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Toyota are celebrated as being one of the most popular car brands of all time, creating some great pickups and SUVs especially. Their ventures into the sportier car market have also been successful with the likes of the Supra and the famous Corolla AE86, but the cars in this list ultimately were unsuccessful for a number of reasons.
From poor design choices, lack of any real safety and simply being released at the wrong time, these Toyotas can't be deemed anything other than failures. Below are 10 cars Toyota definitely regret making.
10 Toyota Previa
The Previa was made to be the successor to the heavily criticized Toyota Van, but unfortunately, it was subject to multiple design flaws. Chief among which, was the poor engine power.
Due to the size of the Previa, a decent amount of power was required to make the car move, but the low powered engine wasn't enough, meaning Toyota fitted the Previa with a supercharger. This backfired however as the car simply became much louder and more expensive to buy, putting off any potential customers. The placement of the engine also may have been a mistake given that the engine was mounted in the middle, this may work for Italian supercars, but it didn't quite pay off for Toyota's minivan.
9 Toyota Paseo
The Paseo may not look too bad, and the styling would certainly appeal to most, particularly due to its development as a 2-door sporty version of the famous Corolla.
Unfortunately for Toyota, rivals Mazda released their competitor around the same time in the form of the Mazda MX-3 and the styling crown went to them. Ultimately, the Paseo couldn't keep up with the competition, and its poor chassis made understeer a nightmarish problem for drivers of the Toyota. Perhaps it just wasn't good enough at the time, as after only a few years on sale, Toyota gave up on the Paseo in 1997.
8 Toyota T100
Given Toyota's reputation for creating some great SUVs and some even greater trucks, the T100 should have been one of the best in its category.
The T100 simply didn't fit the market as a complete lack of an extended cab and a hugely popular V8 engine option wasn't in Toyota's development plan, meaning the T100 fell behind the competition somewhat. Because of this, Toyota went back to the drawing board and created the Tundra which did come with a V8, however, the T100 will always be known as the poor first attempt.
7 Toyota (Toyopet) Crown
Given Toyota is a Japanese company, when it came to making a car for the American market, perhaps a design refresh should have been considered to suit American buyers.
The Toyopet Crown was Toyota's first car to be sold in the US back in 1958, but being designed for Japanese roads, it was remarkably slow when used on roads with higher top speeds and more open space. It was very cheaply made compared to American vehicles at the time, and the low power meant it struggled with hills and driving at adequate speeds on highways. The brakes were also particularly bad, and this eventually led to Toyota giving up in 1961 due to poor sales.
6 Toyota Camry Solara
The Camry Solara is nothing short of a design mismatch, with an uninspired body design being packaged with a convertible roof.
Almost certainly aimed at slightly older drivers, compared to the sportier cars even in this list, the car handled famously poorly given that the chassis wasn't at all reinforced to deal with the lack of structural support provided by a roof. The car didn't even have enough power, so it couldn't make up for its lack of structural support on the straights. Once again, it seemed like Toyota had the creativity but lacked execution, meaning it was eventually axed in 2009.
5 Toyota Sera
Another more ill-informed design choice from Toyota came in the form of the Sera which quite surprisingly was made with the Lamborghini in mind.
The problems begin when you realize that the Sera wasn't particularly fast, it didn't handle very well, and just generally wasn't very nice to drive. Interestingly, it was praised for great visibility, due to the strange butterfly like doors, but the overall impracticality meant the negatives far outweighed the positives. However, it didn't go down great with the American market, and this led to its eventual demise.
4 Toyota FJ Cruiser (2007)
As one of the all the great off-roaders, it made sense for Toyota to re-create the FJ Cruiser for the modern day. The problem with the modern FJ Cruiser from 2007 is partly down to its looks, and it's impracticality.
Initially, the 2007 FJ Cruiser bares little resemblance to the classic from decades ago, other than the similar front grille design, but its large round shape made it cumbersome to drive and rear visibility was almost non-existent. It sold well in the beginning, perhaps down to nostalgia, but it drank fuel like nothing else in the same category and was deemed an eventual failure.
3 Toyota Echo
The Echo was first introduced to interest new buyers for the younger generation, but its flaws made it quite unpopular. Starting out with a sedan model, the Echo came packaged with a surround sound audio system to tempt younger drivers, but the uninspiring exterior design perhaps didn't quite capture the cool factor Toyota hoped to create.
It eventually went through a number of design changes to combat this, but the biggest problem of all was its incredibly poor safety rating in terms of collisions. For first time drivers, and parents of new drivers, safety is essential and being one of the worst rated cars for safety at the time left a sour taste in everyone's mouths.
2 Toyota Master Ace
Perhaps unfairly compared to the Volkswagen Bus, the Master Ace didn't win any points for styling and the design was its ultimate downfall.
Being made to transport large amounts of people, the Master Ace did deliver in this regard, but the ugly design put many potential customers off and the fumes given off made it very difficult to consider buying. Naturally, Toyota redesigned the vehicle into the Master Ace Lite which, again, didn't sell well at all and didn't stop the complaints from rolling in.
1 Toyota Venza
By all accounts, the Venza should have done better given the good power, and looks which weren't all that bad. Its looks are a combination of a van and SUV, but it was actually sold as a sedan.
Surprisingly, the Venza isn't actually bad and came with a host of tech features, but it was released at the wrong time. In 2009, gas prices were at their peak and the Venza simply didn't fit the market. Also, Toyota's cost to selling margin wasn't good enough as the Venza didn't make enough sales to warrant keeping the model going, which is why it was cancelled in 2015.
Sources: Toyota of Clermont, Motortrend, The Motor Digest