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Comments
Funny line about the C I read elsewhere:
"That prius C styling is a total ripoff. the rear is the Mazda5. the front is Ford Fiesta. and the bit in between is like a slide transition in powerpoint. "
Besides that, revolutionary only in that it came from Toyota, and all the good and bad that implies, too.
Some of their efforts I see as pure marketing (NASCAR for instance), but LFA, LeMans, that stuff I think carries deeper significance within the organizational soul.
Did I just say soul? Guess I did...LOL.
Mazda5 no longer has the vertical tail lights, but I miss them, as the new Nagare-themed 5 is just bland and unattractive.
The profile actually looks a lot like Toyota's own Prius V.
I'm disappointed in the interior: center-mounted gauges strike again, yuck.
I have always thought Toyota's soul died with the Supra. It's also then that the really bland Lexus products were born.
I think what we have today is simply a realization that at least the impression of a soul (a base German car is bland too, but it still carries some cachet) is very helpful in this very competitive marketplace.
IIRC the Prius C concept was a lot cooler than the finished product. I loathe center gauges too. Now it's blanded up and derivate at best -which sadly is what the target market seems to like.
Bingo. Could not agree more.
A little trickle-down would not hurt, either.
I remember when I was young telling myself I wanted cars to remain below 3000 lbs, sadly now the goal is more like 4000 lbs. :sick:
I want an Elise. How are used ones priced?
Isn't All-Par a Mopar site, though? Not an unbiased source.
That's like asking Obama if he trusts Perry or Romney.
FWIW True Delta's reliability results for the 07 Camry put it on top of its class. Percent of owners with a problem-free experience:
07 Camry 80%
07 Fusion 67%
07 Accord 78%
07 Altima 86%
Actually Altima does a little better. Corolla is up there at 79%.
Odds of getting a lemon are below 1% for the Toyotas, i.e. tied for best in class.
I think if engines were truly burning oil we'd see this reflected in that survey.
TrueDelta publishes data in real-time (I supply data several times per year to them) and has a good screening process to register. That information was updated as of yesterday. CR will show similar results in April.
I think the little Lotus somehow has strong resale...not something I would want to buy used as I suspect many are thrashed.
I bet they're way off and it's more like 2 tons even.
Around here they (Elises) are high school gifts for grads. Sad waste of a light weight sport car.
Don't tell my wife but my first crush was on a girl named Elise, so I think there's a certain romantic/nostalgic appeal for me, too.
Kid you saw could have just been sneaking around in daddy's toy. Any parent who buys something like that as a grad gift needs to be investigated, something wrong there. could be worse though, go to Vancouver (and to a much lesser extent here) and see the children of sketchy Chinese officials who have fled with their embezzled fortunes before the guillotine blades fall, posing around in new Maseratis, Astons, and Ferraris, not to mention tuned X6s, Rovers, etc.
I don't think there are too many old grandmas who drive Elises only on Sundays to church.
It’s not unusual to have demonstrator models at a showroom, but in this case, “Each vehicle must stay in the dealer’s demo fleet until October 1, 2011,” the memo continued. In other words, only one day. Apparently, they would be counted as sold — meaning Mercedes could inflate its September numbers by several thousand vehicles – and then put back on the market as used vehicles, notably with like-new warranties.
http://www.thedetroitbureau.com/2011/10/why-did-mercedes-blow-out-u-s-ceo/
The funny thing is that fin keeps saying Lexus boosts sales by putting all those ESs in the loaner fleets, looks like Benz did it bad enough that the CEO got canned!
Or maybe it was the household employee he expensed. Or his wife's golf membership.
You gotta admit, there is no scandal as good as a German one. Remember VW and the hookers?
In my area, I think HS sales got the biggest boost via loaners - few people seemed to buy them otherwise. Loan em out for a few months and sell at a better price, problem solved.
I am pretty sure the expense fiasco is behind the downfall of Mr Weird Mustache. No worries for him, I am sure there's a healthy seven figure settlement awaiting, not to mention job prospects as one must admit the brand has fared well in the US during his tenure.
I did some quick math - they have about, what 350 dealers or so? 10 per dealer, and you know with $8000 incentive they're getting every one they can. So that's 3500 cars. A cool $28 million.
No wonder they canned him.
I wonder if we'll soon hear of some scandal with the maid, DSK-style?
Yeah, if this actually is in practice (haven't seen proof yet), the material limited it to "certain models". Each dealer might not have 10, or even 1 - for all we know, this is for E550 cabrios, SLSs, CL65s, R diesels other obscure models. The ML is also being replaced, so they will probably do anything to move out the last of the old ones, too.
Remember the scandal at Mitsubishi where cars were sold to names of cartoon characters? They did that to meet quotas, then sold the cars later.
Buyers sued when they found out their warranties were elapsing earlier than expected.
Thailand Flooding Hits Toyota In North America (AutoObserver)
Ford, Honda and Michelin have also been affected.
On the bright side, leaked FT86 photos look great IMHO:
http://www.autoblog.com/2011/10/27/toyota-ft-86-leaked-in-modellista-parts-catal- og/
Best looking Toyota in the lineup. Funny thing is, it's really a Subaru underneath it all.
Looks promising, but the Subaru version could end up being the more fun one:
Shame that the stability controls’ Sport setting was too intrusive, although Toyota’s engineers said they had a less intrusive set-up that they were also experimenting with.
