This year's Tokyo Auto Salon 2016, was the largest event in terms of both surface area as well as attendance.
Recently becoming more of an international showcase, what started out as strictly aftermarket based show, now has a whole list of major automobile manufacturers.
Not only makers from Japan but this year marks the participation of companies like AUDI, Mercedes-Benz, and Fiat, for the first time.
Here are the highlights from my camera lens, from the two days I was there...

Highlight of the show was definitely the huge display by Gazoo Racing of Toyota. All 8 of the Nurburgring winning Lexus LFA were on historical timeline display, along with the Toyota GT86 Race Cars that accompanied it. Also on display was the new Toyota 86 GRMN, as well as SF-R GT and Vitz/Yaris WRC concepts.

Toyota 86 was the center of stage once again at the Green Bell's Toyota Garage, where a concept was shown for many of the latest 86 aftermarket and accessories divisions. From Suitcases to the snacks and coffee by Juneberry Cafe, the very cafe owned by the Chief Designer of the 86.

Many of the attending cars were also works of factory operations, a change for a show which originated as the showcase for the aftermarket. Skunkworks like Mugen, TRD, Toyota College, NISMO, as well as AMG, M Sport and Lexus F division also had stuff on display.

Part 1 : Automobiles, Gadgets, and Booths...

Toyota Alphard

86 Suitcase

86 Suitcase

Part 2:  People, Celebrities, Booth Girls click here.

The post Tokyo Auto Salon 2016, Part 1 - Automobiles, Gadgets, and Booths... appeared first on Club4AG.

May 16th, 2015
Scion iM & iA Industry Influencer's Auto Show

Just after the unusually ominous and dark clouds have passed in the Southern California sky, the freshly launched pair of Scion's brand new game-changer cars, the Scion iM and the Scion iA was put on the center stage.  Invited were the most unusual mix of car fanatics and hardest core aftermarket brands.  Held on the patch of outdoor lot of Toyota USA's big campus, it was really a sight to see everything from thug-lean owners of hydro lowriders, freshest Lamborghini Aventador, the usual pack of customized toaster xB's, and everything in between, even Cruella's Excalibur!

The eco-utility Scion iM is exactly what the Toyota lineup needed to refresh the aging xD, and to fulfill those who missed the defunct Toyota Matrix for a few years it was absent.  Standing out like the Minions, a Yellow Pearl painted iM was showcased, clad with modified trick-drop in the tradition of Scion's niche target audience.  A modular Inno roof rack and a pair of bicycles looked dope and really put the car in the Southern California elements.  Sharp crease lines and angular styling elements flow with audacity, and just screams to be on Instagram-square frame of smart-phones.

The Scion iA, while more formal than the iM in terms of function as a sedan, isn't free of sinister looks when treated in Darth Vader helmet-black paint, which reveal just enough chrome on the grill and corner trim. Having roots as a Mazda 2, the iA's enormous fender blister isn't anything conventional and with a little goggle-view into what the owners might do to it in the aftermarket shopping list, the iA did prove capable of stancing out as mini-VIP'ed sedan.

Honestly, I think the cars are plain enough for a more mundane user, which is an important trait for the car to do well in sales volume, and the target prices being reasonable for class, it is indeed, something Toyota has always done best for the brand.  But being put into the beat-box, floor thumping Scion brand, the cars also have potential to be hacked, sacked, cut, flared, and slammed as Scion owners always have done as an American pastime.  Somebody at Scion totally gets who the target is on this one, and while none of Scion's cars are designed to hit one out of the park, it certainly looks the part to active the youth generation, who might have some imagination to go tweak these cars...   Scion owners love to create their own version, so really all Toyota needs to do is make a blank canvas to enable them.   And the creative ones will definitely see these as the best canvas since the original xB, which was popular when baseball was still followed by Gen X.

Will the neo-tuners embrace it?    We will know in a few months, if they take time off from base jumping or nail-art painting, and get back to tweaking cars again.
For one, I wouldn't mind seeing tons of them going places with boats, boards, and bikes strapped to the roof.  And with Toyota's recent refinement for driver tactility with small cars, I am sure they'll all think it's the "bomb" to drive it there too.

The post Scion iM & iA Launch, Industry Influencer's Auto Show appeared first on Club4AG.