Can a car be a family heirloom?

Crafted almost entirely of wood and assembled using traditional Japanese joinery techniques, Toyota's exquisite Setsuna concept is designed to improve with age.

In an industry that honours planned obsolescence, the Toyota Setsuna - a concept car built largely of wood - stands out like a sequoia in a forest of dwarf firs.

Set to debut later this month during Italy's Milan Design Week trade show, the two-seat Setsuna is that rarest of cars - one that hews less toward ephemeral style trends and more toward an heirloom-quality aesthetic.

It is a vehicle built to last not for five years, or even 50, but for generations.

Even the car's name, which means "a moment" or "an instant" in Japanese, alludes to its aspirations to be something more than just the flavor of the week.

To drive home this Zen-like point, the dashboard (an actual board, of course) features a century meter that monitors not only minutes and hours, but the years of ownership - in essence, chronicling the collective moments enjoyed between car and owner.

Carmakers have long understood the allure of wood, from grand wood-bodied American classics like the 1947 Chrysler Town & Country to splendid modern applications of exotic veneers in modern Rolls-Royces and Bentleys.

But the Setsuna unabashedly embraces the material with much more verve and fervour.

This isn't just a layer of polished wood affixed to a mass-market car; it is a wooden car.

Its use of the material has nothing to do with a desire to give an impression of clubby luxury; Setsuna's unvarnished beauty honours its source - and, like the trees from which it is made, this is a car created to endure.

The roadster's superb craftsmanship is reflected in its stout Japanese birch frame.

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