Why Can’t the U.S. Have Toyota’s 40 MPG 4WD Minivan?
Toyota sells a 40 mile-per-gallon, four-wheel-drive hybrid minivan in Japan, and has since 2001, but they’re playing keeps.
Its become a bit of a perennial question that I’m reminded of when I find myself mired in the depths of the internet — a question that’s been simmering in the back of my mind since I learned about the Toyota Estima hybrid minivan 3 years ago… and then went to full boil when I learned that the Estima hybrid has been sold in Japan since 2001.
At the time, I googled extensively, I asked some Japanese colleagues, I contacted Toyota — I even set up a half-hearted online petition to bring the Estima hybrid to the US (offline now, but the Union of Concerned Scientists was more ambitious, garnering over 18,000 signatures).
After all that, I never really got answers as to why Toyota had no plans to bring this family-fantasy four-wheel-drive, 40 mpg minivan to the US, but as I did more research, I pieced together my own picture of the reasons. It seemed that Toyota didn’t think Americans would buy it because it wasn’t a “full-sized” minivan and it didn’t have enough power.
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But now, with the hearts and minds of consumers changing and demand for fuel efficient vehicles steaming ahead, I come back to the same question. And it’s the question I find myself asking of most every major auto manufacturer these days: WTF? If you’ve got a car that everybody will want, why don’t you just go ahead and sell it to everybody?
When I was growing up, my family was one of the first to buy Toyota’s Previa minivan. I remember sitting in it for the first time and thinking I was at the helm of a spaceship. It seemed so cool and turned me into an instant Toyota fanboy.
That Previa was built like a tank: it went 170,000 miles without any major service needed. It was also the source of many a fond teenage make-out and illicit substance memory — although most of those are a little foggy now, aren’t they?
I’ve owned Toyotas ever since, and probably will ’till the day I die. But recently I’ve started to get pissed at Toyota in the same way that I am at the American auto manufacturers for some of the dolt-headed, intelligence-defying marketing decisions they’ve made in regards to fuel efficient vehicles.
You see folks, that first generation Previa was the precursor to the Estima, but for some reason, when Toyota introduced the next generation Estima to the rest of the world as it phased-out the Previa, it introduced the turd-like Sienna to the US. The Sienna was a gas hog — just like all other US minivans — and was designed with not a hint of the Previa in mind.
As the years went on, the Japanese Estima got better and better and Toyota even released a “full-size” hybrid minivan to the Japanese market called the Alphard. But we were still stuck with the hulking Sienna.
Currently, the rumors indicate that Toyota will introduce a hybrid version of the Sienna to the US market sometime next year, but it won’t get nearly the mileage of the Estima. Again, I ask, WTF? Yo, Toyota, you’ve already got a minivan that half of the families in the US would kill for, what the hell are you doing investing so much energy in redesigning a has-been?
The video below is in Japanese, but regardless, it clearly shows the Estima hybrid in operation with its fancy Americans-need-it options and all. As a dad to two, I want this car for my family. What do you think? Is Toyota crazy just like all the other big auto manufacturers?
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Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons under a GNU Free Documentation License
Video Credit: VasyaKurolesov from Youtube
Just curious… why would anyone need to feel “guilty” about driving a car that gets over 25mpg? My beloved Vette doesn’t get anything close to that, but I certainly don’t feel guilty about it — I’m paying for the gas, after all. I don’t get it.
Jack,
Nobody needs to feel guilty for driving a car that gets 25 mpg, and, obviously, many people don’t and never will. If you’re referring to my comment in which I stated that Ben must be feeling guilty because of the nature of his comments towards me, I didn’t say that he should feel guilty, just that his comments seemed to underlie a deep seated discomfort with the idea that a 25 mpg minivan isn’t fuel efficient.
The reality is that 25 mpg isn’t fuel efficient when you look at what other vehicles of the same type around the world can get. If there is anything to feel guilty about, it isn’t necessarily that any particular car gets bad fuel economy, it’s that the worse fuel economy you get the more you contribute to foreign oil regimes that care nothing for our domestic security and the more impact you have on the environment. If the fuel you used didn’t do any of that, then low mileage wouldn’t matter.
I live in Japan a portion of the year, my in-laws own one of these vans so I ride in one frequently. Whereas its roomy for a population that averages 90 lbs for the women and 140 for the men, one can only guess what would happen should a half dozen midwest porkers pile into it.
