Quote:
Originally Posted by pukicabuki
It was way too expensive to build the FT-1 concept. The complex body panels were a nightmare to mold and would have been nearly impossible to produce in quantity with high enough quality standards. The car would have cost well north of $100k if they had made a new chassis/drivetrain in-house along with the complex body work. My Dad worked for Toyota for 20 years and had a great conversation with one of the engineers on the FT-1 concept when it made an appearance at a regional Toyota corporate event. The concept didn’t even have a real drivetrain or functional electronics. It was a pretty shell with a small electric motor so it could be moved around.
Its just too expensive to make new platforms these days unless it can be shared across products/brands. Get used to it, it’s going to be happening more and more.
|
Concept cars are just that - they don't have to follow the myriad of government regulations, don't have to care about mass production, etc. It's not practical and not reasonable for Toyota or any manufacturer to do this.
That said... Toyota has been resting on their laurels for a while and some would call that lazy. Their cars are still using engines that are decades old; the IS is way overdue for a refresh; they spend less % on R&D then their German counterparts - and it shows. Their religious fixation to quality and the bottom line have compromised their ability to innovate and is why they had to have BMW build the Supra for them (they admitted the Supra would've been priced >$100K without BMW's R&D help).
It's not about sharing platforms as you claim because other carmakers do this too but are much more innovative and produce cars that are actually fun to drive. Toyota is good for people who think cars should be like appliances to get you from point A to point B without fuss. We don't have to "get used to it" because Toyota isn't the only game in town. Thank goodness.