well on one of my trips to japan i went to a toyota dealer, this is about a few months after i believe the bb was realesed.i was speaking with the sales manager and i said "what a weird looking box car". the sales manager decited to tell me how that design was invented. i guess toyota wanted a car aimed directly at young people and who better to design the car than young people. so toyota went to some high schools, got some students together and asked "what would be your cool car design?" and they came up with bb. i guess the public didnt respont very well to it at first but toyota gave such good deals on it they just couldnt pass it up and toyota flooded the market. now keep in mind this came for a sales manager so im not sure how much is 100%

 

Actually it was the complete opposite. Upon release (feb 2000) they sold like hot cakes, but after 2 years the sales dwindled drastically.