MK5 Supra Sales US

[Lin626]

I love me some MK4s! I remembered when it won 1st place in C&D comparison test.

https://www.caranddriver.com/review...a-vs-the-best-sports-cars-of-the-early-1990s/

 

[Loco38SUP]

I love me some MK4s! I remembered when it won 1st place in C&D comparison test.

https://www.caranddriver.com/review...a-vs-the-best-sports-cars-of-the-early-1990s/

Great article.

-RJM

 

[gymratter]

Guess we're just ignoring COVID shutdowns and the Ukraine war ramifications?

for those that were old enough to remember the MK4 also had factors working against it.

In all seriousness, you know it went on sale before both of those events? Basic math to hit 12k units a year means that you have to sell 1k each month. Toyota never even came close to that figure in the months prior to the Wuhan virus hitting, and the only time they did hit 1k a month was May of 2021.

with the upcoming MT version, Toyota may come closer to their targeted sales goal.

 

[2JZ-No-Sh*t]

No doubt the manual will boost overall sales. Many, including myself, felt Toyota dropped the ball by offering it as an auto only. I mean everyone has been yelling and screaming for one since day one. Instead, what does Toyota do for the following year? Offer up an overpriced stripped down 4 banger with an open diff that no one asked for.

 

[Heavy Dupree]

IIRC for a brief time, Chevrolet was also shipping incomplete Colorado pickups to dealerships minus unavailable parts due to global shortages. More than likely so they could pad their numbers.

 

[bboypuertoroc]

The problem with the Mk IV is that it was rather boring-looking after the great looking Mk III with pop-up lights..

This is the funniest thing I've read in a long time.

 

[Guff]

It actually was... even their own forum insider said Toyota was hoping to sell 12k units a year for North America. And when that didnt happen they brought in the afterthought 4 banger with hopes of making up the differences but it turned out to be even a bigger sales flop and Toyota had to reduce the production numbers for 2022 because of how bad it was doing.

Wtf who said this? Nobody at Toyota ever expected a 12k a year sales volume, that's asinine. Magna can't even produce that many cars with their current line setup.

Everyone at Toyota is pleasantly surprised with Supra sales. They expected to sell far fewer of them. The iterative upgrade plan actually worked surprisingly well, alongside COVID shortages that kept demand high.

 

[240SX]

Wtf who said this? Nobody at Toyota ever expected a 12k a year sales volume, that's asinine. Magna can't even produce that many cars with their current line setup.

Everyone at Toyota is pleasantly surprised with Supra sales. They expected to sell far fewer of them. The iterative upgrade plan actually worked surprisingly well, alongside COVID shortages that kept demand high.

12,000 per year for N.A. was the goal last I heard, but that may have been wishful thinking lol. IIRC, they wanted to do 6000 this year, but looking like it's only gonna be like 5k overall.

 

[Denton]

 

[supraboi]

A70TTR actually has a pretty good track record when it comes to the MK5’s development.

 

[romanLegion]

for those that were old enough to remember the MK4 also had factors working against it.

The biggest one was the price tag, I'm aware. The $40k price tag is $75k today? And that was after the price reduction right?

Not to mention the economic crisis in Japan that killed the market.

 

[romanLegion]

Somehow GM didnt get that message...

https://www.goodcarbadcar.net/chevrolet-corvette-sales-figures/

2020	21,627
2021	33,042
2022	8,812

In all seriousness, you know it went on sale before both of those events? Basic math to hit 12k units a year means that you have to sell 1k each month. Toyota never even came close to that figure in the months prior to the Wuhan virus hitting, and the only time they did hit 1k a month was May of 2021.

https://www.supramkv.com/threads/toyota-supra-and-bmw-z4-sales-figures.2061/

TOYOTA SUPRA – US – BY MONTH

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
2019	0	0	0	0	0	0	320	643	514	516	487	404
2020	342	398	273	231	512	538	515	500	489	677	708	704
2021	394	503	828	987	1,049	787	537	304	436	294	228	483
2022	370	298	439	474	540	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

I'm not surprised the Corvette outsold the Supra. Its target demographic has always been an older demographic who can readily afford a $60k+ sports car and can accommodate one at that point in their lives. I believe a Mk5 Supra forum poll showed most owners were in their 30s. Not as many younger folks can afford the price tag or justify a 2 door sports car, especially if they have a family.

And where is this 1k a month target coming in from, some random forum post?
A Toyota spokesperson literally said they were aiming for less than the 400 a month for the Lexus LC. I'll take that over "I heard some guy say <insert number here>" on any forum, and by that more concrete "from Toyota" number, its safe to we have a sales hit.

 

[romanLegion]

Like how you guys ignored the rising Yen & the 90's bubble burst which caused inflation. All the Japanese sports cars were affected, not just the A80.

Inflation and the Asian market crash is what killed them.

They were all overpriced for the time. If you convert MSRP to today's money, the FD RX7, MkIV Supra, 3000 GT VR4, and 300ZX are all $60-80k cars.

It was too much for the target demographic, so it was low demand back then.

Now the issue is more that there's limited supply due to shortages. Today's Z and Supra are technically more affordable.

IMO an apples and oranges comparison here. Two very different scenarios here.

 

[gymratter]

The biggest one was the price tag, I'm aware. The $40k price tag is $75k today? And that was after the price reduction right?

Not to mention the economic crisis in Japan that killed the market.

it was high because of the inflated price. i dont recall the exact pricing but it was cheaper in its home market. unsurprisingly Toyota sold about x3 the amount in Japan than the US.

And where is this 1k a month target coming in from, some random forum post?
A Toyota spokesperson literally said they were aiming for less than the 400 a month for the Lexus LC. I'll take that over "I heard some guy say <insert number here>" on any forum, and by that more concrete "from Toyota" number, its safe to we have a sales hit.

some guy also told @Guff 3 weeks prior to Tokyo that the Supra concept wasnt going to be there despite all the fake news saying it would be so he can cancel his trip and try to get a ticket refund; instead, it was going to be at Geneva. some guy also told us a manual was coming and surprise surprise

 

[Zboy]

They were all overpriced for the time. If you convert MSRP to today's money, the FD RX7, MkIV Supra, 3000 GT VR4, and 300ZX are all $60-80k cars.

It was too much for the target demographic, so it was low demand back then.

There was a little more to it.

The FD was the lowest priced and sold about 14k units in just 3 years. The real reason why I was told that Mazda dropped it from the U.S. was that they did not want to switch it over to OBD II.

http://www.rotarywiki.com/index.php?title=FD3S:USDM_Production_Numbers

Yes, I would say the 300ZX was affected towards the end, but the Z32 got a few years' heads start on the FD and A80. So the early years weren't really affected by the price hike. About 90k units were made for the U.S. Sales really started tanking in 94 as per the course, but I'm sure the price increase didn't help either.

http://www.zhome.com/History/Zproduction.html

And we all know the story on the A80, bad timing and just too expensive.

Now the issue is more that there's limited supply due to shortages. Today's Z and Supra are technically more affordable.

IMO an apples and oranges comparison here. Two very different scenarios here.

Right, I wasn't trying to make a comparison in that sense. Sorry, maybe I shouldn’t have quoted you on this part. What I was getting at was the A80 had tough market conditions and that was most likely its downfall. Not that it wasn't "special" (post #5) or "boring-looking" (post #9).