Pretty much sums up most manufacturers, to be honest, it’s either dull design or ‘avante grade’ (read ugly) with a chassis and engine that don’t live up to its design
What's made you smile today?
- Thread starter angel
- Start date
Currently reading:
What's made you smile today?
The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
Im bow getting to tge age where dull is ok if its unbustably reliable
I think you're looking at it wrong... Toyota was always about boring but indestructible cars.
Occasionally they have a moment where they think "we need to be more interesting" and things like the Celica, Supra, and GT86 happen.
But compared to sales figures of Camry's, Corollas, land cruisers and Yaris those cars are barely rounding error in terms of total sales.
I'm vaguely interested to see how Yaris is in theory it's a competitor to our car and yet the approach is absolutely different. I think for a 73 year old who mainly drives to the shops and occasionally to the doctors it's the correct choice. Although maybe he'll start going further now he's got lower odds of leaving bits of car beside the road.
Occasionally they have a moment where they think "we need to be more interesting" and things like the Celica, Supra, and GT86 happen.
But compared to sales figures of Camry's, Corollas, land cruisers and Yaris those cars are barely rounding error in terms of total sales.
I'm vaguely interested to see how Yaris is in theory it's a competitor to our car and yet the approach is absolutely different. I think for a 73 year old who mainly drives to the shops and occasionally to the doctors it's the correct choice. Although maybe he'll start going further now he's got lower odds of leaving bits of car beside the road.
Active word ‘was’
Other than BMW supra and GR Yaris what in the current range isn't boring but indestructible?
They don't sell the 86 in this country anymore either..
I mean ‘was’ as in the reliability stakes, they all seem much-of-a-muchness now…and some never deserved their status, or at least, lost it since 2000 or earlier, either by others catching up or by just being thrown together
The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
Ive only had one Toyota. A 1972 Corolla. My father in Law bought it 10 months old with 110,000 on the clock.. SOmeone must have thought it was shagged as he paid next to nothing for it. He ran it 6 years while running a pub. It used to Haul large barrels of beer from Dveises to Swindon. Never washed serviced or cleaned or loved in any way. Je gave it to me when we got married. I ran it for at least another 50K and only fitted brakes pads / shoes and points. I sold it for £200. It was quite a decent little estate car adn hauled firewood and landscaoing tools for me. It was just properly engineered. Things fitted as you would want and wee made sufficiently strogly to function. I would surely buy another but would feel the need to check it was still well made... I think they are still above average reliability.
We'll see, most Japanese manufacturers ruined their reputation by building diesels or modern eco style engines (wet belt Honda anyone?). Or by tie ups with BMW...who even somehow managed to make Citroëns less reliable at one point..less said about Nissan Renault the better..
But in terms of this Yaris it's a very traditionally engineered car for 2017...no Turbo, no hybrid system, no stop start, timing chain etc.
Last edited:
The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
Don't know.... Yaris is the only one I might recognise. I suppose thats your point.
Yaris is only recognisable as its so kin-uge too. What happened to small cars.
I want a small car thats economical but powerful for size, and preferably FULL of pampering things.
Last edited:
The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
And I only recognise them as they are so BIG. What happened to small cars?
Every taxi pretty much... usually white and usually either a Prius or a corolla estate with 400k miles on it.
Oh and the inexplicably popular CHR..
Taxis round here are either Prius or Citroen burlingo, odd Toyota and the odd Hyundai
This has a similar feel... obviously only time will tell if it follows through.
It feels like the opposite of the guy from VW who always insisted that the glovebox of a Golf was felt lined to create the illusion of attention to detail.
No car has ever broken down as a result of a lack of felt in the glovebox...I can state that with absolute certainty but it's very much the idea of creating an image to make a cheaply made product look and feel expensively made.
The Japanese don't tend to understand this so it'll feel exactly how it's made, the Mazda I had, the Suzuki and the Toyota have a feeling of being tightly put together out of cheap material (admittedly different grades of cheap depending on starting price).
There's no "surprise and delight" to it...you just don't question the certainty of when you turn the key it goes and you'll get to your destination. That and things like they consider ease of service etc. Made them easy to live with if rather if a bit meh. Current car is much more memorable, characterful and a nicer place to sit when starting price is considered...but it's also an occasional pain in the arse for it and requires far more care.
I will say the "cursed" Ford Focus has been less bother in it's 18 year life than the C3 has been so far... because of modern car things. You end up maintaining things the old car just doesn't have. Yes the Focus ended up needing a lot because of tin worm and standing but mechanically at 100k it's still absolutely reliable but it is the old Yahama/Mazda derived 1.6...a new one with an ecoboost would not live under the same conditions.
