Report: Toyota plans budget sports car line
09-06-10, 11:06 AM
#1
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Report: Toyota plans budget sports car line
Toyota has 50% of the car market in Japan so they are the clear leader there. If they bring the cheap sport surely other brands will follow which is great for all enthusiasts.
http://www.autoblog.com/2010/09/05/r...orts-car-line/
http://www.autoblog.com/2010/09/05/r...orts-car-line/
Akio Toyoda may want to bring driving excitement back to Toyota, but he and his team have two major hurdles to overcome: The brands's limited enthusiast base and the fact that Japan's youth have very little interest in cars.
To combat both fronts, Toyota plans to launch a new line of budget-oriented vehicles that offer a modicum of sport. But so far, things don't look too promising.
Despite debuting an FT-86-based concept at this year's Tokyo Auto Salon, Toyota's G Sports line of products have mainly focused on the Voxy and Noah minivans, while a "sports" version of the Prius is apparently in the works.
More interestingly, the Mainichi Daily News reports that a version of the GRMN sports car concept has been given the greenlight, meaning a mid-engined hybrid successor to the MR2 is in the works.
All these developments come after Toyota established a sports vehicle management division in January, which now has a hand in the brand's overall product planning. We should get a look at the fruits of their labors during next year's auto show season and could see this new breed of budget sports vehicles on the market – at least in Japan – within the next few years.
To combat both fronts, Toyota plans to launch a new line of budget-oriented vehicles that offer a modicum of sport. But so far, things don't look too promising.
Despite debuting an FT-86-based concept at this year's Tokyo Auto Salon, Toyota's G Sports line of products have mainly focused on the Voxy and Noah minivans, while a "sports" version of the Prius is apparently in the works.
More interestingly, the Mainichi Daily News reports that a version of the GRMN sports car concept has been given the greenlight, meaning a mid-engined hybrid successor to the MR2 is in the works.
All these developments come after Toyota established a sports vehicle management division in January, which now has a hand in the brand's overall product planning. We should get a look at the fruits of their labors during next year's auto show season and could see this new breed of budget sports vehicles on the market – at least in Japan – within the next few years.
09-06-10, 09:15 PM
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I see this all the time, articles about why Toyota wont make sports cars and they all say Japanese youth are not interested in cars. from my experience of living in japan, Japanese youth do not have little interest in cars, maybe if you did a pole from the first 10 you met in central Tokyo but that's not representing the nations youth.. I could sit at a traffic light in the town i lived in and of the 20 or so cars around me there would be 5 highly modded sports cars, supras, soarers, skylines, silvias, you could hit a mountain road rest area any night of the week and there will be 10-20 people meeting up to race or drift. autobacs witch is there version of napa, advance, kragen, autozone is full of aftermarket parts, coil overs rims exhausts ect. car meets where thousands of cars show up unlike maybe 20 or so here. Japanese car culture is no joke. it puts American car culture to shame, and i mean all of American car culture not just the Japanese car people. so saying japanese youth isnt into cars is a joke, if not there youth then someone is.
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09-07-10, 09:49 AM
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I see this all the time, articles about why Toyota wont make sports cars and they all say Japanese youth are not interested in cars. from my experience of living in japan, Japanese youth do not have little interest in cars, maybe if you did a pole from the first 10 you met in central Tokyo but that's not representing the nations youth.. I could sit at a traffic light in the town i lived in and of the 20 or so cars around me there would be 5 highly modded sports cars, supras, soarers, skylines, silvias, you could hit a mountain road rest area any night of the week and there will be 10-20 people meeting up to race or drift. autobacs witch is there version of napa, advance, kragen, autozone is full of aftermarket parts, coil overs rims exhausts ect. car meets where thousands of cars show up unlike maybe 20 or so here. Japanese car culture is no joke. it puts American car culture to shame, and i mean all of American car culture not just the Japanese car people. so saying japanese youth isnt into cars is a joke, if not there youth then someone is.
09-08-10, 02:43 PM
#13
Phil is right on the money, Scion appears to be the brand targeted at the younger buyers, they should take that and run with it and give Scion some more *****...... here in car chat we all talk about car companies that [should] have separate divisions for different cars, so Toyota should stick with it's family/MPG orientated vehicles, Lexus to luxury and Scion to sporty/youthful
09-08-10, 03:07 PM
#15
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Was there not a thread not even two months ago about a car smaller than the FT-86 that Naruse helped develop that will come to market in a couple years?