About Toyota Isis

I got to know about Toyota Isis back in 2005 when I was surfing the internet. I thought of buying a car at that time, but the localized car models carried by the foreign car maker do not seems to convince me, even though they are cheaper as their foreign counterparts. So I was curios to know about the car that they offered in their home country, so I tried to do a search to check their offer on the net.

I came upon this Toyota Japan website, and I was amazed to know that they actually offered so many MPV models that do not exists in other countries, and that's where I found Isis. If you know how to read Japanese then you will be able to scout around the site for a lot of information about the cars they offer.

The following information are available for user viewing:

1. Design Concept
   
2. Pricing & Package
   
3. Exterior - With gallery in Flash, colour offered for different variant, interior & exterior colour matching, and a 3D view of the car
   
4. Interior - Picture with spot that explained the features the car provided, seat arrangement, interior colour, and interior & exterior colour matching
   
5. Technical Specification - The engine specification with pictures that shows the dimension of the car
   
6. Environment - This is an interesting section. It shows how environmental friendly the car can be, i.e. achieved <N> star in reduced 5% gas emission, and achied <N> star in 50% increase of lower petrol consumption
   
7. Navigation System - Toyota own navigation system that could offer to the car. It is only available in Japan
   
8. Original Accessories - For sports enthusiast, they have this section to recommend the original accessories that can be used to tune the car to become sportier.
   

Now, talking about Isis. I personally do not understand Japanese word that well, but at least I could figure out the meaning that they are trying to tell. The design concept of Isis is to have a MPV that has a big opening that serves like a panorama window, yet without compromising space and size. When both the front door and rear sliding door are opened on the co driver seat side, a panorama window will appear, that would allow one to view a beautiful landscape.

In order to achieve such concept, the B pillar at the co-driver seat side is removed. The B pillar is embedded within the front co-driver seat door and the rear sliding door. Special mechanism has been made to assure that the door is well lock together when both are closed. The embedded B pillar is enforced to conform to the GOA standard. I watched a video on Toyota site that shows them doing side crash test on the co-driver seat, of which the result seems positive.

Seat arrangement of Isis can be viewed on Toyota Japan site. I'm not really good at explaining the seat arrangement of the car, so sorry for the poor explanation. Basically the co-driver seat can be folded forward to create a large leg space for the rear passenger; the second row seat seating cushion can be lifted up to create more space at the rear to store stuff; the 2nd & 3rd row seat can be folded flat together to create a large bed for resting; the 3rd row can be folded down to create a larger boot space to store stuff.

As for the engine, it is of the ZZ type engine that emphasized on using lesser part, smaller in size, lower petrol consumption, yet could produce power. This engine has been improved to emit lesser Carbon Dioxide, consume lesser petrol, and off course to crunch out power. It comes with either a 1.8L or 2.0L capacity. Because of the concept of this engine, it is able to make Isis a car that more efficient in petrol consumption and more environmental friendly and not compromise the power.

There are a lot of features that Toyota could offer for Isis, such as rear A/C, rear power door, both passenger sides power doors, ionizer, turning sensor, front, rear & side sensor, 4WD, and a lot more. These features are available only if you are going to purchase the car in Japan; otherwise you will have to wait for the re-conditioned version of the car to be available for purchase.

For safety features, it comes with ABS with Brake Assist, Vehicle Stabilizer Control, SRS Airbag for driver & co-driver seat, side SRS Airbag, Neon light, front shock absorb to lighten the injuries cause to pedestrian, collapsible steering wheel, 2 ways (or 3 ways?) seat belt mechanism, etc. Mine only comes with ABS with Brake Assist, SRS Airbag for driver & co-driver seat, and probably the front shock absorb.

Overall I like the car because of its practical design and efficiency in petrol consumption. It's not a car for racing or for the thrill of speeding, but it serves right to be a versatile MPV for family.

Lastly, it is to inform that Toyota has come up with a new 2007 model of Isis. There's not much different as compare to the previous model, apart from the face lift, and probably using the latest BEAM ZZ engine. Also, if you tried to google with 'Toyota Isis Youtube', you will be able to see commercial for Toyota Isis in Japanese, that would say "Isis, your Oasis" as the last phrase.