Great article.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/
for those that were old enough to remember the MK4 also had factors working against it.Guess we're just ignoring COVID shutdowns and the Ukraine war ramifications?
with the upcoming MT version, Toyota may come closer to their targeted sales goal.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.
This is the funniest thing I've read in a long time.The problem with the Mk IV is that it was rather boring-looking after the great looking Mk III with pop-up lights..
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.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.
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.
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?for those that were old enough to remember the MK4 also had factors working against it.
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.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
Inflation and the Asian market crash is what killed them.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.
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.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.
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 surpriseAnd 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.
There was a little more to it.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.
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).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.