2009 Bangkok International Motor Show - Toyota

Visitors to the 2009 Bangkok International Motor Show will find that Toyota has a "new" Yaris, a Prius II "Prototype" and a 1/X Concept. Exciting!

But let's start with the New Yaris. It would take a very keen eye to spot the differences here. The pleasant sales lady asked me which "series" of Yaris I was interested in, and when I explained that I just wanted to know what was different, she said "the lights are different, and this is the top series."

The Yaris is starting to look less and less appealing, next to the much more modern Honda Jazz, and in light of Ford Fiesta/Mazda2 on the horizon. Toyota are trying to inject some fresh interest in the Yaris with this minor change model, but it's not much of a change.

The Prius II is a much more interesting looking car, but it was labelled as a "Prototype" despite the fact that the Prius II is already in production, and we weren't allowed to step foot in the "Prototype", unfortunately. Besides, this will not be officially available from Toyota Thailand, and grey imports will be around THB 2 million.

Then there was this strange looking 1/X concept. Basically it is a concept for a hybrid model, with a very small (500 cc) motor. The car is designed to be very light-weight, and the construction is mostly carbon-fibre. This might give us some ideas of the direction Toyota are looking for future vehicles.

Pickup trucks are losing their appeal in Thailand recently, and sales are dropping off in a big way. This concept from Toyota looks very interesting though, and although there isn't much information about it (and it is a concept) it is yet another hybrid concept. Toyota is committed to the hybrid route.

Other than that, Toyota is showing all their usual production models, and pushing hard to sell them.

Related articles: Read more about the 2009 Bangkok International Motor Show