Chapter 1 TOYOTA BLADE: The Essence of Refinement

Chapter 1
All About the TOYOTA BLADE

A Car Packed with "Quality" (1)

The Toyota Blade condenses the essential elements of a premium car—a powerful engine and a refined interior—into a short body. This article introduces the appeal of this car, which carves out a new genre of "short premium."

Text by Fumio OgawaPhotos by Yoshifumi Ogawa

A New Value: "Short Premium"

The Toyota Blade's tagline is "For adults who aren't quiet." It features a short body with a powerful engine, and its exterior and interior boast a distinctive design. For users who find quiet rides in sedans or minivans unsatisfying, this car can be an excellent partner.

When the Blade was announced, I thought, "What an interesting car!" After all, it's a relatively compact hatchback with a body length of 4260mm. Yet, its sculpted body design conveyed something "different," and indeed, its engines were a 2.4-liter and a 3.5-liter. These are more generous displacements than typically found in ordinary hatchbacks. Furthermore, the interior featured options like leather seats, showing attention to materials.

Toyota's concept for the Blade was "short premium." The idea is that compact, condensed quality is more luxurious and stylish than something unnecessarily long and large. The refined interior and exterior are typically found in sedans or coupes, and had rarely been associated with hatchbacks until now. However, as automotive tastes diversify, a market preference emerged for cars with functional, agile designs that also offer high-quality driving and construction. The Blade was launched to meet this demand.

As car enthusiasts know, high-performance hatchbacks are called "hot hatches" in Europe and North America, forming their own genre. For adults who want to enjoy driving with a youthful spirit, a premium hatchback is a welcome model that seemed to be missing.