Toyota Blogs About Blogs About New SubaToy Sports Car

by Justin Berkowitz

April 15th, 2008 3:08 PM

toyota blogs about blogs about new subatoy sports car

Ouch, the metablogging is hurting my face. Toyota posted to their Open Road blog today with a post so genius they may not even know what it is.

A New Small Sports Car on the Horizon

– Scott Deyager, Corporate Communications

You may have heard that as part of strengthened corporate ties between Toyota Motor Corp. and Fuji Heavy Industries in Japan, Toyota and Subaru, which is owned by Fuji, announced plans last week to collaborate on a new small sports car.

We pay by the period here. Semicolons are also expensive. That's why I will continue to use plastic forks, knives, and commas I stole from the diner downstairs.

While the market introduction for this vehicle apparently is targeted for the end of 2011,

Apparently! Ha, I so nailed you new media! I'm implying that you have set a release date without info! Booya!

speculation on blogs, and in newspapers, already is vibrating along nicely.

Screw you, "blogs." And I guess you newspapers, too.

A report last week

Really leveraging the speed of blog posting to your advantage, I see…

in Japan's Asahi newspaper

Which readers of this American Toyota site probably know nothing about, since we had to explain that a company called "Fuji Heavy Industries" is in Japan.

But seriously folks, that's Toyota's great example of assumptions going overboard? Japanese publications are notorious for predictions, concept sketches and photoshops.

speculates

There's that word again.

that this car will be powered by one of Subaru's flat-four engines.

Yep, let's mock them for being optimistic that a 4-cylinder engine with a low center of gravity, which is easily configured to run power to the back wheels, would be the engine in the car. Rather than the cynical assumption they should have made that we're going to stick a Subaru logo on a Scion tC, and then take the rest of the day off.

Other speculation suggests

Okay, seriously, try a thesaurus.

that it will be rear-wheel drive, that it could go on sale as early as 2011, and that it will sell for less than $20,000.

Which we at corporate know would be too expensive (rwd), our engineers need to sleep (2011), and are you monkey crazy (

Stay tuned for updates surrounding this exciting new collaboration.

I'll bet you thought we were going to tell you some information. Validate or invalidate one of the rumors. Or even give you corporate vague-speak about how mostly one company's parts will be used. Well YOU THOUGHT WRONG, baby! High five! I got you so good! Oh also, please continue to come to our site again. When? Every day. Gotta convince the bosses that this blogging thing has legs.

Comments

Join the conversation

2 of 3 comments

Strippo on Apr 15, 2008

Darn metadata.

Like Reply
Jgh on Apr 15, 2008

A blinding flash of the obvious. Thanks Mr. Deyager for reporting on the reporting. I'd like to spin the Hyundai campaign, by saying "duh."

Like Reply

Recent Comments

SCE to AUX Good summary, Matt.I like EVs, but not bans, subsidies, or carbon credits. Let them find their own level.PM Sunak has done a good thing, but I'm surprised at how sensibly early he made the call. Hopefully they'll ban the ban altogether.
SCE to AUX "Having spoken to plenty of suppliers over the years, many have told me they tried to adapt to EV production only to be confronted with inconsistent orders."Lofty sales predictions followed by reality.I once worked (very briefly) for a key supplier to Segway, back when "Ginger" was going to change the world. Many suppliers like us tooled up to support sales in the millions, only to sell thousands - and then went bankrupt.
SCE to AUX "all-electric vehicles, resulting in a scenario where automakers need fewer traditional suppliers"Is that really true? Fewer traditional suppliers, but they'll be replaced with other suppliers. You won't have the myriad of parts for an internal combustion engine and its accessories (exhaust, sensors), but you still have gear reducers (sometimes two or three), electric motors with lots of internal components, motor mounts, cooling systems, and switchgear.Battery packs aren't so simple, either, and the fire recalls show that quality control is paramount.The rest of the vehicle is pretty much the same - suspension, brakes, body, etc.
Theflyersfan As crazy as the NE/Mid-Atlantic I-95 corridor drivers can be, for the most part they pay attention and there aren't too many stupid games. I think at times it's just too crowded for that stuff. I've lived all over the US and the worst drivers are in parts of the Midwest. As I've mentioned before, Ohio drivers have ZERO lane discipline when it comes to cruising, merging, and exiting. And I've just seen it in this area (Louisville) where many drivers have literally no idea how to merge. I've never seen an area where drivers have no problems merging onto an interstate at 30 mph right in front of you. There are some gruesome wrecks at these merge points because it looks like drivers are just too timid to merge and speed up correctly. And the weaving and merging at cloverleaf exits (which in this day and age need to all go away) borders on comical in that no one has a bloody clue of let car merge in, you merge right to exit, and then someone repeats behind you. That way traffic moves. Not a chance here.And for all of the ragging LA drivers get, I found them just fine. It's actually kind of funny watching them rearrange themselves like after a NASCAR caution flag once traffic eases up and they line up, speed up to 80 mph for a few miles, only to come to a dead halt again. I think they are just so used to the mess of freeways and drivers that it's kind of a "we'll get there when we get there..." kind of attitude.
Analoggrotto I refuse to comment until Tassos comments.