For a long time, I have been searching for a soul in Japanese car industry. After long reflections on why I cannot find a Japanese car that captures my interest, I have realised that the Japanese car industry makes one very particular mistake - They make everything. It is very difficult to put a unique character on a brand and design, if you want to do everything at the same time. European car manufacturers generally represents a certain character, a certain identity of users. BMW stands for high performance and quality engineering. Volvo stands for safety. Jaguar represents an English heritage etc. What does Toyota represent? Well, in all fairness they have come to represent predictable quality and reliability, but this signals better than average, rather than excellence. However, could it be that Japanese car manufacturers will find their unique soul in environmentally friendly car technology. This is something that modern car buyers are becoming gradually more aware of and a Toyota, Honda, Nissan etc. are building up a really unique identity around environmentally friendly cars.
