Subaru 216A
It’s been a while without any post. It’s just that, there actually were not many interesting news to write about recently (?) World went crazy for EVs, which aren’t quite my point of interest. Reading about another huge hybrid from BMW, Mercedes or Lexus are pretty boring. Hot hatches segment seems to be old-fashioned somehow… Too cheap to be hybrids… Too expensive during the “global crisis”…
But there is a light of hope. More news on Toybaru have just arrived… and they are promising. Read more…
Toyota FT-86
Some more news on the topic have just appeared. Toyota has just released the first official photos of the FT-86 model. As You probably know by now, I’m not Toyota’s biggest fan. So I find this car as a first step to change my opinion about this automaker. As You could read on Carsoblog some time ago – this near-production coupe will be co-developed by Toyota and Subaru. Also it will be sold under these two badges separately. And what is the best news and worth waiting for – it’s planned to make its world debut at the Tokyo Motor Show later this month. Read more…
2011 Supra ? (FT-HS)
Not so long ago, we heard some rumours about Toyota and Subaru working on a small sports car (Toybaru). Now the car sites are presenting some more info about another sport concept from Toyota. (Or maybe it’s the same project?)
We saw the FT-HS prototype in 2007, and all Supra car enthusiasts looked at it with hope… as their beloved sport toy was withdrawn from production in 2002. Unfortunately Toyota officially stated that this project didn’t have the top priority. That was then…
Read more…
Toybaru Sports Coupe 2012
“Road & Track” site just reported: that we have a awaited for some time confirmation of the project “Toybaru” Sports Coupe car. Apart from information posted here at CarsoBlog.com few days ago, they suspect that the engine will be 2.0 litre boxer (not 1.5 as I wrote).
There is some controversy about Subaru, if they should abandon their “4wd image”. But in my opinion as the car will be done with Toyota, they can’t give them too much of their technology:) As Toyota will be responsible for styling (as they don’t have the skills to do a good sports car by themselves recently) Subaru will kick in there with rear wheel drive. Maybe to keep the car cheaper?
Also the good news is that they claim that the car will be sold with both Subaru and Toyota badges, as a very similar models.
Stay put for more news to come..
2010 Toyota Celica (Toybaru)
It seems like the cooperation of Toyota and Subaru still leaves a lot of question marks around the web. When they officially announced the concept of building a sports car together (around 2006-2007) – internet users immediately gave the project a name: Toybaru.
I spent few hours searching for info about this project, and found nothing but rumours and not confirmed information. There are no official prototype or sketches to see (if google doesn’t have them – they don’t exist! 
)
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Toyota iQ
Recent Toyota IQ premiere was a big success. All car media were talking about it. The car is said to revolutionize the way people look at city cars. And I almost believed that. The car is perfectly designed for this one purpose. Its about 180 inches long (less than 3 m) and is a 4-seater. Toyota did everything possible to make the people space the biggest possible in the car this size.
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In this post let’s take a look at Toyota logo. First impression: it looks good, has all the “good logo” aspects: simple, easy to draw, and nice looking. IMHO better than Hyundai or Mazda. It has more weight… But there’s more explanation from company about it’s “meaning”.
Lets start with some competition and look at their logos and their meanings…
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Recently I wrote a little “aggressive” comment about Prius, not being Eco friendly and expensive and ugly etc (link). I think that I had a bad day and the post didn’t sound as it should have:) I wasn’t against Toyota in this one. Well… excluding it’s ugliness… The topic was about Prius, but You can compare it to all this class Hybrid solutions that are branded as Eco. Ofc not including luxury cars like Lexus “h” models, which use electric engines to deliver extra power You don’t talk about ecology when You have 3 liter gasoline powered engine In this case: electric means fun.
But in this post I would like to think about the big picture: Diesel vs Hybrid. To find that “Vs” word, doesn’t actually fit here. These two are not actually against each other. I believe that soon enough we will see a diesel powered hybrid cars, which will make the best of these two.
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However terrifying this post title may sound – it’s not so scary. It’s about ranking of car producers, based on some Supplier Working Relations Index. Toyota lost a top place for Honda. So the news are good I don’t believe that Toyota’s market share, will drop significantly in US in the longer run. Probably just after many years of raising in all charts, there must be some corrective fall.
But it still makes me happy If I was a supplier, I wouldn’t sell to them Go Honda…
However there are some signals from the markets, that American buyers are turning to homemade products – including cars. It’s probably the crisis-caused local patriotism. Let’s see how it turns out in the future…
Here You can find a full article – Source: Bloomberg
To be fair with Toyota, I need to mention the Supra model. As a Toyota anti fan, I have to admit that some time ago they actually made a good car (and not only this one)! And as blog cannot be only “against”, I decided to write few “pro” words about this great car.
What is a good car?
For me: car that represents something – has the “xfactor”. Is a niche, a good a value for money etc. Shows the capability of a producer to make a fun car, and not be overwhelmed by the accountants that will try to cancel the project.
1994 Supra Targa
Supra had these values. I want to focus especially on Supra Mark IV.
Read more…
