yea yea.. im just keeping my screen name because its existed for what, ever?
*edit* after bahamuts though... dayumn!!

 

If you didn't know, Toyota is entering NASCAR in 2007, competing in both the Nextel Cup and Busch series. Toyota has been involved in just about every other form of motorsport competition, so it's about time they "crashed" NASCAR.

 

Yup. They had started out in NASTruck.

Toyo had tried to change rules of carby to modern engines, but NASCAR bigwigs wanted no part of such changes. Of course, NASCAR bigwigs LOVE Toyo pumping money into their sport. It has been a long time that both Toyo and Honda wanted to completely pull out of IRl/CART (deadend series) and put 100% effort into NASCAR.

Honda has already faced and disliked Toyo's money power in other racing series. The good ole boys in NASCAR hasn't seen this much money yet, and there is no way Ford and GM will have enough money to combat Toyo's spending prowess. Ford faced it too, but GM lost out fast with the Ilmor deal as so with Mercedes.

In the late 90's, NASCAR tried to prevent Toyo from bringing the Camry and Honda with the Accord (still stuck on the drawing board) due to the shape of their cars! What? NASCAR rule makers are a bunch of hypocrites . . . where does anyone ever see a t-bird, tauras, monte carlo, buicks, grand prix, and slew of others so sloped in the rear like the ones on the road. Heck, those cars don't even have a V8, much less a carby engine.

 

The Grand Prix, Monte Carlo and Lucerne have V8s.

I believe GM has some of the coolest cars -- far better than Toyotas lineup. They have the Solstice GTP/Sky Redline, C6/C6 Z06/Stingray, Cobalt SS S/C, Ion Redline, G6 GXP, Camaro (coming back), GTO, Impala SS, Trailblazer SS, Grand Prix GXP, STS-V, XLR-V, CTS-V, Malibu SS, Monte Carlo SS.

I guess Toyota's sporty car is the Solara.

 

Ouch!

 

They also have 25,000 employees looking for new job's,now how "cool"is that?
http://www.channel3000.com/news/9421478/detail.html

 

I guess I'll answer a question with a question -- How is that relavant to their products being more interesting?

 

You have to do your best to make your product interesting in a feeble attempt to help out your Slumping sales.There was a point in time that I thought that GM was the best product out there,but then came the corporate GREED mind set that put them in the situation that they are presently in.Hell,I even was employed by them for a few years(pontiac division)and thank god I got out of there as I quickly saw the light.The big corporation known as GM is quickly going the same way the Horse went as the Automobile came to be.Give it 2 years and check how your stocks look(if you bought stock in your beloved GM),then get back to me on how Interesting their products are

 

ill admit the saturn sky is good looking...wait didnt lotus help em out with that or wait mabe they stole agian...idk but i know lotus has something o do with the sky intentionaly or not..

 

GM's stock seems to be stable and on the upward trend. Its at one of the highest prices in 7-8 months. GM also has enough $ to stay around and try new things for 15 more years even if they don't sell many cars. Mitsu on the other hand, they could be out of the US quickly if the sales keep falling. Link

 

how "interesting" GM or Toyota's lines of cars are are completely dependent on who's looking at them.

this is an Evo board, filled with mostly performance enthusiasts, thus the term "interesting cars" will relate to performance oriented vehicles (mr2 turbo, supra tt, c6, etc).

however, the rest of the world thinks differently. and this is evident by Toyota's sales numbers

personally, i'd take a more performance oriented car any day. screw gas efficiency, practicality, etc. (though they are definitely nice) if i wanted those i'd be driving a new Camy instead of the EVo. but the Evo has turbo power, awesome handling, which guys like us strongly desire. these aspects are by no means necessities however, and desired by only a small portion of the entire auto market.

the average ppl are more concerned with a reliable, gas efficient, and practical car. not a car that can do 0-60 in 4.5 sec and the 1320 in high 12's.

telling some of my friends and family members about how well the Evo performs, i can tell by their facial expressions that they seriouly couldn't care less. most of think i'm crazy for dishing out 30k for a car that drinks gas and requires more money to maintain than say a Toyota Camry or Avalon.

btw i drive my friend's 2000 Avalon pretty frequently, and damn, is it a nice _smooth_ car with some decent power to back it up (plenty of power for passing other cars). the handling isn't as bad as u would think either

 

^ great explanation. It's like maybe in an NFL forum or something, you might see a thread "Why does the World Cup suck so much?" Meanwhile 4 billion people are eating it up!

 

I does seem as though a focused yet boring car lineup will sell better. However, I like a brand that is willing to take chances and cater to the enthusiast a little bit (bad for them, good for me?). Some of the coolest cars weren't the best sellers or didn't make money for the company -- Supra, RX7, Grand National, Syclone/Typhoon, Z28/Trans Am, SVT Lightning, SRT4, 300zx, 240sx, Celica GTS, Prelude etc. I can only think of a few performance cars that have lasted -- Mustang & Corvette.

I hope to never drive a Camry -- it just seems like the stale car that my "old" parents drove -- probably like the Ford Taurus is to people that were 16-25 in the lete 80's - early 90's.

 

Do you even know what's in NASCAR now?

Currently, the Grand Prix has a supercharged V6 as so with the Monte Carlo. In the past, those car had the first gen NA 3.1 and 3.4 liter V6's, similar to the Beretta GTO and the 2nd gen Z24. If I remember correctly, Buick lasted into the late 80's with the Grand NAtional and Regal . . . they don't exit in NASCAR now for a very long time.

If GM was so good financially, why are they even trying the zero percent APR for 6 month deal? Mitsu flopped after their bean counters looked at their books two years later. Sold a lot of car initially but in the long run, it comes to haunt you accountants.

The mantle of sports car is nothing. Of course, you do know before the 80's even started, GM sold over 50% of its car to Americans. What is GM's market shares now? As for GM stock, it was once a mighty 48-62 bucks a shares. Now, it's mid-twenties and has gotten as low as 16 bucks a share.


BTW: H&A for the longest time have one of the most exciting lineup, but they have never seriously challenge the Big 3 in world wide sales, much less compete against Toyo.

 

What are you talking about? The Grand Prix, Monte Carlo, and Impala all have 303hp V8s that run high 13's - low 14's. Nobody said GM was good financially-- yet (the thread was never about that, so it's way off-topic). 2005 was probably their worst year ever, but their stock is now stable. It's not in the mid 20's, it's at $29.79 -- highest its been in about 8 months.

You will probably never again see an automaker hold 50% of the market share. We have about 7 brands that will split 90% of market share -- GM, Ford, DC, Honda, Toyota, Nissan & Hyundai. The other brands will make up the rest.