Most Americans know very little of the Toyota Alphard and its Vellfire offshoot. It's basically one of Toyota's JDM minivans, although it's also frequently used as a limousine too. It's kind of funky and cool in a totally Japanese way. While we've gotten the moderately cool Previa in the States, that model was unfortunately followed up by the competent but forgettable Sienna. We've sadly never seen an Vellfire on these shores before, so you can imagine our surprise when we saw one right out front of the South Hall at SEMA.

It's kind of hard to recognize it in its current guise, but the Alphard is the van that Toyota has been using to study possible changes for its 2011 Sienna which will debut at the LA Auto Show next month. This particular Alphard, however, has apparently been through some type of transporter malfunction, having turned itself inside-out. That red exterior is actually leather, or possibly pleather. The "stickers" on the front fenders are actually stitched in too. We see ACC Inc., Air Bomber, Fat Moon, Rotora, Bellof, Forgiato, Wald, Proxes and Eskan, and that's as far as we managed to get before we had the inexplicable urge to go off in search of red velvet cake.

Gallery: SEMA 2009: Black Bison Toyota Alphard

Photos copyright (C)2009 Frank Filipponio/Weblogs, Inc.

SEMA 2009: Inside-out Toyota Alphard is the ultimate brougham originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Click above for a gallery of the new Toyota Alphard and Vellfire

Six years after Toyota's luxury minivan, the Alphard, hit Japanese (and a few SE Asian) showrooms, the company has given its flagship people mover a facelift, and a twin brother. Noting that one in four family cars in Japan are minivans but that the outgoing Alphard appealed more to grandfathers than fathers, the second-gen model remains conservatively styled, while a meaner, more aggressive-looking stablemate, the Vellfire (above), is hoped to grab the attention of Japanese family men in their 30s who have erstwhile bought Nissan Elgrands and Honda Elysions.

The new Alphard (shown at right) is longer, wider and roomier than the outgoing version. Its slightly lower roofline (by 45mm) is offset by a cabin floor that's been lowered 55 mm, so the new van actually boasts more cabin height even though it's not quite as tall as its predecessor. Power comes from either a 170 PS (167 hp) 2.4L four or a 280 PS (276 hp) 3.5L V6 driving the front wheels. In August, a 4WD variant will join the lineup.

While Toyota's press release acknowledges that the new models are a bit spacier and safer than the old one, it neatly ignores the fact that the Alphard Hybrid has been quietly dropped. This could well be the first such occurrence for the company and given the number of eggs Toyota currently has in the hybrid basket, its no surprise that its PR department is doing its best to gloss over the retirement.

So, how long until Modellista cooks up an ultra-snazzy Royal Lounge package for the new vans?

Hit the jump for a video of the Alphard in action. Thanks for the tip, Paul!

Gallery: 2008 Toyota Alphard / Vellfire

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