By Samuel Ee

MINIVAN sales are steadily increasing across Asia and the popular Toyota Wish MPV is likely to be a core model for the Japanese car maker in future.

Toshihiro Oi, the Toyota chief engineer in charge of the new Wish multi-purpose vehicle, says that the most popular body style in Japan used to be the sedan.

"That was 20 to 30 years ago," he says. "But in the past 10 years, minivan sales have been increasing. Once our customers try a minivan, they don't go back to the sedan."

According to Mr Oi, what Japanese owners like about an MPV is its versatility and convenience because "there are many ways to use the vehicle".

More interesting is that as far as motoring trends are concerned, the rest of Asia usually takes about five years to follow Japan's lead.

But he adds: "Recently, the gap is getting smaller."

Little wonder then that Toyota has made the latest Wish feel like a brand new car.

Although the second-generation Wish shares the same basic platform as the first Wish, extensive modifications have been carried out to the structure and chassis, as well as to ride comfort and the interior. As a result, the new Wish is a quantum leap over the car it replaces.

The big jump in build quality is not only restricted to the Wish, though. Mr Oi says that it extends to Toyota's overall product range. At the same time, Toyota is able to manage costs well enough to keep list prices at the same level.

"We have learned to improve our cars without too much extra costs," explains Mr Oi with a smile.

The affable Toyota chief engineer was in Singapore last week to launch the new Wish by authorised distributor Borneo Motors Singapore.

The first-generation model of this compact seven-seat MPV became a hit as soon as it was introduced here as a parallel import in late 2002, soon after its launch in Japan. So far, grey importers have collectively sold slightly over 14,000 units here.

Borneo Motors introduced the official version in mid-2008 and quickly delivered 3,247 units over 12 months, including 1,055 taxis, thus making the Wish Singapore's top MPV.

Like the previous model, Borneo Motors's new Wish comes from Japan with a 2.0-litre engine and new safety features such as all-round disc brakes, DSC or dynamic stability control, and six airbags.

It expects to sell about 150 units per month - down from about 180 passenger car units previously. But the company believes that this is still a good number because it is still less than the fall in the overall new car market. The Singapore market is expected to contract by 24 per cent this year.

So far, Borneo Motors has more than 300 bookings for the new Wish since it began collecting orders in July. Deliveries began last week.

As for the parallel imported version, 577 units have been registered here up until end-September.

This article was first published in The Business Times.