What Was That About Boring Toyotas?
The joint Subaru-Toyota “FT-86” has been hyped for some time now as a modern-day AE86, a car with which Akio Toyoda hopes to recapture the “splendid flavor” of driving excitement that has been missing from Toyotas for some time. An affordable halo, in other words, which reconnects Toyota to the youthful enthusiasm of young men in search of rear-drive antics. And since it’s facing an aging demographic, that’s not a bad idea for the Toyota brand. Unfortunately, the latest look at the Toyobaru’s evolving styling is being shown in New York as a Scion, the brand that exists to prove that the Toyota brand can’t be youthful and exciting (and which just got a new sports coupe).
I’ve been on the record as a Scion-basher for some time, so I won’t beat a dead horse here… but if the FT-86 is supposed to be a halo for Toyota, it can’t just be shuffled off to the Scion ghetto. The car will probably sell regardless of the badge it ends up wearing, but the Toyota brand needs this enthusiasm investment, and Scion just needs to die.
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I would join those who say Scion should be cancelled, and this car placed in the Toyota lineup. Clearly this should be the new Celica and not Scion's Sunfire. To my eye, there are (unfortunate) styling cue similarities to the Sunfire. There's no mention of price or weight in the post, but considering recent trends, I can't imagine this will be too far away from the 3000 lb. mark. Which would put it squarely in the old Supra's target weight. Pity.
Read the transcript and it sounds like they are going in the right direction, but think in the end its going to be under powered. Seems like every car comes in overweight and over budget, so balance and handling might be on the money but it can't move then it will miss the mark. This is clearly a vehicle that should (like the Genesis, Mustang and Camaro) come with two different engines. One for people want a sporty daily driver and one for people who can afford to smoke the rear tires. Come on Toyota (Scion) don't wimp out on us.