Picnic feast for Toyota

Toyota can put its signature on the top 10 sellers not once but twice. ALASTAIR SLOANE explains why.

The Top eight carmakers in New Zealand in terms of sales are: Toyota, Ford, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Holden, Toyota, Hyundai and Honda.

Hang on a sec? What's Toyota doing in there in first and sixth place? Must be a mistake?

No, it's not. Toyota New Zealand is first because it sells more new vehicles than anyone else, and its used Signature Class division is sixth because it's selling more vehicles than anyone except its parent company Ford, and Mitsubishi, Nissan and Holden.

Get the picture?

Toyota certainly does as its Signature Class goes into its third year of trading.

The division handles used vehicles either sold new in New Zealand or brought in from Japan. All carry Toyota New Zealand warranties.

The parent company's backing has led to a sales increase of 17 per cent on Japanese imports, but sales of used New Zealand vehicles - mostly ex-lease - has dropped because of fewer lease sales to corporates.

One car that will collectively aid Toyota by appearing in the new and used-import market is the Picnic, a seven-seater launched the other day for $38,000.

The Picnic falls into the MPV (multi-purpose vehicle) category, which has grown from 1 per cent of the New Zealand market four years ago to 2.5 per cent today.

This contrasts with MPV growth in Japan over the same period of more than 40 per cent. Simply, MPVs have eaten into Japan's declining hatchback market.

The Picnic comes in a choice of six colours and slots in between the smaller Spacio, which went on sale earlier this year, and the larger Previa, which has been selling at between 100 and 250 a year since its introduction in the early 90s.

The Picnic is powered by a 2-litre engine mated to a four-speed automatic transmission.

New Zealanders will remember the motor with affection - it was used in the discontinued Corona. It has been upgraded with a direction-ignition system which eliminates the distributor and aids reliability.

The four-cylinder powerplant delivers 94kW at 5400 rpm and 178Nm of pulling power at 4400 rpm. It will accelerate from zero to 100 km/h in about 11 seconds.

A feature - indeed the purpose - of the Picnic is its versatile seating setup. It has three rows of seats, with space for luggage between the third row and the rear door.

If that's not enough, the third row can be removed and the three seats in the second row can each be folded away.

The design allows walk-through access from the driver's seat to the rear. Other MPVs on the market offer similar seating configuration.

Standard safety equipment includes side-impact beams built into the doors, dual front airbags, front seatbelt pre-tensioners - an explosive charge takes up any slack in the belt in an accident - and anti-lock ABS braking.

The Picnic uses disc brakes in front and drums at the rear. Front suspension is McPherson strut and the rear uses a torsion-beam setup.