Toyota: Boring and Reliable-A perspective on Toyota's performance cars and why nothing is being done.

Toyota, the Japanese superpower of a multi-corporation. Owning shares from things like trucks, electronics, cars, etc, Toyota is an impressive business that is to be respected. However, I would like to note something very wrong about Toyota: It’s Boring. Yes, the modern-day Toyota Motor Corporation is a boring company (and not in the way of Elon Musk’s The Boring Company). When Toyota had just entered the 21st century and entered the early 2010’s, Toyota went from being the cool car company to being the company that pumps out conformed, drab, boring cars that are just meant to be used as good old transport. Ever since the Prius made massive sales during a time of economic recession and a dark age of automotive engineering in the performance department, Toyota has just focused on being the people’s car a bit too much. Now a days, we either get under powered commuter cars, cars with ancient powertrains, and just conformist hybrid vehicles from a company that was once known for cars like the Celica, MR2, Supra, AE86, etc.
Sure, we have the 86 but its just not a refined car in the way the Miata is. And while the Supra is making a comeback, it will be a long time before we actually get and more so, let it cement itself as the legend of the sports car world and the tuner world. So you might be asking yourself, “Why isn’t Toyota stepping its innovation game?” Well, there are a few reasons. Let me name some of them out:

1. Toyota Legendary Reliability: Toyota has always been a company you go to if you need a reliable car. Toyota makes sure all their cars are worry free through their tedious designs, extraneous testing, heavy inspection on the construction of cars, and being stagnant on change.
2. Toyota is for Ordinary People: Toyota considers themselves to be for the people and thus feel the need that they don’t need to build performance cars but rather cheap, reliable people carriers.
   or maybe this might make this article worth your time…
3. Toyota Heads are preventing Akio Toyoda from doing what he loves best, making sporty cars and performance cars.
   Yes ladies and gentlemen, chiefs and directors from the lower heads of Toyota’s corporation might be the reason why you won’t be getting your new Celica, MR2, etc anytime soon. If you want to know why, let me explain some more.
   First, let’s talk about the current president of Toyota, Akio Toyoda.
   This is Akio Toyoda:

Current head of Toyota, Akio Toyoda

Akio Toyoda is the son of Shoichiro Toyoda, who was president during the 1980s-1990s. While Akio may not look like it, he is one hell of a car enthusiast. He was the one to promote projects such as the legendary Lexus IS-F and infamous Lexus LF-A. He races occasionally and even won 4th place in his class at the ADAC 24 Hours of Nurburgring under the pseudonym of Morizo Kinoshita. Hell, he was the one that support the idea of a revitalization of the new Toyota Supra. The 61-year old who is from Nagoya, Japan is still a teenager obsessed with performance cars. So it would be a pretty obvious that he is the one pulling the strings for the production of Toyota sports cars. Well, kind of. In reality, the one’s that are really pulling the strings on what is being produced by Toyota are chiefs and directors working in the other departments. These department heads are usually the ones presenting ideas on what Toyoda should do for the company for the greater good. And while its still kept Toyota up that it keeps changing places with the Volkswagen Group on which one is the bigger auto conglomerate, its made Toyota’s lineup a bland and utter boring segment. If Akio Toyoda had more say with what his company should produce, rather than listening to those who believe that making boring cars for the company is for the better of the company, we would’ve been seeing the revitalization of Toyota sports cars. Now I know that Toyota needs to cater to the general consumer market, but I know for a fact that Toyota can cater to both the enthusiasts and general market. Hell, you can make a Prius pretty fast and fun. Toyota unveiled a more powerful and efficient hybrid 2.0L that makes 180 HP, which they can install in a newer generation of the Prius. If they did that plus add multi-link rear suspension and even a LSD, then the Prius would most likely a serious affordable hybrid performance car for the masses. Plus, we have Gazoo Racing and TRD. These divisions can help invigorate the Toyota lineup with more sporting prowess. If Toyota chiefs and directors from the engineering division of Toyota could do these things, then Toyota would bring itself back as being a sporty performance brand as it once was in the 90’s. So in conclusion, I believe that Toyota’s sporting capabilities are not being harnessed due to chiefs and directors insisting that Akio direct the company to only build boring, reliable commuter cars. And hell, who said that Toyota sports cars need to be unreliable. Look at the MR2, Celica, and Supra. Those were sports cars, but they had that legendary Toyota reliability and problems rarely occurred. I know that Toyota could one day be able to harness that old sporty pep that they once had in the later future. And who knows. it could even be starting right now with the new Supra Concept.

See you next time.

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