Toyota Villa is one of the participants in the WiLL project, which was formed by a small group of Japanese companies in the late 90s. The purpose of this event was to create a single brand for the production of goods focused on active youth and the younger generation. Among the companies involved in the production were Toyota, Kao Corporation (a manufacturer of personal care products and cosmetics), Panasonic, and some others. The main feature of WiLL was the unusual, and in many ways even the futuristic appearance of the products with good characteristics. Among the goods produced under the project were household appliances, furniture, personal computers, and even automobiles from Toyota Corporation.
WiLL vehicles
Toyota cars have always been distinguished by high reliability, build quality and demand. That is why, taking part in the WiLL project, the company thoroughly approached all the necessary requirements. From the beginning of 2000, until 2005, the public was presented with three variants of machines: Vi, VS and VC (later Cypha). All of them looked very unusual and, undoubtedly, deserved recognition from many motorists. The main goal of Toyota Villas was to introduce to those markets where the company's popularity was relatively low, as, in fact, sales figures.
Toyota WiLL Vi
As part of the introduction of the general trends of the project in January 2000, Toyota Corporation introduced the first WiLL car. Outwardly, it was a compact car, combining the elements of various machines of various times. Unusual technical solutions, such as the uniquely positioned rear window, previously appeared in auto giants such as the Mazda (model Carol), Ford (model Angila 1959-1968 onwards) and Citroen (for Ami model).
The overall impression of the “neo-retro" design was inspired by the styling of Japanese cars of the 1950s and 1960s. The car was equipped with a MacPherson-type suspension in front, while a torsion beam of the bridge stood behind. The color scheme consisted mainly of pastel colors. Unfortunately, sales turned out to be a failure, as a result - replacing Vi with the Cypha model.
Toyota WiLL VS
The second generation of a futuristic car was the result of many years of development in pursuit of design. When it was presented at an exhibition in Los Angeles in 2001, the public reaction was unexpectedly positive. The design was inspired by the forms of the stealth fighter F-117 Nighthawk, which allowed to give the appearance of style and unusual beauty.
There were three configurations, in the “richest” of which was installed a 1.8-liter engine with 180 horsepower, a tiptronic gearbox, alloy wheels and a unique body kit. Despite the success of Toyota WiLL VS in the home market in Japan, as well as the cult of worship of this model that has begun, it has never been sold in other countries.
Toyota WiLL VC (Cypha)
Toyota’s latest WiLL concept was found in the VC model, later renamed Cypha. The start of production started in 2002, at a time when the previous version of VS was on the conveyor. “Stuffing” was borrowed from a classmate - “Toyota East”. Externally, the car was developed on the basis of the Witz and Yaris models, but only in a more angular design.
To be extremely frank, the Toyota Villa Seifa (in another version, Saifa) was the continuation of the first not very successful generation. External differences from the predecessor were distinguishable only in headlights. The front light lamps became vertical and had 4 blocks on each side. The rear ones were moved to the window, which was reminiscent of Renault Megane 2.
In order to lure customers, Toyota came up with a program called Pay As You Go (literally, “pay while you go”), which allowed you not to buy a car for personal use, paying a monthly loan payment, but to purchase a car on lease and make a lease money only for the real mileage of the car, which could run over during the period of ownership.
Public expectations
As it became clear from the above, Toyota Villa, the reviews of which are quite controversial, made a lot of noise in different countries and segments of the population. Despite the relatively low success of the Vi and VC models, the intermediate car (VS) is quite firmly entrenched in the hearts of many motorists.
It was expected that after the completion of production in 2004, a new model will be introduced. But this never happened. A similar outcome of events caused a frustration and a storm of indignation of VS fans. Experts believe that Toyota Villa had a design and innovations that were ten years ahead of the general development of the global automotive industry. That is why the surviving VS samples are still quite popular to this day. Of course, every year finding a good device is becoming more and more difficult, because only 4,000 pieces were released. Small volumes of production are justified by the fact that, allegedly, VS in the stage of the futuristic concept car was transferred to production. But we are unlikely to ever know the truth.
Scion as a continuation of WiLL
In 2004, the Japanese considered WiLL to be a rather unprofitable and non-paid brand, and that is why production under this brand stopped. Toyota also stopped the production of branded cars, but instead a new development direction appeared - NETZ.
In the United States, a division was opened, or rather, a subsidiary of Scion. The main concept of a fundamentally new brand was the development of cars that have found their popularity among young people. Sufficiently successful models tC, xB, xD and FR-S have established themselves well as analogues of Japanese Toyota with a left-hand drive. However, despite all efforts, Scion did not "live" for long. Only 13 years have passed since the opening, when it became clear that the company was not paying back its costs, and on August 5, 2016, the brand ceased to exist, leaving only the already sold copies.
Toyota Villa makes an ambiguous impression. This line of models can be regarded as a rather brave experiment. Most likely, predicting the losses associated with these events, the engineers and designers of the auto giant were not afraid to flaunt their most crazy and unrealistic dreams embodied in the WiLL model range. And if society did not take such experiments so harshly, who knows, maybe now the brand would be alive. But do not talk about what is not, and the WiLL line can be remembered only with a smile. Another page in the history of automotive industry will remain closed forever.