The WiLL is one of the Toyota entries the open record knows by name and by date — in 1999, and by little else. That is not nothing: a name in the catalogue is where a car's story starts to be recoverable.
How it came about
The WiLL brand was a marketing approach shared by a small group of Japanese companies who decided to offer products and services that focused on a younger demographic from August 1999 until July 2004 in Japan. The companies that participated were the Kao Corporation (a manufacturer of personal hygiene, household detergents, and cosmetics), Toyota, Asahi Breweries, Panasonic, Kinki Nippon Tourist Company, Ltd, Ezaki Glico Candy, and Kokuyo Co., Ltd. (an office furniture and stationery manufacturer).
Toyota also engaged in a similar "youth oriented" approach in North America, with the Project Genesis program. This selective marketing experiment reflected a Japanese engineering philosophy called Kansei engineering, which was used by other Japanese companies. All products were listed online at "willshop.com".
Family and rivals
On a showroom list of its day it stood against the Škoda Auto Škoda Fabia, the SEAT León, the Honda S2000. Its Toyota stablemates include the Toyota Agya and the Toyota Calya.