dgh
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Darren
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2018
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- 164
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- Location
- Alberta, Canada
- Car(s)
- 1993 RX7; 2011 Toyota RAV 4
Wow that's some overly defensive rants going on in here over Chris Harris's review. Its hard to not to see it as serious bias in all the attacks being made against him.
Instead, in my opinion only, here is what I believe is going on:
1 - It starts when Toyota take a Z4, put it in drag, and called it a supra/Zupr4 to cash in on the name, and to maximise profit margins. Believe it or, not , this i can understand - its business, and has been done countless times with various manufactures and models.
2 - When everyone complains to hell and back about the concerns & problems, Toyota launch a brilliant PR marketing campaign to wash over the flaws with the car. They use distraction (such as talking about dual bonnet hatches, panel pressing, dramatic styled descriptions, separated design stages, etc), social media promoters, as well as quid pro quo to gain positive reviews. Tada isnt a car-building godfather. He's a marketing spin master, trying to skirt around and white wash all the problems with convenient afterthought false excuses, like "Toyota had to partner with BMW, its today's reality to build a sports car or and I6 engine", which is total crap, as proven by other manufacturers who are doing just that in both sports cars and I6's... - this lying sux, but again, positive excuses are business 101, its how they sell cars.
3 - Toyota provide all expense's paid, multi day trips for journalists, into controlled locations, with controlled cars for them to do reviews. They took a bunch of pre-production mkv supras, pumped them up a more than factory, and used these for the journo's to review in their controlled locations, & track tests, including dyno runs ... again as do most manufacturers, - its just business...
5 - Amongst all this, they give free cars out to selected Toyota friendly race teams to get the car in the media, again, making sure its in a positive light. They also took to to Instagram, Facebook, twitter, websites etc, etc, and have people promote the car and ensure a positive spin campaign runs hard, despite the tidal wave of people slamming the car as a disappointment. Toyota also starts to play down its competition, including its predecessor, making up outright lies about he MKIV to paint the new supra in a positive light. Its full swing "pump p the new supra" campaign.
6 - The young, the dumb, and the impressionable take the bait, and put on rose tinted fanboy goggles. Toyota continues he PR assault by claiming to have sold all initial orders, but that's very unlikely to be true, as seen with other manufactures, its a common false claim using the old "Its sold out, you cant have it" campaign. Toyota's original talk of selective "we only want it to go to enthusiasts" turned out to be total hors#t, as demonstrated by where supra number 1 went, and the non-vetting FCFS deposit system.
7 - Those Paid Promoters, and Fanboys leap to the MKV defence by making wild claims which just don't work outside of their delusions. Things like talking about the Auto box being a better choice to anything else, such as saying that the vents can simply be unplugged, that the same performance specs as the A80 is acceptable, that the car is actually 70hp higher than advertised, that its going to round the nurburgring in sub 7:40 (while Toyota refuses to do a lap), and then promoting that as a good thing whilst its old rival's are well below sub 7.
8 - Toyota continue to make baseless teases with talk of simplistic modification ability, then avoid questions about why they don't just put on the missing parts themselves, whilst promoting future upgraded versions which will likely never come apart from very small limited run numbers years from now. "manual was tested", "GRMN is likely" .. its a classic carrot and stick PR spin.
9 - A handful of reviewers like Chris Harris dissent and say what clearly the majority of the auto world are thinking about the new A90. That its a good car, but its not a great car, and its disappointing for the badge. Some openly expose the Toyota PR Spin cycle machine.
10 - Every MkV fanboy s#@$%'s a brick and goes into meltdown because its not the glowing paid promotion they demand and expect to hear everywhere. (How dare anyone not like the MkV?? - it has no problems!!). Toyota themselves hit back by finding promoters, fanboys and those who can be controlled or manipulated to do the defence with rants or rubbish claims. Its also not hard to find Instagram, Facebook, forum websites, or other threads which reek of a quid-pro-pro relationship with Toyota or related party and push those old "manual is coming", "GRMN version coming", etc etc.
Here is a thought.
People like Chris Harris or Doug Demuro are right, and people simply cant simply bear to hear the truthful reality.
Its a good car. Its just not a great car, its got a lot of problems, and its not truly a supra - it just a Z4 with a roof. Its a cash in on the supra name. Despite this, personally I think its will do very well in the market. Toyota has really run a well oiled and prepared PR marketing campaign.
There is so much oversimplification and spin in your diatribe I won't even bother countering any specific point. But here's an idea. There is no "right" or "wrong" or reality. You are biased in a certain way as much as those you accuse of bias. Everyone's perspective is influenced by their emotions. Some are able to overlook the BMW influence bc they want to love the Supra, some don't care who makes the car or actually like that its a collaboration with BMW (myself) and others cannot get past the BMW contribution (apparently, like yourself). These and various other perspectives all create "realities" to those who percieve them.
What is the truth though is $55,000 USD. 3.8 seconds to 60mph. 12.3 second qtr mile. This is as real at least as other similar quantified performance times by the same journal that also tested cars provided by manufacturers.
To me this reality, plus the aesthetics of the car, are all I need to get behind the new Supra. Sorry for you that you can't.
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