aBr June 2014 June 2014 | Page 56

new vehicles | by Howard Keeg This Quest is no Con On Friday 9 May 2014 I joined a group of motoring journalists in visiting the Toyota manufacturing plant in Prospecton Durban, to have a look at how Toyota South Africa goes about building their cars, as part of Toyota’s global manufacturing supply chain. As this was my first tour of this facility, it was all very interesting, particularly the relatively high labour input, as opposed to the high robotic element I was expecting. But the real purpose of this visit was to reveal Toyota South Africa’s very own baby, the Toyota Quest. T he Quest is a 100% indicates, the rental South African effort, market. Toyota claims and it has been that the Quest is the created, as they say in most affordable, the their press release “to put most spacious, the most the vehicular cat among powerful, and the most the pigeons by creating a reliable and safe car in whole new sub-C segment”. its segment, and they And as it comes so quickly are correct, because after the launch of the they have effectively eleventh generation Corolla, created their own the pigeons are indeed segment, and have a being clawed. As Glenn nice little niche (maybe Crompton, vice president not so little!) all for for Sales and Marketing themselves. They have explains: “When a new managed to do this by ➲ The process begins …. model arrives, the previous taking advantage of the car is usually consigned to already amortised tooling the history books. Not so for for the 10th generation the outgoing Toyota Corolla. Corolla; by generating Launched in 2007, this model economies of scale; was the most successful and by piggybacking Corolla to date and helped on the 11th generation this motoring icon achieve Corolla (a clever form best-seller status as the of cannibalisation) by world’s most loved car - the putting the new Corolla’s nameplate amassed a record 1600 petrol engine 40.72 million cumulative and its front seats into sales by the end of February the Quest, effectively this year. So, rather than making the Quest 22% phase the 10th generation new Corolla. But it is not out completely, it’s been just a 10th generation reinvented as the ultimate Corolla; because ➲ … and eight hours later a Quest rolls off the production line – maybe this value proposition. Of course little tweaks here and one will be yours? this is not a first for Toyota there, both internally And, with prices starting from just R174 900, and externally, with the help of local the tremendously popular Tazz, which was it’s got winner written all over it. Buyers that produced as a prolonged lifecycle model, component suppliers, make this car 78% are looking to upgrade their vehicles, but was a budget hatchback based on the fifth Quest. aren’t in a position to make the financial leap generation Corolla five-door. For at least a from the B- to C-segment, now finally have decade, it continued to offer South Africans Our short ride from the airport a choice.” great value long after the model on which it to the plant confirmed this, was based was discontinued elsewhere in Crompton has hit the nail on the head. the world. and with the entry level model at It’s all about continuing the legacy of R174 900, all I can say is that this offering value for money vehicles, without Now it’s the turn of Corolla Quest. What is a fantazztic car. sacrificing any of the requirements of makes this newcomer unique, though, is the family man, and as market research that it’s the only sub-C segment contender. | words in action 54 june 2014