CEO: Toyota vehicles lacked passion, must be more exciting

john · 2009-07-25T01:44:07+00:00

"Inaba acknowledged that Toyota vehicles had often lacked "passion"and that the company's vehicles must be "more exciting, more nimble.""Toyota is a good car but not exciting. Those are the comments weusually (or) always get," Inaba said.Toyota's sales have fallen 38 percent in the first six months of theyear -- to 770,000 cars and trucks from nearly 1.25 million vehiclesin the first six months of 2008. U.S. industry auto sales fell 35percent in the first half of the year.

Jul 25, 2009 61 Replies

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Nate Nagel 16 years ago

I'd agree except for the "gobs of power" thing. My mom has a first-gen and really likes it, but it's far from overpowered.

funny thing is, I've been arguing with SWMBO about Miatas for years... I keep telling her that they're the closest thing on the market to what she wants in a car (fun to drive, reliable, no special instructions, reasonably priced) and yet she resists because "everyone has one" (well, maybe that's because it's a good product) and "it's a chick car" (maybe there's something I ought to know...?)

Now if Mazda made a Miata with the motor from the old RX-7 Turbo (or just hadn't discontinued the really nice looking RX-7 in favor of the hideous RX-8) that'd really perk my ears up.

nate

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Elder 16 years ago

166horses in a 2 seater that grips so well isn't that bad. Combined with the adjustable suspension and already mentioned grip they aren't about power they are about a sweet drive.

The 3rd gens are slightly bigger but every effort has been made to keep the weight down so it weighs very little more than the 1st gen.

See if you can get a drive in a nice 3rd gen with the 5 or 6 speed manual and find somewhere nice and twisty to throw it through.

I like big power, had my share of Saab and Toyota turbos, but there is something very sweet about having enough power to be able to make use of a lot of it, and a chassis that just works.

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