7:32 am, August 14, 2026
Every now and again, a car comes into Clever Car Collection that I really don’t want to sell. Well, actually it happens quite a lot.
Most recently it was a Tesla Model 3 which I really rather liked. But now, and, rather unexpectedly, it’s this: A Toyota Vellfire.
I’ll admit that before this car came along, I knew very little about them. A local customer called us because they knew we dealt in Japanese imports, we bought it from them and, over the past couple of weeks, I’ve ended up driving it around.
And, weirdly, I absolutely love it. As you will see in the video all about it posted above.
The Vellfire is essentially the Japanese take on the luxury family car and it makes you wonder why we became so obsessed with SUVs in Britain.
It has seven seats, electric sliding doors, two sunroofs and an enormous amount of space, but the stars of the show are the two captain’s chairs in the middle.
They slide, recline and have airline-style leg rests. I’m 6ft 4in and can stretch out comfortably in them, while my kids absolutely love them. Behind those is another row of three seats which cleverly fold up against the sides when you need the Vellfire to become something approaching a van.
There are 16 cupholders. Sixteen! There are deep-pile carpets that wouldn’t look out of place in something far more expensive and there are all sorts of wonderfully Japanese quirks scattered around the cabin.
And then there are those electric doors. You can open them from the outside, from the driver’s seat or with the key. For a family car, sliding doors simply make an enormous amount of sense.
It isn’t perfect. The looks are, well, challenging. I described it in the video as having a face only a mother could love and at this size it can be a bit of a handful in British car parks.
Then there’s the 3.5-litre V6. It has 276bhp and sounds lovely, but with around 26mpg it is not a car for anyone looking to save money at the pumps. Insurance and road tax aren’t particularly cheap either.
Yet none of that has stopped me enjoying it.
The steering is light, the automatic gearbox is silky and the whole thing is incredibly relaxing to drive. When you’ve got a family in the back, especially when the kids are making a racket, that’s arguably far more useful than sharp steering and sporty suspension.
Everyone who has driven this one at the Clever Car Collection has rather fallen for it too.
Japanese imports do require a little homework so if you’re thinking of selling them you need to gen up on the details. Buyers need to check things such as the speedometer conversion, infotainment and condition, and service history doesn’t always follow the car across from Japan. And as a dealer you’ll need to sort all that out before selling them.
But, cars such as the Toyota Vellfire, Alphard and Nissan Serena offer something genuinely different to the European family-car norm and you’d be surprised at how many buyers there are out there for them.
They’re quirky, enormously practical and can offer an extraordinary amount of car for the money. And in a world dominated by generic Chinese SUVs, I quite like something a little different. Don’t you?