Toyota Courts Mommy Bloggers For Swagger Wagon

Toyota hasn’t had the best few months with the massive recall due to “sudden acceleration” and the subsequent questions about whether the automaker was focused more on damage control than fixing their cars. In fact, just last week Toyota announced another recall – this time it’s a computerized steering wheel problem with its Lexus model in the Japanese market.

Meanwhile, Toyota has been courting mommy bloggers stateside to share its revision of the minivan – the 2011 Sienna – while playing to Gen X parents with the new viral video “Swagger Wagon.”

The goal: make the minivan cool. Or at least bearable for younger parents who need the space but don’t like the minivan stigma.

Toyota recently invited a group of mom bloggers to Laguna Beach, California to test drive the Sienna and get a private tour of the Calty Research and Design studio. The three parts of the event included a look at the inspiration and process behind the minivan’s design, an opportunity to use car modeling clay to design their own vehicle, and the “Ride and Drive for Charity” where bloggers got behind the wheel to pick up items for local charities.

Ciaran Blumenfeld of Momfluential.net wrote:

“Calty is a fantastical place straight out of a movie. The designers who work there are truly the dreamers of dreams. As such they are a little pampered – encouraged to try new foods, visit the theater, dabble in fashion and enjoy all the beauty of nature in this So Cal location. Artists must have their muses. The goal is inspiration – the kind of inspiration that produces noteworthy, game changing design.”

A local ABC affiliate was also at the scene of the test drive and features the reaction of Linda Perry of Peachhead.com:

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{image credit: video screenshot}