Quote:
Originally Posted by rlpaul
Not picking on you in particular @ Vides990, so please don't take offense 
I find these comments amusing. How is the relationship dissolving?
Toyota owns a portion of Fuji Heavy Industries. Which in turn owns Subaru outright. Therefore, by definition, they have a relationship, whether people want to believe it or not.
The articles are all corporate speak. Just because Tada says "That's a possibility" doesn't make it so. He can't speak about the development of the next gen 86 because... its in development. So he can't confirm or deny anything really.
Now, lets say that the next gen 86 is a BMW/Toyota developed car. The current production line is all Subaru driven, so there's a good chance the BRZ would continue, but based upon the existing chassis. So they'd split. This is not necessarily a bad thing either, as it offers more choices to us, the consumers.
Keep in mind too, a well engineered chassis can be used for a long time. The NC was putting smiles on faces for 10 years before Mazda released the new ND.
So, considering how good the FT-86 chassis is, seems a little early to me to be talking about a new partnership already. Or at the very least, talking about a new chassis. |
No offense taken, so please don't take any as well.
Toyota owns a mere 16.5% of Fuji and its been well reported that the management of Fuji has not meshed well with Toyota's management since they increased their ownership % to that 16.5. Fuji has also decided to stop making the Camry for Toyota as they try to distance themselves from the company and how they interact. Fuji doesn't want to end up as joint venture or in a partnership, they want control over themselves and Subaru didn't initially want to by involved in the 86 platform to begin with, Toyota basically dragged them into it.
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2...py-road-ahead/
http://www.autonews.com/article/2014...toyota-in-2016
Clearly because of ownership there is a relationship, but its not a well working one and Fuji clearly wants more distance.
I believe Tada can speak on the developments, as he actually is the person in charge of the how the vehicle will move forward, can he confirm or deny anything, obviously not because of legal ramifications but when you read between the lines and take the multitude of "sources" into consideration its easy to come to a conclusion that everything is not peachy between the two companies.
I agree that Subaru has alot invested in both the chasis and the assembly process, utilizing both they could re-tool and offer a new vehicle, the SVX as I previously mentioned, which they have currently re-patented.
I don't expect the BRZ to die by 2017/2018 or anything like that, I think the 1st gen 86 (frs & brz) gets dragged out until the 2020 time frame (7-8 year cycle is about right for low productin sports cars) where the two companies then split and toyota/bmw offer the 86 and subie sells the svx.