Toyota may build Supra convertible / targa instead of 86 convertible

[FRS-Man]

It does sound like this whole concept to production is being fasttracked either that or they really wanna flesh out public reaction. 2 concepts within 6 or so months of each other is pretty aggressive and this is hinting at possibly more coming.

The rumor is the next concept will be repainted with few other changes so 6 months in b/w them is not too exciting. I want to see body changes to show us what direction the "public feedback" is pushing them in. It's killing me thinking the FT-1 design will be pulled out from under us so the quicker we get a more practical and realistic concept the better IMHO. i dont want them to wait until less than a yr before production to drop a watered down version on us.

Sponsored

 

[FRS-Man]

T top FRS would look awesome btw, just sayin

 

[Loyo911]

FRSMan - that does look good!

 

[Respek]

Yea i'd rock that spyder for sure

 

[NeroZ]

That convertible photoshop doesn't look bad. Need side view!

 

[fox body]

I think that is beautiful actually. I don get the hate on the convertible, u know it will be more popular than a T-Top that's why they are way more popularly offered these days.

 

[black-supra]

Because Supra that's why

 

[supraninja]

A vert will guarantee no targa top <---that is why I am against it.

 

[FRS-Man]

http://jalopnik.com/a-scion-fr-s-turbo-or-convertible-are-for-real-not-happ-1662563963

The Scion iM Concept showed off at last week's LA Auto Show previewed a production car that Scion desperately needs at the moment for mainstream success. But what about the enthusiasts? Scion senior vice president Doug Murtha took the time to re-iterate some bad news: a convertible or turbo FR-S is not coming. Booo!

At this point, it's been close to two years since Toyota showed off their FT-86 Open concept, and drivers have been pining for a more powerful Toyobaru since its inception. But Murtha confirmed — as other sources did a year ago — that neither of those things are in the pipeline. Don't blame Scion, though, they tried to make a case for it, according to Wards Auto:

"So on the convertible we went down swinging," Doug Murtha, senior vice president-Scion, tells WardsAuto in an interview at the 2014 Los Angeles auto show.

But in the end, Scion couldn't find enough other countries or regions within Toyota that also wanted a convertible, and could sell it in sufficient volumes "to make the thing pencil.

"I think we were pretty aggressive on our (submitted plan), but we looked at what we would have conceivably lost on the product and said, 'We're not going to even push it further,'" Murtha says. "Nobody was more disappointed than we were."

As for the 86-ing (sorry) of the turbo, Murtha offered no comment, but the Wards story alludes to the reason Subaru and Toyota teamed up on the project in the first place: to keep costs down. Developing a turbo version of the car doesn't really jibe with that plan.

Murtha conceded that sales of the FR-S are starting to fall off a bit, something that's not surprising at all given that the car is a few years into its life cycle without any major updates. They'll have to find something else to appeal to buyers, and I'm not sure these feature-laden "Release Series" models will do it.

Oh well. We still love the Toyobaru twins no matter what.

Disappointed in this news if true but...

Paving the way for the Supra to offer BOTH?

 

[JohnnyTX]

"So on the convertible we went down swinging," Doug Murtha, senior vice president-Scion, tells WardsAuto in an interview at the 2014 Los Angeles auto show.

But in the end, Scion couldn't find enough other countries or regions within Toyota that also wanted a convertible, and could sell it in sufficient volumes "to make the thing pencil.

I find this interesting. If the FR-S can't sell enough convertibles to make the numbers work why would the Supra?

 

[bballr35]

By that logic only lower end models would get convertibles. It's not just about volume. Higher end sports cars tend to make a better case for convertibles due to the them being more expensive, the types of people buying them, and the types of cars that it works best for. I always figured Supra was a better candidate for a vert.

 

[divinesteer]

http://www.supra5forum.com/forums/t...t-1-convertible-instead-of-86-convertible.45/

Already hinted at recently. Straight from Tada san:

"There are many articles regarding another sports model from Toyota up higher from 86. I'm thinking convertible model will be on higher model ... maybe." "Our final goal [is that] we want to do three sports models from Toyota and at least one convertible model will be realistic."

 

[500strong]

As for the 86-ing (sorry) of the turbo, Murtha offered no comment, but the Wards story alludes to the reason Subaru and Toyota teamed up on the project in the first place: to keep costs down. Developing a turbo version of the car doesn't really jibe with that plan.

Isn't the whole point of keeping costs down by joint developing so that you CAN do more with the platform. In that same vain, the BMW/Toyota collabo is the same idea. Are we to believe there will be no turbo or anything other than a coupe?

 

[Loyo911]

I find this interesting. If the FR-S can't sell enough convertibles to make the numbers work why would the Supra?

Because we're talking apples to oranges here. Profit margins on entry level cars are always the lowest and as you start talking about more and more expensive cars, the profit margin goes up. So just because the numbers don't work for the FR-S doesn't mean it won't work for the Supra which will already have a much higher profit cushion built into its price.

 

[Da Hmong]

Man Subaru really screwed Toyota on the partnership by being so reluctant to keep pushing out new models and variants. Hope the Toyota-BMW relationship doesn't end up the same way where one side has control over what the other one does with their car.

Sponsored