Comments on: Toyota President Wants Eco-Cars to Be “Fun to Drive”

By: Carl

Carl — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 20:26:55 +0000

Now that's a car I could buy!

I have a Miata for fun but at 11 years old it's got only 21,000 miles.
It's never going to wear out, so it will take a real special car to replace it.

Toyota does have a problem, all of there cars (lexus too) handle like refrigerators.

By: Dom

Dom — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:43:21 +0000

A manual transmission instead of the CVT would make that MR2 Sports Hybrid Concept even more fun.

By: Charles

Charles — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:14:36 +0000

Toyota has an image of building the most reliable cars in the world. That image propelled Toyota to the top of the sales heap of automobile manufactures. In clawing its way to the top it looks like Toyota forgot what got them there and it has shown in its reliability ratings. The reliability ratings are a leading perception indicator. If Toyota does not return to quality as its first priority, their image will suffer. No matter how sexy the car, if it does not have a reputation for reliability sales will not be sustainable over the long term.

By: Brian Z Jones

Brian Z Jones — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 00:19:04 +0000

1st rule of marketing: sex sells.

Sustainability is not sexy.

Toyota need a bit of a sales boost to continue to enjoy the massive profits they continue to pull in (even with global downturn & recall issues). Toyotas are built by committee, and it shows. They are bland, with no brand image to rely on, excepting the Piou- er, Prius.

The FT-86, the Tesla deal, & this (weak, but interesting) MR2 Hybrid are a step in the right direction. People (myself included) become brand-loyal, and a lot of that is tied to the image of the car. Toyota has no image.

-bZj

By: DownUnder

DownUnder — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 23:17:23 +0000

Toyota should make sustainability number one and excitement number two priorities.