"A lot of them just look like station wagons that they raised up a little," said Donald V. Esmond, Toyota's group vice president and general manager for the Toyota brand in America.

Toyota brands include Scion and Lexus and the corporation is part of the Toyota Group.

Luxury-type sedans produced under the Toyota brand included the Century, Toyota Crown, and Toyota Crown Majesta.

Kyodo news service, quoting unidentified industry officials, reported late Thursday that the auto producer would set up an American subsidiary, with an investment of nearly $1 billion, to make a four-seat aircraft to be sold under the Toyota brand.

TOYOTA SCION - "To go after youth specifically, and not have it be part of the Toyota brand, is interesting.

Mr. Nippe said the Toyota brand was "especially hot," and Oldsmobile's new Aurora model was "selling faster than we can get them."

Coming off record sales, the Toyota brand introduced nothing new in New York.

In 1995, Sevgi Sabancı owned and operated a dealership business of Toyota brand in Istanbul.

"It's a coordinated effort," said Donald V. Esmond, general manager of the Toyota brand in the United States.

The Lexus division of Toyota offers comprehensive side air bag systems as standard features on its entire lineup, but has relatively few standard offerings on its Toyota brand.