Let’s starts with the basics. Toyota sucks.
I know it’s a bold statement but do hear me out. I have nothing but respect and admiration for Toyota as a car manufacturer. Their manufacturing and engineering philosophies are just brilliant. I highly recommend “The Toyota Way” by Jeffery Liker. The sheer repeatability with which Toyota churns our cars and trucks with infallible quality is beyond brilliant. Sure, some American made Toyota’s off late have been known to have quality issues but just look at the numbers and averages. They are by far one of the best car manufacturers in the world. To see what i mean about forever lasting cars please take a look at this video.
But, as an inspired Car maker, it, for the lack of a better word, just sucks. It is as if they purposely design their cars to be soft and handle like a boat. They might not be bad as the older American cars, but even Honda’s and Nissan’s can put them to shame by offering comparable ride and yet substantial handling. Simply put, there is no passion in the cars they build. The Toyota MR 2 Spider built as a dedicated sports car was a superb disaster. With no passion and not one respectable sports car in its ranks, Toyota has managed to constantly disgust me.
And that brings me to its more expensive version, the Lexus. To prove my case, I shall consider the new Lexus IS. This car was designed and developed for over four years with one single purpose, to defeat the BMW 3 series which many consider a bench mark in the sports sedan category.
They spent years developing this car and they still don’t get it. The new IS has a substantial engine. Brilliant interiors and tons of electronic features… and even handles well for a Lexus! Surely, this seems like a good formula to dethrone the BMW 3.
But unfortunately somebody from the upper Lexus management decided to not offer a manual transmission option to go with that engine. There goes half the driving experience. They further killed it by not allowing the driver to turn off the electronic stability system. And just for those two reasons, the Lexus, despite all its engineering brilliance, has still a long way to go before it catches up to the BMW.
For mathematically killing passion in every product they design, Toyota and Lexus will never be on my list.
Note 1: The picture with the post shows instrument cluster of the old Lexus IS. Perhaps, this exquisite clock inspired speed dial was the best feature of the car.
Note 2: The new Lexus IS does offer manual transmission with the 250 RWD versions but you cannot couple that car with any of the other technological /premium packages. Almost, as if, Lexus is trying hard to ward off people interested in the driving feel of a car…
I figure from this that a Toyota is def. not on the list when u do consider to buy a new car!!!
par ek baat bata..why did u take of the prev post??
Chalo…more from u then…shld i expect posts by which we’ll do a process of elimination to guess which car u will actually get??
TC D…best wishes!!
– PN
heheh I took it off the blog because i felt it was demeaning to my honda. It is not as bad a car as i made it sound. In all cases of love, a troubled relationship should not promote bad mouthing. To cut a long story short..I felt bad about it!
What you mean is the new slogan for Toyota should be
“They just dont car enough”
The only useful contribution i could make given that i drive a Chevy Impala….
(Gasp!!! and “D” actually talks to him..)
Looks like you get off on Puns. As far as your car is concerned, I can see Chinese steering away from Japanese cars for historical reasons but and Indian buying an chevy impala is still beyond my grasp.