At great risk to sales, the lower end
Toyota cars come with their instrument panel in the centre of their dashboard, like so:
To many people, this is very annoying. Toyota's claim is that this is actually a better place for the instrument panel than the traditional place, where you have to stare through your steering wheel to see it (something I always found very strange about cars). Of course, this is a radical change, so they're testing the waters with their lower end (read cheaper) cars. Of course, there are those who believe this is merely a cost saving feature, so that the same dashboards can be used between different countries, regardless of whether they're left or right side driving.
Personally, I like the center instrument panel but it was done much better on the Echo than the Yaris. On the Echo, the panel was tilted towards the driver (the only guy who needs to know), whereas the Yaris' panel is perfectly symmetrical, facing straight back. I have no idea why they would do this and it lends some credibility to the "cost savings" theory.
What do people think of this idea? What do people think Toyota was thinking?