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So Long MR2 Toyota

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aeronca65t

aeronca65t

Great Pumpkin
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Hate to see the Celica go, but then, like lots of other marques, it changed so much over the years. My wife and I bought our first new car, a '73 Celica - gold with black and gold interior. Wish I had that one back - classic lines and just a neat car all around.
 
quote from press release... "The past few years, however, have been very challenging for both Celica and MR2 as competition in a segment where 'what's new' dominates and we continue to add more exciting and youthful products to the lineup such as the Matrix and Corolla XRS, Solara sports coupe and recently the Scion xA, xB and tC."

As much as most Celica's became "rice" rockets, and I only wish the newest MR2 was even available in Canada, it's a shame to see both of them go. Judging from the above statement (as in press release), is the car market leaning towards hopped up sedans? Are even the young people starting to prefer these hopped up sedans over sports coupes? Kind of sounds like it... maybe another market shift happening
 
Sherlock,

It all goes in cycles, I remember in my youth two seater sportscars were a very rare beast new, all the people of my age lusted after the latest hot hatch (Ford XR2, Fiat Uno Turbo etc). Give it another 10-15 years and the two seater will be rediscovered!
 
The MR2 and Celica were both relatively overpriced compared to their competition so not a suprise they didn't sell well. The Celica is essentially being replaced by the Scion TC but its sad to see the long running nameplate being replaced. In Canada we don't get Scion so there will be no small, sporty Toyota here.
 
[ QUOTE ]

It all goes in cycles, <<SNIP>> Give it another 10-15 years and the two seater will be rediscovered!

[/ QUOTE ]

Steve is correct /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/iagree.gif – But I just hope that the idea of re-introducing a two seater doesn't so overwhelm them that they rush some tartly looking “door stop” design sports car into production to cram down our collective throats.

Oh wait!?! Isn’t that what the MR2 was? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
The Tc is actually a pretty nice car. Toyota brought one up to a function in Lake Tahoe that I was at a couple of weeks ago and we got to check it out for a while. It actually reminded me a lot of the Celica and this one had a Supercharger on it so it definately wasn't short on power. If I were in the market for a small coupe (and my wife wasn't so set on the RX8), I'd definately think about it.
 
My big problem with the TC is that it is pretty fat and heavy with bland styling.
 
Funny how things go. So here we have a car that is being discontinued because hardly anybody is buying them. It's basic description? A lightweight transverse-mid-engine convertible sportscar with a Toyota 1.8L DOHC 4V powerplant priced at only $23k.

On the other hand, there's another car that has completely sold out its entire scheduled production run before even one hit the showroom floor. It's basic description? A lightweight transverse-mid-engine convertible sportscar with a Toyota 1.8L DOHC 4V powerplant priced at only $40k.

Hey Toyota, get the hint! Raise the power output and pay a real designer to make it look good. You'll have a winner.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

PC.
 
Maybe Toyota is planning to build the new Lotus-Toyota Elise as an MR2 replacement! That way all of us can afford to buy one instead of just those who have already put their money down for the limited number of 2005 models "arriving soon" at their local Lotus dealer. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devilgrin.gif
 
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