Toyota chiefs ordered a last-minute redesign of the next-generation Corolla after seeing Honda's avant-garde Civic at the Geneva show earlier this year. Insiders say senior execs were worried the new Corolla, said to resemble a scaled-up Yaris, would be seen as far too conservative.
The redesign reportedly has pushed back the launch of the tenth-generation Corolla by at least six months. But it underscores Toyota's resolve to shake off its reputation for building bland cars.
Toyota executive vice president Kazuo Okamoto concedes some of Toyota's products, including Lexus, haven't had the desired impact on consumers because of the way these cars look. "I think our design could've been weak," he said in Tokyo recently. "We didn't have enough aggression in our design."