Quote:
Originally Posted by Spaceywilly
I think 2 reasons
1) it doesn't make financial sense to make a niche sporty coupe. Just look at the s2000. It was developed using F1 tech just like you suggest and was never a huge seller. I don't think Toyota with their lineup of toasters would've gone out and made this on their own. By teaming up with Subaru it is easier to justify the cost.
2) if you read the article, Tada actually came up with the idea of approaching Subaru because he wanted the low hood line and center of gravity of the boxer engine. He wasn't sure how to do it with Toyota's current tech, and when he saw that they had just entered a corporate partnership with Subaru, it just made sense.
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That does not add up as they are going to use this platform for, a convertible and possibly the Supra/xxx. The S2000 was a huge success for Honda in the first 3 years, they moved over 40,000 units and was a reason why they ran production for 8 years. They also already had the Insight and NSX made in the same factory so it was easy for them to slot in another model, as there were many shared parts.
I do get your point on the engine development, etc. But long term seems very hard to get things done, making engineering changes require twice the work, implementing manufacturing improvements can't be as simple because it has to filter through more red tape. Support in general seems to be more problematic. It really is "Toyota's" car.