I came across this article at toysport.com and found it very intersting and I want to know what u guys think about it
The Celica and MRS /MR2 bow out. The Supra moved on 5 years ago with the Levin and Trueno. The AllTrac and GT4 Celica disappeared 6 years ago. Even in Japan, there are no more sporty Toyotas. All followed the Toyota 2000GT- gone to Toyota’s great museum in the sky, a couple left parked in our garage. Cherished orphaned nameplates now. Abandoned, decommissioned, discontinued, and seemingly given an unappreciated exit.
The 4AGE and 3SGE had been retired. The 3SGTE is hiding in some non-sporting Toyota. The 2JZGTE is soon to follow all the other great legendary Toyota Twin Cams of the performance variety: 3M, 9R, 2TG, 3TGTE, 18RG, and 7MGTE. This has got to be the lowest point in Toyota product and engine line-up for the Toyota enthusiast. The 2ZZGE is hiding under some hoods.
And you, we, all of us supposed Toyota enthusiasts and racers are to blame. The Toyota performance cars did not sell in the #s Toyota needed. Simply put, Toyota does not need our business or opinion. So do not bother calling Toyota and registering your grief or indignation, there were not enough of us to support and buy the performance products.
Toyota Marketing trounced Toyota Engineering and Product Planning. They will show you charts, projections, studies, trends, and 1000’s of reasons to shut you up. Do not despair there are still some enthusiasts in Product Planning, but It is a pure money issue. We could only wish that Toyota Marketing appreciated the legacy of the sporty Toyotas as much as the now disenfranchised Toyota enthusiasts still do.
The Toyota future looks pure Prius, SUV, and Scion. Hopefully you are brushed up with RC car technology, have 7 friends to drive around, and not adverse to flash marketing and fashion fads. Or inane limited editions or numbered series. Decals, emblems, and paint jobs do not make a car special- performance engines do. If you look hard enough, 2ZZGE engines still lurk under some hoods in generic sedan bodies. A candle in the darkness in the middle of a storm.
Eventually Toyota will be # 1 in the world. The Camry Hybrid and Lexus line will continue to high profile as the quintessential Toyota products. Toyota trucks will rule Texas. Toyota will continue posting yearly RECORD SALES. Toyota tried to emulate Chrysler and became even better than it. Toyota’s Global 10 became Global 15- the corporate goal to capture the market share percentage. Not the Toyota we loved.
Toyota will continue racing IRL, NASCAR, and F1. Maybe even dominate, as it has done before to promote the then current Twin Cams. The better to impress people who never experienced the joy of a TE27 with a 2TG, RA20 with an 18RG, AE86 with a 4AGE, ST205 and SW20 with a 3SGTE, JZA80 with the 2JZGTE. But who is the target market for all this motor sport greatness? Win on Sunday, mass transit on Monday? At least the Toyota Factory teams have fun. Paid for by the boring cars.
For Toyota enthusiasts, life is not fair. Probably, we did not make enough money to afford the …… And market dominance screws up corporate values. Money talks and enthusiasts walk. Toyota has showed their real spirit, cannot call it soul: it has become an unexciting but efficient automobile manufacturer, dependably boring, hugely profitable. Performance glorified in marketing, not under the hood. In the current season of factory 500HP luxury cars and SUVs, the high revving multi-valved supercharged turbocharged Toyota Twin Cam engines did not matter. The Nameplates that made Toyota famous and legendary (and the envy of other manufacturers) in the different international / local racing circuits and in the import show / street scene have run out of Toyota Corporate supporters.
Even TRD in Japan and the U.S., with all their good intentions will be hard pressed to change the new Toyota image, so do not blame them too- their jobs maybe next.
1985 to 2005. Twenty years of radical change in Toyota. For the Toyota enthusiasts, twenty years from the top to the buttom. The cars we love have become clichés. The Supras, Celicas, MR2s, Levins and Truenos ….. will all become “old School”. A tunnel with no light at the end…..
2025. Who knows? Or do we even care?
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Market share > trying to impress the smallest segmant of your targeted market.
Seriously, who will miss any of this stuff to begin with?
Especially when we've got better engines than we've ever had right now. It's just a question of noone wanting to utilize them.
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I can understand this change happening though, i mean take the users of this form as an example. we are the biggest toyota enthusiasts. But we are all driving old cars, how much revenue do we actually generate for toyota..? Nothing at all.
Its sad, but market forces prevail.
That being said, Prius is a great machine.Im impressed with it. There are lots of possibilities for hybrid cars which use an electric motor to increase performance during accelleration. It will be interesting to see it anything good comes from this. So far ive only seen a Honda prototype of this concept.
Remember its on in north america. Asia and Europe got all the goodies.
Until North American grow pass 200L V100 engines, we won't see any high power Toyota, Honda, Mitsu or Nissan.
The 3SGTE will out do a 2ZZ or Beams any day. There are some good engines but the pace that the US is taking they'll be gone soon or Honda replicas with a 9,000 redline since they'll have no torque.
We are all drivin older toyotas because of the prices of course. But if they made faster cars or made the sedans faster then ppl would be easier to go out and purchase one. Nobody want to go out a buy a brand new $25,000 slow ass car. IMO
I hate the high prices here, but i think the reason why toyota USA isnt happy with making sports cars is that there isnt much profit in it for them if they sell them for only 25,000. Its a tough choice, either have expensive toyotas or no toyotas.
I know, it really sucks.
I am a long-time truck enthusiast and I think the X-Runner was a fine addition to the line-up and I am in my 3rd year of racing it...cannot wait for the TRD supercharger for the 4.0 liter...
Remember its on in north america. Asia and Europe got all the goodies.
Until North American grow pass 200L V100 engines, we won't see any high power Toyota, Honda, Mitsu or Nissan.
Um.....sure.... The new Skyline "GT-R" is badged under Nissan. Toyota=Lexus will have a new IS that is to compete against the BMW M3.
This should be in the general section. This is not new news but old and common sense. Those who don't realize that Toyota markets to the mass can continue bitching to Toyota saying they don't have any sports car. I'm getting tired of posts that involves how Toyota doesn't make any sports car or how Toyota has bad service or how the new Toyota are not on par with the older Toyotas. Why even bother looking at Toyota? Stop talking and do something...
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Toyota's Dyin out
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