Interesting interview on how Toyota does things...

[2011G6E]

Just reading an interview with Tetsuya Tada about how Toyota developed the 86 and also about their new philosophy.

http://blog.toyota.co.uk/tada-how-to...eated-the-gt86

Here’s Tada-san’s story, in his own words.

“You need to remember that this car was the result of an executive board meeting at Toyota in 2007 with the sole agenda that people around the world are losing interest in cars and what Toyota was going to do about it. One suggestion on how to address this was to go back to basics with a sports car that would rekindle interest. In the past, sports cars had been repeatedly rejected as having a poor return on investment, but at this meeting it was decided that if the technology division could make something that could restart interest, then the marketing division would support it.

...cont'd...

That's very true..the vast majority of buyers have no real "interest" in cars...they're white goods, they're just transport, they don't see how you can have an emotional response to a simple machine.

Maybe Ford and Holden could learn something here...The main motivation with the 86 project was "fun" and "back to basics". Not bigger-better-faster-more-V8-horsepower!!!!!!!...but "fun", full stop.

This is glaringly obvious right here:

“I started to research the idea and the first thing that hit home to me was that all sports cars are launched to the same formula. The are very fast, with fast lap times and that was the index that was used to measure how effective the car was. Yet when I spoke to car guys around the world they universally said they didn’t want that. These guys were still repairing their old Silvas and AE86 models.

“Yet the first question from the board when I reported back was, ‘how fast is it?’ They couldn’t imagine a car which drives like a dream but isn’t that quick. I was thinking that maybe the car guys were right when they said they thought Toyota would be the hardest company to get such a high-fun, low-top-speed car past.

“Yet when I meet up with rival sports car chief engineers (and we do at various times around the world), we all talk about what we call the Devil’s Cycle of ever-increasing power, speed, weight and price. So I started to work on the packaging requirements for this different sort of sports car. It would need to be front engined and rear wheel drive, but it would also have to be ‘cool’ and by that I mean low at the front.

They actually asked people what they wanted, and they were shocked when the majority answer wasn't necessarily "faster and more powerful", and the ever-increasing cycle of power, speed, weight, and price wasn't leading anywhere but to a smaller number of vehicles that cost a fortune and sold to only a tiny portion of the buying community. That's interesting about the "Devils Cycle" as well, and it's obvious that has become the "normal" way to make a "sports model"...chuck more horsepower at it and raise the price and sell it as a limited numbers special...


Just a thought...maybe Ford should ask people what they actually want instead of assuming that everyone must desire bigger, heavier, more expensive "sports models" with bigger and bigger engines...

[Nikked]

I think the 86 done the job perfectly, just look at the amount of media exposure it gained...Top gear fell in love with it...it reignited the passion of the small sports car.

Some still squawk about it not having enough power, and how some completely unrelated car can best its time at yada yada track...

But it did its job, and thats all that matters.

[Bossxr8]

How ironic him saying cars are getting boring, when they basically dominate the world of boring a to b whitegoods on wheels.

[stang65]

wouldn`t have anything to do with it being marketed as a short supply model, maybe they are making a loss as well, Maybe it`s a marketing exercise.

At the end of the day it was never made to be a high selling model, initially we were offered only 200 cars.

[2011G6E]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

How ironic him saying cars are getting boring, when they basically dominate the world of boring a to b whitegoods on wheels.

That's the point he made...Toyota is quite aware of the perception of it, and wanted to change things.
It's like back in 1982 when they came out with the new Celica (the RA60 like I own)...they brought in a clean sheet of paper, and a new design team, no member of which was over 25 years old!

Sometimes you need to take a big risk instead of the tried and true (and boring) philosophy of "just put on a few stripes and stick a bigger engine in it" that most makers always fall back on...