As you can tell by my avatar I am about 1200 miles NORTH of your location.
As far as Toyota the sad truth of the matter is they are much more concerned with
an as close to Perfect product as they can humanly produce as where the US auto makers are only concerned about the all mighty $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ and could care less about the long term affects that their GREED is causing.In Toyota if there is a Problem they fix it where in the Big 3 it is more important to fix the Blame and point fingers.It comes as no suprise that the Toyota US plants do not have the UNION as they feel that they are better offf without them.Hell,there is a UAW office on the road into the Kentucky Plant but no union inside.Is that a suprise,I think NOT!!!!!!

 

you know the FJ is one of those "old skool cars to reclaim them as new ones" right?

 

deleted post guys too long and proably still wont chane someone mind.

 

had to do with above...my bad

 

This is very simple. Normally, auto makers create a sort of "flagship" model to gain credibility for their company. For Ford, one GT (expensive one aka GT40) sells a lot of V6 mustangs. When people see they can make a car like the GT, it gives them a sense that their Focus or whatever has a little bit of GT as well. Now, if you ask people what they think about Toyotas here, they know they are reliable, safe, get good gas milage, and have a good resale value. Toyota is also on the cutting edge of hybrid technology, which is well known. So, they really have no need for a flagship performance model with razor-thin profit margins, or even losses. I have a feeling if they do bring over a Supra, it will just be to keep up with Nissan (Skyline GTR) and Honda (NSX). They don't really need to sell a performance car here. Mitsubishi, on the other hand, well the only thing causing a stir is their Lancer Evolutions, and to a certain degree their eclipses. If they dropped their performance cars, they would be hosed.

 

All a good toyota needs is a 2jz swapped into it.

 

Almost two years ago, Toyo CEO read about the news on the slumping Big 3 sales. In order to avoid American backlash (Domestic vs Import + politics), Toyo purposefully raised their prices to float the Big 3 sales. This was during the time that Toyo had already surpassed Ford as the #2 automaker in the world.

The writing is on the wall for GM. A year ago during their spring shareholder meeting, there was a minor revolt against the CEO, but he had enough supporters to believe GM's visions of cashcowing SUVs. Now, they are introducing 6 month, zero APR (didn't they see Mitsu's staggering losses two years later) and subsidizing about 2 bucks a gallon gasoline for SUV purchase (can't remember the length of term).

As for Mitsu, they need to sell tons of eclipses, lancers, and galants. If the Evo is gone, I'm sure Mitsu will start working to upgrade the Eclipse GT with more beef. Then again, if they continue this trend, the eclipse will follow the 3K GT increasing its weight with each new generation. Remember the 3K GT VR4 drop top . . . that thing pushed about 4200 lbs.


"I have a feeling if they do bring over a Supra, it will just be to keep up with Nissan (Skyline GTR) and Honda (NSX)."

I don't think that's the decision. The skyline and especially the NSX . . . they are not going to sell as much as the C6 vette. Tell me how Imports are going to dethrone the vette in sales like in the early to mid 90's.


"They don't really need to sell a performance car here. "

True enough. When the Camry has been battling the top selling car in the US since 1988 against the Tauras and Accord.

 

Having owned a Tercel, Corolla, Echo and Prius I have to say that they don't suck. Many of their cars are targeted directly to 18-25 year olds, but specifically 18-25 year olds who are pratical and mostly concerned about having reliable transportation. You've gotta point that toyota has abandoned the Supra/MR2 demo, but they gotta concentrate on their bread and butter. There's a reason that they are the biggest selling cars, and that client base actually includes plenty of "hip" younger people.

I had a Tercel that my parents bought me for college, and it's still running perfectly with over 200,000 miles. How can you hate that?

 

WTF? 18-25 year old gay males maybe. I think their line-up is more for the tree hugger crowd than the gasoline burning crowd. I wouldnt be caught dead in one of those commuters. If I'm going to buy any of those cars you listed, I'll go Honduh.

 

Toyota has money coming out of its ears and they certainly waste enough of it trying to be competitive in Formula One, and still their car lineup doesn't include a sportscar. That's pretty lame. Instead of asking Toyota what the next Supra will be like, we should be asking them why it ever went away.

 

LOL. Cool! I definitely don't see ANY gay and/or tree-hugging people driving Subarus...

 

It is simple.$45K+ sports car in the mid 90's was not that big a hit,in fact we had a few TT Supras that sat on out lot for over a year(Fast and Furious hadn't come out yet)Had to give them away at a Loss just to get rid of them.....Fast forward to post F&F and suddenly a used one with over 100k miles netted you mid to high 20K figures,before F&F you were lucky to sell a mint one for 20K.Now that they are no longer available everyone "wants one",when they were available new nobody wanted to pay 40K plus for one,go figure.In the end the likelyhood of seeing a new US spec Supra is slim to none even though I was shown by some "top brass" at Toyota the pictures almost 2 years ago that the next supra was coming,late 06,early 07 and the pictures were the spy photos of the Lexus,WTF. We will wait and see but if/when the "New" Supra comes out be prepared to pay some Big $$$$$$$,just like before and dont cry when they stop selling them in the US because sales did not meet expectations/demands.BTW,you will more likely see hybrid "Super cars" made by Lexus before you see a new Supra

 

The upside down rainbow triangle is actually a dealer installed accessory on Subie's
Hell,Subaru is the only auto sold with a GAY-DAR detector as standard equipment

 

I used to drive a Subaru, but now Im back in the closet hehe...

Seriously Im not gay, and I wasnt meaning to call you that so sorry if I offended you. Anyways, its still my opinion that those cars you listed are purely for commuting back and forth and like others have said they dont have a good performance model, which is sad for me and some other consumers who believe Toyota has the means of building another bulletproof platform at that level.

I just can't understand if they do have money coming out their ears, why they are unable just keep making the same cars they are, but simply add a performance line and keep reasonable expectations regarding sales. The EVO isn't going to be sold by the millions and even Mitsu knows that. Toyota CIOs or CEOs should think along those lines when whipping out their pencils to come up with the number of vehicles theyre going to have to sell. I hear the same BS all the time at work, listening to my CIO bla bla bla.

 

The Supra went away in the late 90's when the C5 battled back to reclaim their lost sales. It was at one point that GM was going to fade the vette away briefly like the 'maro and firebird/TA, because Japanese sports car (performance and a bunch of elctro-whiz bang) was beating the C4 in every fashion.

It took Zora Arkus-Duntov, "Father of the Corvette", told GM to stay the course in making the C5 before his death in 96. GM took his faith; in 98, the C5 vette stormed and beatened back all Japanese sports car, leading to demise (sales) like the RX-7, Supra, 3K GT VR4, 300ZXT, and a few others.

I don't know why they are in F1. Toyo and H&A should concentrate all their efforts and sack NASCAR, the best automotive marketing areana. No way in marketing term that IRL or CART is majorily helping the company out.

Tell me how consumers will turn away from the C6 vette . . . if the Viper can't do it with globs and globs of power. The next supra won't touch the C6 vette in sales. The vette has been unchallenged in their market since 98, and it's not as bad how Ford trucks have beatened GM since 1977 or 79, virtually landslide.