Hence aiming at the none turbo, 1.5 none hybrid, none stop start manual gearbox drive train and hoping for a similar outcome.
Last edited:
vexorg
Prominent member
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2021
- Messages
- 1,832
- Points
- 564
I'd disagree, I'd quite happily have a new of these over most current cars on the road:
(and the new bmw supra doesn't count)
So multiple generations of 3 models which if you added up all sales across time would likely have sold around how many Camry's they sell in a year...
I'll save you me posting the counter point of Prius, Yaris, Camry, starlet, land cruiser, Hilux, previa, carina e, Avensis etc etc....
I'll save you me posting the counter point of Prius, Yaris, Camry, starlet, land cruiser, Hilux, previa, carina e, Avensis etc etc....
Last edited:
None of those change what the company actually makes money doing....
Yes 1% of it's total output hasn't been
but I didn't say it was always boring I said the company was about boring well built cars..which it is. It's like saying Aston Martin is about city cars because of the cygnet.
The thing about all those toyota's is that they are all very "sensible" cars. There was nothing exciting about them even when they were new. (well maybe except the much much older models)
It was their tunability and the performance you could get out of them in the aftermarket that sealed their reputation. I have driven old supras and MR2 not a Celica mind. but the general impression is grey or dark grey carpet, grey or dark grey dash, black buttons on black plastic. Everything works and does its job but there is no soul in them until you start getting under the bonnet and tweaking things.
None of them left a UK dealership with 300hp or more.
If you could even find one for sale and it wasn't a ridiculous price, any standard mk3 Supra is out performed by many current hot hatches also there are many cars and engines that can take the same power as the old toyotas.
Once you start fiddling under the bonnet of a Toyota they do not stay reliable.
A work collogue who had a mk2 MR2 almost identical to the one in the picture above, had an essentially standard car and was still spending quite a lot of money in repairs when it was around 15-18 years old at the time.
They all also rust. toyota does not use magical metal that doesn't rust any any toyota that has been in the UK for a while will still suffer the same fate as just about any other make or model.
I am going to say even their sports cars were in their day "boring" they did not make exciting sports cars which people fell over themselves to buy.
It was their tunability and the performance you could get out of them in the aftermarket that sealed their reputation. I have driven old supras and MR2 not a Celica mind. but the general impression is grey or dark grey carpet, grey or dark grey dash, black buttons on black plastic. Everything works and does its job but there is no soul in them until you start getting under the bonnet and tweaking things.
None of them left a UK dealership with 300hp or more.
If you could even find one for sale and it wasn't a ridiculous price, any standard mk3 Supra is out performed by many current hot hatches also there are many cars and engines that can take the same power as the old toyotas.
Once you start fiddling under the bonnet of a Toyota they do not stay reliable.
A work collogue who had a mk2 MR2 almost identical to the one in the picture above, had an essentially standard car and was still spending quite a lot of money in repairs when it was around 15-18 years old at the time.
They all also rust. toyota does not use magical metal that doesn't rust any any toyota that has been in the UK for a while will still suffer the same fate as just about any other make or model.
I am going to say even their sports cars were in their day "boring" they did not make exciting sports cars which people fell over themselves to buy.
vexorg
Prominent member
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2021
- Messages
- 1,832
- Points
- 564
Supra mk 4 was 326bhp, my brother had one and it was very rapid.
The GT4s won world rally championships. I'm sure if you were sitting beside carlos sainz in one you probably wouldn't say you felt safe (or bored)
But the point is that nothing in the last 20 years has come close to looking nice or fast from toyota.
The GT4s won world rally championships. I'm sure if you were sitting beside carlos sainz in one you probably wouldn't say you felt safe (or bored)
But the point is that nothing in the last 20 years has come close to looking nice or fast from toyota.
i'm sure but these days thats a Golf R or a mini John cooper works of which there are very a powerful hot hatch like an RS3 or a AMG A45 are both in excess of 400hp. so yeah at the time it was quick, but its not a "beautiful" car, nor does it have an exciting interior so I still stand by my earlier statement, it was a boring sports car and only became popular because of the fast and the furious as well as there tuneability
But thats not the car you get in the dealership.
Which goes back to Steve's earlier point that it is not Toyota's main business to make sports cars or exciting cars and for the most part and for the last 20 years they have made pretty boring cars
