What with the Supra and Land Cruiser back in the Toyota stable, the company (and the industry at large) has been on a bit of a retro kick. A recent report from Japan’s Best Car says the next member of Toyota’s back catalog to get a modern reimaging is the Previa. Like any unconfirmed rumor like this, it’s best to take it with a grain of salt. But that didn’t stop us from wondering: Should Toyota bring the Previa back?
For those either too young or not into old Toyotas enough to remember, the Previa was the minivan Toyota sold in North America in the ’90s. It was shaped like an egg and mid-engined, housing a four-cylinder underneath the front seats, of all places. It was, to put it nicely, a bit of an odd duck even when it was new, and has since become a bit of a cult classic.
Once the 2000s rolled around, Toyota’s minivan role on the continent passed onto the much more conventional Sienna, which sold more than healthily, is generally well-liked, and persists to this day, but never quite had the ironic-cool factor of the Previa. It should be noted that the Previa name lived on through subsequent vans sold overseas, but they weren’t the same, and when someone mentions the Previa in the U.S., nine times out of 10 they’re definitely referring to the one from the ’90s.
A new U.S.-market Previa wouldn’t even be that far-fetched, as far as I’m concerned. The next-gen Sienna might still be a few years away, but surely work has started on it already and I can’t imagine it’d be hard to simply call it a Previa when it’s inevitably released.
Another strategy would be to sell the Sienna and Previa concurrently—Toyota certainly has little issue with making multiple products that arguably compete with each other these days—with the Sienna being a conventional, front-engine hybrid gas van and the new Previa as a BEV. That would certainly allow for a more historically accurate, stub-nosed shape. Bring back the egg silhouette and it could be Toyota’s answer to the Volkswagen ID.Buzz.
It could even be stylized as “PrEVia” in the marketing materials. Toyota, you guys can have that one for free.
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