Thursday, June 28, 2007

Japanese Minivan Wars: Toyota Rolls Out Redesigned Voxy and Noah

If you thought only American moms picked minivans based on the flexibility of rear seats, think again. When Toyota introduced the redesigned Voxy and Noah minivans on its home turf Wednesday, it touted "the world's first one-touch folding third-row seats."

The "one-touch extra space" function lifts the seats up in the Voxy and Noah and folds them away with a single touch, Toyota said. The second-row seats are pretty state-of-the-art, too. They rotate toward the exterior, 60 degrees on the passenger side and 30 degrees on the driver side, and feature a design that eases the buckling of kids into child-restraint seats.

Toyota said the minivans will be launched here in late June and that it expects to sell 60,000 units a year of each vehicle. The Voxy and Noah were first introduced in 2001. They are not available in the U.S.

The two look like miniature minivans and employ what Toyota describes as its Vibrant Clarity design philosophy, one that puts a premium on simplicity. Powertrain highlights include a newly developed 2.0-liter engine outfitted with a "Valvematic" continuously variable valve lift mechanism, linked to a seven-speed sports sequential transmission with a paddle-shift-type lever that Toyota says has the feel of a manual transmission.

Other features include an intelligent parking assist system that helps with steering when parallel-parking.

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