Interview with Tetsuya Tada - Chief Engineer of the FT-86

[Slide]

Originally Posted by OldSkoolToys

Is Toyota Aus. STILL using the "Oh what a feeling!" slogan in their advertisements? Thats from the freekin' 80's!

Or is this billboard just using it as a nod back to the era which spawned the FT-86's inspiration?

they sure are lolz!

And I hope they don't fuck it up

[4agze]

Originally Posted by switchlanez

Also the MkII is a hatchback whereas the MkI is a coupe and the production version will likely be a coupe.

Where did you get that info about the MKII is a hatchback?

[Allch Chcar]

Originally Posted by 4agze

Where did you get that info about the MKII is a hatchback?

It's on the Wiki entry comparison in the article for the interview.

Other than that, I dunno how people came to that conclusion. I thought the conclusion was that it is a coupe for a fact .

[Calais]

Originally Posted by 82mm 4g63

someone should send this to toyota

[WolfpackS2k]

Originally Posted by SUB-FT86

Wolfpacks2k, I totally disagree about the "not offering automatics in the American coupes they would sell well". The s2k and a couple of the cars you mention could never outsell a Mustang/Camaro. And how do you figure that most people will learn the manual just to purchase it?

If you want a car then you buy it. Learning how to drive a stick is easy. Takes less than a day. Someone that wouldn't buy a sports car b/c it's a stick only is a lazy individual in my opinion.

Regardless, trying to compare a 2800lb 2 seat convertible and 3800lb 2+2 coupe in sales is one retarded argument in this thread among many.

[Mr.Jay]

Originally Posted by WolfpackS2k

If you want a car then you buy it. Learning how to drive a stick is easy. Takes less than a day. Someone that wouldn't buy a sports car b/c it's a stick only is a lazy individual in my opinion.

Regardless, trying to compare a 2800lb 2 seat convertible and 3800lb 2+2 coupe in sales is one retarded argument in this thread among many.

Thats true IMO I know 2 people who bought cars because they love them and learned to drive stick on them one was a girl who really wanted a s2k and the other was a dude who drives a sti

[Spaceywilly]

I didn't know how to drive stick when I bought my car. I've also let a few of my friends learn on my car. It's still on its original clutch at 120,000 miles, so I don't think it's really that hard on the car at all.

[SUB-FT86]

Originally Posted by WolfpackS2k

If you want a car then you buy it. Learning how to drive a stick is easy. Takes less than a day. Someone that wouldn't buy a sports car b/c it's a stick only is a lazy individual in my opinion.

Regardless, trying to compare a 2800lb 2 seat convertible and 3800lb 2+2 coupe in sales is one retarded argument in this thread among many.

How well did the s2k sell with being manual only? Terrible. You clearly missed my point and that is the most retarded part of your response. Show me a manual only sports car that outsells and equally good one with the option of a automatic/dsg ?





Calendar Year U.S.A.[37][38] U.K. & Europe[38][39][40] Japan[38][41][42] Canada[38][43][44] Australia[45][46][47][48][49] New Zealand[50] MidEast/Africa[51] TOTAL 1999 3,400 1,179 7,209 332 596 12,716 2000 6,797 3,955 3,422 412 521 15,107 2001 9,682 2,197 1,913 401 308 14,501 2002 9,684 2,537 1,471 336 164 10 14,202 2003 7,888 2,095 961 238 79 11,261 2004 7,320 2,036 1,087 250 39 10,732 2005 7,780 1,795 981 212 40 8 10,816 2006 6,271 1,474 1,225 146 30 3 9,149 2007 4,302 1,116 997 123 26 6 126 6,696 2008 2,538 709 1,228 65 15 4 82 4,641 2009 795 680 1,122 49 2 2,648 2010* 85 20** 42 21 168 TOTAL 66,542 19,793 21,658 2,585 1,818 33 208 112,631





Honda sold 112k copies in 12 years worldwide. That everyone is the definition of a flopped sports car. If you want the FRS to amount to this then Toyota and Subaru will be pissed!!!

