A Toyota Smart? Tell me more...
Remember the Toyota Endo (pictured)? It was one of many concept cars vying for attention at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2005, but the Japanese firm is now readying a production version to show this autumn, CAR Online has learned. It's a sub-Aygo city car to square up to DaimlerChrysler's Smart Fortwo; DC boss Dieter Zetsche recently told CAR Online that Smart had been close to extinction, but the product planners were convinced that the market for tiny city cars would grow in an environmentally pressured age, so the brand was saved. Toyota now wants a slice of this market and a production Endo is due in showrooms in 2008.
So they're putting the Toyota Endo into production?
Something like it, yes. Although the concept pictured has lashing of the usual show-car frippery (internet on the go, cartoon styling and Star Trek lights), its basic architecture will influence the production version, we hear. So expect something similar at the unveil at September's Frankfurt show. The European-designed Endo concept was short (3000mm) and tall (1520mm), to cram in sufficient space for four passengers. Word is, the production model could offer 3+1 seating, with three spaces for adults and a fourth occasional jump seat - similar to the original Fiat Trepiuno concept, in fact.
Remember the Toyota Endo (pictured)? It was one of many concept cars vying for attention at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2005, but the Japanese firm is now readying a production version to show this autumn, CAR Online has learned. It's a sub-Aygo city car to square up to DaimlerChrysler's Smart Fortwo; DC boss Dieter Zetsche recently told CAR Online that Smart had been close to extinction, but the product planners were convinced that the market for tiny city cars would grow in an environmentally pressured age, so the brand was saved. Toyota now wants a slice of this market and a production Endo is due in showrooms in 2008.
So they're putting the Toyota Endo into production?
Something like it, yes. Although the concept pictured has lashing of the usual show-car frippery (internet on the go, cartoon styling and Star Trek lights), its basic architecture will influence the production version, we hear. So expect something similar at the unveil at September's Frankfurt show. The European-designed Endo concept was short (3000mm) and tall (1520mm), to cram in sufficient space for four passengers. Word is, the production model could offer 3+1 seating, with three spaces for adults and a fourth occasional jump seat - similar to the original Fiat Trepiuno concept, in fact.
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