Is Toyota victim of own success?

In South Africa at least, the Toyota Yaris still comfortably outsells the Mazda2 and you can put this down to the fact that the motoring population there feels comfortable with a Toyota even if it isn’t the best from a dynamic point of view or even from a value aspect. 
They find a lot that’s reassuring about a Toyota and part of that must stem from the fact the brand is so widely represented in SA which all goes to prove that there’s more to a car than the the car itself.
However, it’s not every market in the world where the infrastructure is so incredibly strong — the USA is another — and it’s in these markets that Toyota is slipping up.  The brand has never been particularly strong in Britain and Europe where in my opinion at least, you possibly find the most discriminating purchasers on the planet.  What can you put this down to?  I don’t know the answer for sure but I can surmise that image is a major consideration. 
You see, Toyota in latter years has not produced top range models that produce a halo effect down the range.  The company has severely downplayed its Lexus connection and it doesn’t have anything like the astonishing Nissan Skyline GTR to spread that aforementioned halo effect.
The GTR has earned Nissan squillions of column centimetres of editorial coverage as journalists vie to get their hands on a car which is invariably compared with Porsches. 
This can only do good for the overall brand image as do vehicles such as the interesting Qashqai which departed to a certain extent from the straight and narrow to get noticed and, hopefully, purchased.  Put it this way, the Nissan will have earned far more coverage than Toyota’s RAV 4, a highly competent vehicle in its own right, but one which like so many of its blood line simply does not rock the boat.
 I’ve already mentioned a specific Hyundai model but other models from South Korean manufacturers also pose a severe threat to Toyota and other established brands.
Kia has also made huge strides in recent years and they, along with Hyundai, offer models that are not just good to drive but which offer exceptional value for money and brilliant warranty terms.  Sure, some of the latter may represent an example of buying share but if you can get a customer into your product and then cement a relationship through proving the product is good, you’re half way to making the next purchasing decision go your way. Certainly all is not gloom and doom for Toyota as they find themselves in the globally destructive draught of a fierce recession but I firmly believe that the time has already gone by for the company to think outside the traditional, rather blinkered box.
Even its top line 4X4s such as the revered Land Cruiser (should be called a Land Bruiser in my book) are treading a rather familiar path when it comes to overt design features. 
The latest iterations, for all their undisputed worthiness, dependability, toughness etc etc, lack the visual panache of many rivals, inside and out.  I’m sure you’ve all heard of the Sloane Square 4X4 syndrome.  This refers to all the urban posers in the UK whose 4X4s go no further than the street-side coffee shop. 
You can be sure they mostly drive Range-Rovers, Porsche Cayennes, BMW X5s and such like but rarely a Land Cruiser.
Having expended much time on doubting the long term efficacy of Toyota’s entrenched conservatism, it would be remiss of me not to mention two particular areas where that company has been bold. 
Firstly, the hybrid Prius was without doubt a trend setter that has gone down a storm with Hollywood residents who wish to emphasise their green credentials.  While the economies of operation of the Prius have never really matched Toyota’s claims — many small, modern diesels are more frugal — you’ve got to take your hat off to the company for being years ahead of the pack in producing a practical hybrid. 
Toyota was also bold enough to get into the (mini) city car market with its much-lauded iQ, and with the exception of the largely unsuccessful Smart, it’s stolen a march on its major rivals by producing a car appropriate for the times as well as one which is endowed with many interesting engineering interpretations.
Finally on the subject of image and perception, I’m asked a thousand times why Toyota has not succeeded at the pinnacle of motor racing.  I can’t answer that question with any authority but I can tell you that the company’s failure to win in F1 was mirrored in the 80s and 90s by its failure to win the Le Mans 24 Hour race.
Following the failure of its Group C racers of the late 80s/early 90s, Toyota put in a massive effort with its GT-One prototypes in the ’98 and ’99 24 Hour races but despite having the biggest budget by a huge margin, the GT-Ones were defeated by Porsche in the one year and by BMW in the next.
Getting close isn’t good enough at this level and much as I’ve hoped the red and white liveried F1 cars would convert their occasional front row grid positions into race wins, you somehow know that things won’t gel. 
The design and development of the racers takes place at a purpose-built competitions factory near Cologne and word has it that there is regular and unwelcome “interference” coming from Tokyo.
 Quite how much credence one can attach to this is hard to say but there are those who point to the recent success of Brawn GP, a group now freed from Honda head office “interference” and now front runners by a huge margin, albeit with Mercedes-Benz mechanicals.