Our car was fitted with 215/45 R17 Michelin Green X tyres all round – aka Toyota Prius tyres
A couple of thoughts...
Subaru got a lot of heat when the 2008 WRX came out with narrower tires than its predecessor, so they may be more sensitive to the fact that their buyers want better shoes.
The other thing is that Subaru's stability control is *MUCH* less intrusive than Toyota's, in my experience at least.
Actually, not just me - Consumer Reports complains about just about every Subaru model getting sideways in their slalom tests, from their perspective a bad thing, but to these buyers likely desired.
Car says 1200kg, this says 1280kg. That's a pretty big discrepancy.
Also, Autocar says you can turn stability control all the way off, so they must have driven the car with the other setup (Car mentioned there were 2 suspensions).
'Sup with the Prius shows on both? Please...
151 lb/ft of torque
2662 lbs
Torsen LSD on all Manual equipped cars
16-17" rims (no ridiculously oversized wheels)
Someone else (Slipstream) said it best...
Somebody in Toyota QA screwed up and let something awesome through. Toyota is really slipping...
The bright side is GM and C are up. Maybe we will get our money back. :shades:
The new one wasn't available in quantities last month, but it is now. Fitz has 159 and they're all 2012s, so let's see November.
If you think that's no big deal, look at the Malibu, which is undergoing a similar change over to a new model. Sales sucked. Less than half the Camry's, even the Chrysler 200 beat the Malibu!
1) Accord: 22,589
2) Camry: 22,043
3) Altima: 21,838
4) Sonata: 18,192
5) Fusion: 18,094
Malibu in sell down mode was at 10,239, ouch! Well less than half of Camry.
The same dealers has a mix of 2011 and 2012 Yaris, also, so that model has yet to fully switch to the new generation.
I think Corolla was the best selling compact, ancient 4EAT and all. Yep:
Toyota Corolla 16,244
Honda Civic 16,173
Chevrolet Cruze 14,295
Hyundai Elantra 13,000
Ford Focus 12,386
VW Jetta Sedan 11,349
Nissan Sentra 8,384
Kia Forte 4,712
Scion is really hurting. They need the FR-S right now. I think that model will help even the tC, as people who can't afford the FR-S may get one of those instead.
Lexus did poorly for several reasons:
* new models yet to arrive
* supply constraints on popular CT
* Mercedes had a $2000 conquest incentive for Lexus owners
Benz kicked asphalt, they had their best October ever. The new C-class went from 3xxx sales to 7xxx sales, double. The new C coupe is helping, I'm sure, as did that $2000 for current Lexus owners, and the new C250 engine.
The new M class and the GLK also did well. Surprisingly the E-class was down, as was the S-class.
Fresh products are doing well, no surprise.
The $2000 offer to Lexus owners was brilliant, though. Kick them while they're down. They may not make profits on those sales but a conquest is a conquest. Genius.
Bodes well for the new Camry. We'll see.
Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111102/OEM01/111109955/1491- #ixzz1ceuf3dy8
Toyota will eliminate overtime at assembly plants in Indiana, Kentucky, Texas and Canada and eliminate a Saturday shift on Nov. 12 at the factories in Kentucky and Canada.
Last week, it eliminated a week of overtime and a Saturday shift at assembly plants in Indiana, Kentucky and Canada, as well as an engine plant in West Virginia
No layoffs, at least, just cut overtime.
More FT info. Check out that cutaway - the whole block sits below the tires. Nice and low CoG.
Funny that they compare aerodynamics to the RX-8, CR-Z, and Prius.
I'm very happy to read this part:
Each cylinder has both direct and port injection
That should mean no carbon build-up on the intake valves, which has plagued early DI-only setups.
Peak torque comes at 6600 rpms, so this will be a revver. Atypical for Subaru boxers.
In tough economy, Toyota plant brings Miss. jobs (idahostatesman.com)
No word yet on whether the first car off the line with be "Elvis Pink".
It is also great for Mississippi, to get good jobs back. I would imagine regulations on furniture finishes and logging ran the Furniture companies out of the country.
When I lived in N. Mississippi, Tupelo was around 40,000 for the whole county. 40 years later they are around 80,000. 150k for the "region". It's grown every decade. Big hospital there and Cooper Tire. Gee, I'm sounding like a booster, lol.
My brother and his wife are driving the Natchez Trace this week and it goes right by Tupelo; maybe they'll take a detour and head for Elvis's shotgun house and give me a report.
It is good that the South is gaining jobs. It gives US more Made in America choices of vehicles.
You can keep trying to blame the government for every little thing, but it really is mostly economic - people don't have money to buy furniture right now. If the government had a lot of control over the economy, they would have pulled us out of this dip two years ago.
Wow. What a concept!
That makes sense. No wonder we don't do it.
Toyota hasn't been regulated out of existence, but I suppose you could pick Honda as an alternative if that happens.
I guess you remember how many trips Ahnold made to Japan to try and get that Miss plant built in CA. My guess it was either silly regulations or their UAW contract in the state and no RTW that lost the bid.
The real story was probably that the owner was dodging taxes or alimony.
Two seconds of net searching shows this outfit in the Bay Area that's still going strong since 1954. Bet there's 100s more - what's California up to now - 30 million people? That's a lot of kitchen cabinets.
Toyota plans to release financial results tomorrow. A drop in profits is expected.