Borneo Motors Singapore celebrates 100th anniversary with public museum and launch of new models

Borneo Motors Singapore (BMS), the authorised distributor for Toyota and Lexus cars here, celebrated its 100th anniversary by transforming its showrooms into a museum reflecting its journey through the decades, as well as unveiling four new models to commemorate the occasion.

Both the Toyota and Lexus showrooms, situated along Leng Kee Road, will be home to the BMS100 Museum, which will showcase some of the key achievements that have helped BMS make its mark on Singapore over the past century.

Highlights include one of the last Toyota Crown taxis that once populated Singapore's roads, kindly donated to BMS from SMRT. It signifies the dominant position that Toyota has played in Singapore's taxi industry - at its peak, almost 80 per cent of all taxis here were Toyotas.

There is also a display of a life-sized cutaway car to showcase Toyota's pioneering hybrid technology, and this exhibit was developed in partnership with Singapore Polytechnic's School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering.

Placed throughout the BMS100 Museum are also numerous testimonials from people who have shared a long relationship with BMS through the years, including customers, long-serving staff, business partners and even friends from the media.

The BMS100 Museum will be running at the Toyota and Lexus showrooms from now until December 29, and is free for the public to visit during the showroom's opening hours from 9am to 6pm.

BMS have also taken the opportunity to unveil no less than four new cars, two of which are limited-edition models that are specifically meant to mark the occasion.

The first of those is the Lexus LBX Urbanite, a special version of Lexus' compact crossover that will be limited to just 100 units. The LBX Urbanite features unique trim details such as a dechromed body, Citrine yellow accents, and Gloss Black Japanese rims, and is retailing at $247,800 inclusive of COE (as of August 2025).

The second model is the Toyota Corolla Cross BMS100 Special Edition, which takes the regular Corolla Cross SUV and adds gunmetal rims, Nappa leather seats and a unique BMS100 badge on the boot lid.

The Corolla Cross itself has also been given a mid-life facelift, and it now gets a redesigned grille and new headlights and taillights. The interior has also been slightly refreshed, with the area around the gear selector now featuring a neater layout and a larger wireless charging area for smartphones.

Other than that, the Corolla Cross remains effectively the same car as the pre-facelift model, with its 2.0-litre hybrid powerplant that produces 195hp remaining unchanged. 

It also retains the Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 suite of driver assistance systems, which includes features such as collision avoidance, lane keeping assist and dynamic radar cruise control.

Pricing starts at $227,888 with COE (as of August 2025) for the Corolla Cross, while the BMS100 Special Edition will cost an additional $2,000.

Finally, the last model unveiled was the Noah Hybrid, a mid-sized MPV that joins the other seven-seater people carriers like the Sienta, Alphard and Vellfire in the Toyota line-up. BMS did not reveal any further details about the Noah Hybrid, other than it will go on sale at a later date.

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ben.chia@asiaone.com

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