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Originally Posted by Akinari
Man so many people whining about things they'd never even dream of buying  |
I wouldn't say I am whining simply for the sake of whining. Way back when the FT86 concept debuted, it has never crossed my mind that I would be interested in a newer vehicle (I was already driving a mildly modified sports car that I enjoyed at the time.) But when the concept car showed up, I was enamoured by the possibilities it offered -- namely the 2+2 sports coupe platform with an attractive exterior. A successful concept car / preview model would have the power to do that -- wow a potential customer that wouldn't even have thought of purchasing the car, and plant an interest in the product so that the potential customer would eventually execute on the purchase.
I have been craving to get into a higher hp sports car -- something in the 300+ hp range -- for some time now, and the Supra initially came up as a potential candidate. But as soon as I found out that Toyota was teaming up with BMW on the project -- esp the drivetrain bits -- its appeal dropped down on my list. And when it was confirmed that it is basically taking the Z4's engine, my interest in the car dropped to zero. Japanese relaibility would have been the strong suit and primary attraction of the Supra to me. But if I were only getting a BMW instead -- basically the most unreliable German manufacturer in my books -- I might as well go straight to a German car instead.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 68style
Toyota has a wealth of history with inline-6 engines as well, they should have made their own instead of using that BMW piece of crap.
Yes I realize there's development costs... but I dare say not many people are going to buy this car... and when the engines start taking a shit... which they will... it hurts Toyota's rep bigtime.
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I can understand Toyota's hesitation in developing their own engine. For them to justify the R&D costs, the engine has to be at least deployable to more than 1 niche vehicle. Nothing else in the Toyota line would work, and their Lexus portfolio probably couldn't justify the amourtization either.
Mercedes has recently developed a new inline 6 as well, and I feel like Toyota would have been better served had they approached Mercedes instead of BMW. Toyota's greatest strength in a typical consumer's mind is their reliability. Risking that with BMW "reliability" is a wrong move and a bad move in my eyes.