Quote:
Originally Posted by SCQTT
Tcoat, my day job is product development. Your assessment is spot on. I'm not certain if everyone considers that Subaru and Toyota are in this for profit. They need a return on their investment, very seldom are projects done to simply to scratch an inch or to appease enthusiasts. Even SEMA and autoshow budgets, while often massive, are justified by consumer feedback and brand exposure.
One only needs to look at the death of the successful (and much better selling than the 86) FJ Cruiser to see that Toyota has little patience for low volume models, NO MATTER HOW MUCH THEY ARE LOVED.
The twins are circling the drain.
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I have worked in management for Teir One auto parts manufacturers for almost 30 years and see what happens in the background. It can take 6 to 10 people, hundreds of hours of work each, spread over a year period, just to get all the different countries to approve a slight change in the type of coating on a brake rotor. It isn't as simple as saying "this is what we are going to do" and doing it.
Toyota and Subaru went into this project knowing it would be a very low volume and margin vehicle. We are not privy to their business plan but they are not the fools that people seem to think and knew exactly what they were doing. It was done more as an exposure and buzz creator then to capture sales. They don't care if they sell high volumes since that is what their appliance vehicles are for. If there is a second gen that I highly doubt it will be greatly changed from what it is now. If they decide they want to make it a high volume sales vehicle than we can kiss what we have now goodbye.