By John LeBlanc
Like a ketchup stain you can’t get out of your favourite shirt,
Toyota’s woes caused by this year’s
recall crisis just won’t go away. Last week, company head cheese,
Akia Toyoda, kept on laying on the apologies at a shareholders meeting.
Very noble, eh? But while taking responsibility and promising to do better is all fine and dandy, Mr. Toyoda’s company needs to stop falling on his sward. In fact, apparently, Toyota’s chief broke down and cried at an American dealers meeting about the recall mess.
Obviously, Toyota’s in a pickle. But that’s great news for car buyers. Fat, lazy automakers make boring, take-no-risk cars. But desperate, this-is-our-last-chance-to-fix-things car companies are exactly the kind of manufacturer car fans want.
It was-for-the-umpteenth time on the brink of insolvency when
Chrysler produced the
Dodge Viper in the 1990s. And although
Government Motors isn’t out of the woods yet, its troubles in the Naughties is one of the reasons it's now producing some of its best cars ever.
So hey, Mr. Toyoda, get over it. Grab a hanky. And do what you know your company needs to do: risky cars. Like the three new sporty Toyota the U.K.’s
Autocar speculates are on the way.
The first, the
FT-86, you may already know as a modern take on the mid-1980s rear-drive
Corolla SR-5 coupe. It’s supposedly set to arrive in 2012.
The following year, a new mid-engine two-seater in the spirit of the
MR2 will arrive, but this time with 1.5-litre gas four-hybrid power and, clearly, Honda’s new
CR-Z hybrid in its sights.
The third new Toyota sportster is a larger coupe that will use the FT-86’s bits and bites. A spiritual successor to the old
Supra, the 2+2 will use a hybrid V6 with styling coming from the
FT-HS concept (above) from the 2007 Detroit show.
None of these potential sporty Toyota cars will help eradicate the damage done to the Japanese automaker's’s street cred and sales decline caused by the recall crisis.
But do you think this potentially FTD trio can get type of car enthusiasts that have abandoned the brand?
[Source: Autocar]
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