Thank you whoever saved us from this Toyota concept

This is Toyota’s NCSV concept from 1999. It was revealed at that year’s Tokyo motor show in October and even wheeled out at the Geneva show in March 2000 in case anyone wanted to see it again. They probably didn’t. 

The brochure for the car that was produced to try and explain what it was carried the tagline “Not quite a coupe. Not quite a wagon. Not quite a sedan. That’s the point!”, which comes across as instantly defensive. It was supposed to be aimed at youngsters in their 20s and 30s with “modern, fun lifestyles”. What it looks like is a half-hearted attempt to see off competition from lifestyle SUVs and the Audi TT and failing miserably. Perhaps that was the point. 

Well yes, that’s the point. It was supposed to have the fun of a coupe, the sort of car you’d want to take on a nice long trip through the countryside, but also the practicality of a saloon you’d commute to work in or an estate you’d take to the tip. Or wherever young folks go at the weekends with a car load. 

Gosh, it’s easy to forgot that the mammoth Japanese carmaker hasn’t always been GR Yaris cool. All those years ago back in 1999, we were smack dab in the era of the fifth-generation Starlet and eighth-generation Corolla. In the UK we had yet to roll into the new millennium and the delights of the all-new Yaris and first-generation Prius. 

Don’t tell the target market of lifestyle-rich 20-somethings, but it actually looks a lot like a tarted up second-generation Toyota Prius inside the NCSV concept. The centre stack is clad in a lovely shiny material that cascades forth from the base of the windscreen down through the car. It’s tech-tastic in the NCSV though – screens for both driver and front passenger, as well as a third screen between the two rear seats. Probably for watching the latest episode of Xena Warrior Princess. 

Curiously, given all of the attention paid to the swooping roof pillar of the NCSV and the various lifestyle elements, Toyota seems to have neglected to put an engine in the car. We could have a go at picking one – the Toyota range in 1999 ran the whole gamut from 1.0-litre 4cyl to 5.0-litre V12. Obviously being smack bang in the middle of the target market we’d go for the latter. A V12 is a lifestyle must-have.

Aside from the all of it, the NCSV was a fairly tame concept car as these things go. No alternative propulsion, and considering it was aimed at young people a distinct lack of fluorescent plastics inside and no under-car neon lighting. 

It’s the concept car equivalent of that time after university when you bought some tragically misguided but overpriced item of fashion clothing and experimented with your hair. You thought that you’d burned all of the photographic evidence, but it turned out that a series of pictures were still squirrelled away on your media website. Awkward. But then, to appreciate the upward progress you’ve made, you need to remember how low you started. Still, whoever at Toyota canned the NCSV and stopped it going into production, we salute you.