. Although the design is striking, it hardly seems efficient (in terms of luggage space). Does anyone know what kind of car it is and if it is sold only in Japan?
Thanks to a comment by ‘RDS’ (see below), I found out that this model is called ‘Toyota WiLL Vi’. It was only produced for one year, from 2000 to 2001 and was only sold in Japan (as far as I know). It was targeted at young women in their 20’s and 30’s. In addition to this car, WiLL-branded computers, phones, and perfumes were sold on the internet. Toyota experimented with this new branding strategy to attract a new generation of buyers. It was a huge success; the demand exceeded the supply.
The Japans 
I was looking through an old magazine and found an ad for this car and remembered that it was a stylish, targeted to a younger demographic model/brand called Will made by Toyota.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiLL
It is interesting how some cars in Japan are marketed to be cute of fashionable. The only cars that I can think of with similar marketing in Europe might be the Beetle and the Mini. In Europe cars are marketed more in terms of environmentally friendliness, or as a very manly car, or as reliable cars.
You do indeed still see a few around and usually in decent condition. The ‘Will’ brand was quite interesting – I remember there was a fridge freezer too, mostly with a square orange logo…
I wonder who would buy a matching fridge with their car… 🙂
Toyota WiLL Vi , this car produce 10 years ago … after that , Toyota also produce WiLL VS & the last is WiLL Cypha .
Thank you so much!
I’ve never seen a car like that! I kinda like the shape.
I’ve seen a few in Japan, even one near my house, but now that I urgently need one (to see the brand), I’m not seeing any.
Hello Helena,
To me it looks like a car who came out of the movie “Who framed Roger Rabbit”
Papa
Yes it does have a bit of an oldtimer feel. It kind of looks like a Beetle that got a piece chopped out of it.
I also tried googling but can’t find it either. I’m sure several people in the car business read this blog. Help us please! 🙂 What kind of brand and model is this?
I took this picture in a hurry but next time I see one of these I will definitely go in a little closer to see what brand it is.
I’ve seen a few of these in Japan. Not sure who makes it though. Would love to find out 🙂
I’ve definitely seen this kind of car before but after some googling, I don’t know who it was made by…