Fri Nov 16, 2007 11:25am GMT
By Harry Suhartono, Reuters
JAKARTA (Reuters Life!) - India has its legendary Ambassador. Europe's cult car is the Beetle. And in Indonesia? You have the sturdy old warhorse, the Kijang.
Toyota's Kijang may not have the romance of the Ambassador or the cuteness of the Beetle, but the huge multi-purpose vehicle has been the heartbeat of Indonesia for decades.
The Kijang, which means "deer" in Bahasa Indonesia, was first launched in Indonesia in 1977, as a cheap -- and not so attractive -- pick-up truck that could easily navigate the country's bumpy and often packed roads.
Over the years, it's grown into a sleeker vehicle with truckloads of features such as parking sensors, GPS navigation and leather seats, with plenty of space inside to accommodate an extended Indonesian family.
On Friday, Toyota's Indonesian unit launched a coffee-table book on the Kijang to mark 30 years of what the company calls the "pride of the Indonesian family."
Indonesia's best-selling car has held its own, even during the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s and the more recent slowdown in the auto sector due to a massive hike in the fuel price in 2005.
The Kijang, with a starting price of around 160 million rupiah ($17,170), has been the lifeline of Indonesia's second largest automotive distributor, PT Astra International Tbk, which has sold around 1.5 million units so far.
It's become Indonesia's de facto national car -- far better known than the ill-fated Timor, which was launched by former President Suharto's son in the mid-1990s.
In the 1980s there was even a racing series called the Formula Kijang, an open-wheel Formula 1 car look-alike, but with a Kijang engine.
The Kijang has managed to stay in the fast lane despite competition from car-makers such as Mitsubishi, Nissan and Isuzu.
Toyota sold nearly 32,000 Kijangs in the first 10 months of 2007, while none of its rivals came anywhere close to that number.
Nissan launched an assault on Toyota's bastion this year with its fuel-efficient seven-seater van, the Grand Livina. But since the launch in April, only 10,186 units have been sold, while 24,000 Kijangs rolled out of showrooms in the same period.
Why does Indonesia love the Kijang? Quite simply, because it's cheap and easy to run. And it can pack in an entire family and more. The joke in Indonesia is that you only need to feed it some grass to keep it running.
That's serious business in a country where car firms have been racing to lure buyers with their green and fuel-efficient image, and new car sales have been dominated by small models.
Jakarta even has a shopping mall in the centre of the city where instead of clothes, customers shop for cars.
"Now the Kijang has grown big in size ... we have prepared its younger brother, the Avanza," said Johnny Darmawan, president director of PT Toyota Astra Motor, the distributor of Toyota cars in Indonesia, referring to a smaller van launched by Toyota three years ago.
($1 = 9,320 rupiah)
(Writing by Sugita Katyal; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
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