[Dave-ROR]

It's funny that you actually seem to believe that Honda meant the S2000 as a mass market sports car. It was never intended as such and Honda never expected sales to show that. If it was a flop, it would not have had such a long lifespan.

It did exactly what they expected it to do. Same as the NSX, it sold about how they expected it to.

Again, comparing a niche car to a mass market american "muscle car" is a joke.

A slightly better number would be to determine how many manual only GS-R's sold versas automatic non-VTEC integras.. still not apples to apples but it's a better comparison.

[SUB-FT86]

Originally Posted by Dave-ROR

It's funny that you actually seem to believe that Honda meant the S2000 as a mass market sports car. It was never intended as such and Honda never expected sales to show that. If it was a flop, it would not have had such a long lifespan.

It did exactly what they expected it to do. Same as the NSX, it sold about how they expected it to.

Again, comparing a niche car to a mass market american "muscle car" is a joke.

Here's one for you. This ought to calm you down Dave.

The S2k sold 112k copies worldwide since 1999-2010
The Nissan 350Z/370Z sold 182k copies in the USA since 2002-2010.

Now if you take a minute to observe what I just wrote you will find that I didn't put the worldwide numbers of the 350Z/370z which is also a 2 seater non-American sports car.

Why did I use the Z? It is a 2 seater sports car with both transmissions vs a 2 seater sports car with manual only. My point? Automatics sports cars make money. If you think about it, if it didn't make money then why in the hell would they put one in a sports car?

[RRnold]

Originally Posted by OldSkoolToys

Is Toyota Aus. STILL using the "Oh what a feeling!" slogan in their advertisements? Thats from the freekin' 80's!

Or is this billboard just using it as a nod back to the era which spawned the FT-86's inspiration?

They need to bring back the "I love what you do for me Toyota" jump




[u2b]iw0HlqrwU38[/u2b]

[cyde01]

now THAT'S old school

[82mm 4g63]

Originally Posted by WolfpackS2k

If you want a car then you buy it. Learning how to drive a stick is easy. Takes less than a day. Someone that wouldn't buy a sports car b/c it's a stick only is a lazy individual in my opinion.

Regardless, trying to compare a 2800lb 2 seat convertible and 3800lb 2+2 coupe in sales is one retarded argument in this thread among many.

This "sports cars should only be offered with manual transmissions" mentality is ridiculous. As you guys pointed out, learning to drive a manual trans is about as complicated as riding a bicycle. Realizing that, the whole manual transmission driver's elitist attitude makes me laugh. It's as silly as a 10 year old mocking a 7 year old for not knowing how to ride a bike.

Give it a rest FFS. More options = more sales. If Nissan stopped production of A/T 370Z's they would be throwing money away. Not sure what their A/T vs M/T sales numbers are, but do you really think if they lost every A/T sale, those same people would just buy the M/T? I sure don't. So why would a company, whose goal is to MAKE money want to throw it away? Because a fraction of a fraction of their customers have some false sense of elitism towards manual transmissions? lol

Stop worrying about what other people are driving and focus on your own car. More power to the teenage girl driving an automatic FRS. Where was she when I was in HS?

[82mm 4g63]

Originally Posted by Dave-ROR

It's funny that you actually seem to believe that Honda meant the S2000 as a mass market sports car. It was never intended as such and Honda never expected sales to show that. If it was a flop, it would not have had such a long lifespan.

It did exactly what they expected it to do. Same as the NSX, it sold about how they expected it to.

Again, comparing a niche car to a mass market american "muscle car" is a joke.

A slightly better number would be to determine how many manual only GS-R's sold versas automatic non-VTEC integras.. still not apples to apples but it's a better comparison.

Comparing the S2000 to a Mustang/Camaro in sales terms is ridiculous, but so is saying the S2000 did exactly what Honda wanted it to do. They wanted it to sell decently for 6 years then have sales drop off at an exponential rate until finally being forced to pull the plug after selling 168 cars in 2010? I don't think that was their plan back in 1999. If it was, I'd be pretty pissed if I was a Honda fanboy.