They would not fit. Its a nice car with cameras on the front corners for very-close steering and other perks, but forget packing a ton of Americans in it. Just can’t fit.
I think the biggest issue with the “green” vehicle movement is that people don’t understand what green is. People treat it like a religion instead of objectively evaluating the facts. I love efficient vehicles, but exotic hybrids and the like are not the answer because they don’t make good engineering sense. Here are inarguable facts that have been ignored or misstated in this thread:
Fact 1: The US EPA test lab is in Ann Arbor, MI and it is a state of the art facility that accurately measures fuel economy based on a given driving cycle. There is no 30% overestimate that is being covered up, because both foreign and American vehicles are tested there. The driving cycle determines EVERYTHING when it comes to the final verdict.
Fact 2: There are NO foreign cars out there that are being with held from Americans that would dramatically improve fuel economy in any vehicle sector. The Smart car was supposed to be the first of many foreign imports to redefine what Americans thought of fuel economy. Unfortunately, like other imports out there, it failed when subjected to US tests. Yes, it still gets excellent fuel economy, but there are consumer complains galore about the “real” fuel economy being in the mid to low 30’s, not in the 40’s. Don’t forget that the Euro standards rated it at 60+ mpg. There are many better options out there for fuel economy compared with paying the space penalty of the Smart.
Fact 3: No one, not even the mystical, magical Japanese have a distinguishing technology when it comes to fuel economy. They don’t, it’s that easy. Everyone is playing in the same technology pool (VVL, VVT, GDI, etc…), buying the same components from the same suppliers, and hiring the same engineers. The formula is easy, light cars with small engines and marginal emissions get great fuel economy. I drive one, a Mini Cooper. It greats great fuel economy and performance, but has a very poor emissions rating.
Fact 4: The biggest advocates of the “green” vehicle movement are the ones that have hampered it the most by also being advocates for vehicle safety and emissions standards. Like it or not, safety directly correlates to fuel economy. A heavier car (compare 1980’s vehicle weights to today) gets worse fuel economy than a lighter car with the same powertrain. Also, good emissions do not imply good fuel economy. Emissions are a function of good chemistry in the engine (i.e. proper mix of fuel, air, etc..). This means that there are scenarios where “unnecessary” fuel is added to the engine to ensure it falls within emissions guidelines. So, some of the “greenest” people from a fuel economy standpoint actually drive some of the highest polluting vehicles from an emissions stand point in the US.
Fact 5. US automakers are not out to get you. They try to give you what you want. Who would have though that people would actually buy a vehicle as ridiculous as the Prius for the misinformed reasons that they do. Again, it is a good fit in some driving circumstances, but is ridiculous in most. I urge you all to objectively sit down and compare fuel economy between the Big 3 and what you consider “green” auto companies, and I think you will be in for a shock. Just make sure that the vehicle engine displacements are equivalent. I’m not saying you shouldn’t buy foreign, I’m just saying don’t buy foreign for “green” reasons, because it is an invalid reason based on the facts.
I want a Daihatsu Copen. Why aren’t these sold in the USA? They are incredibly cute.
and how come you can only buy the Honda Civic GX in New York & California?
the cleanest internal-combustion engine on the planet - runs on AMERICAN fuel - 5 cents per mile in city driving
and ‘Big Oil’ would profit, so c’mon conspiracy freaks come up with another explanation…
I’d go with the likelihood it’s a US Safety standards issue. In addition to the re-design effort, bring them up to US specs would probably increase the weight, probably significantly, and thus impact the overall performance - probably to an unacceptable degree.
I recall seeing, in Japan, some of the early version minivans (a variety of models that never saw the US markets - and with the lower safety standards, most of the ones I saw involved in major accidents (even at a 50kph/32mph speed limit) resembled crumpled balls of tinfoil more than something that used to be a vehicle.
Crash tests, perhaps?
I recall that the Previa went away from these shores because it failed the independent crash tests so badly that it embarrassed Toyota. They still made it for other markets, I believe, but that was the impetus where the Sienna came from, among other reasons — and why the Sienna has always gotten top marks for safety.
will this mini-van be approved by Toyota for sale here in the U.S.soon?
It seems that fuel saving and less pollution would be the way to go. I hate dealing with repairs. I hate dealing with car dealers. I just want basic reliable transportation. So what do we do to have our opinions heard?