Toyota Project Genesis

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Project Genesis was a plan by the Toyota Motor Corporation to attract more youthful buyers to the company's products. It is widely considered to be one of Toyota's worst flops, though the replacement Scion marque has been much more successful.

Launched in 1999, Project Genesis was a study group formed by Yoshimi Inaba, president of Toyota Motor Sales USA. He intended to take three new products which were about to be introduced and sell them as a "marque within a marque" through Toyota's United States dealer network.

The cars, the Celica, MR2 Spyder, and Echo, would be advertised differently from other Toyota models. The RAV4 has also been referred to as a Project Genesis vehicle, but was not one of the original elements of the plan. It turned out being a sales success, unlike the rest of project genesis.

Project Genesis quickly fizzled, since little was done to change the underlying products and they retained the Toyota name. In late 2001, Toyota USA decided to launch a separate marque, Scion, instead, selecting dealers starting the following May. The original Project Genesis cars failed in the market, selling so poorly that all three were cancelled within five years. Scion, however, has been much more successful.

[edit] References

• Bill Vlasic (April 20, 2003). "Toyota turns edgy to grab Gen Y buyers". Detroit News.