Toyota’s Willing Stooges: The Trend Of Narcissism In Us Society

[AMERICA 123]

Originally Posted by eurohazard

-Wagons--I hear what you're saying. I totally understand the difference between the 70's American wagons, and the import wagons. I used to own a 1970 Ford Country Squire with a 390 V8, and I used to own a 1976 Toyota Corolla wagon than I bought used for $425. But the reason I mentioned his statement is because his use of wording, "Toyota did not manufacture anything that resembled a station wagon until 1987". Hell a 1976 Corolla wagon was a lot closer than a 1987 Corolla wagon to a 70's American wagon....at least the 70's Toyota was rear wheel drive.

See, in some sense I agree with some of the spirit of this in a generic way - I don't like preventable 'slop' - especially on something I support. That said, an '87 Corolla was 'closer' ( although still far) - overall to much of what was left of the American station wagon product than the '76 was - RWD or not.

-Icons--This can be a thread all its own! lol

YEP ! Actually a little tougher than it first appears to define

I won't debate this issue on a GM site, because there's no need.

Well, say what you will about that, but personally I still believe it's not wise to bring a rubber knife to a shotgun 'fest'.......

But the most iconic Corolla is the AE86 "Hachi Roku" which means 86 in Japanese. I spent 2 years in Japan....and I have countless hours of the locals drifting these little buggers! They were the last RWD Corollas.

I can understand this.

The Accord hybrid V6 was a sedan, yes, however it got terrible fuel economy.....I want to say high 20's in the real world. So no one bought them.

That's a slightly cockeyed, partial presentation of the story, not all of it.

It's also an oversimplification that is not useful..

The (initially) missing moonroof, spare, and the uncorrectable ? lack of a fold down rearseat combined with the price premium - and some standard hybrid dynamic funkyiness - versuses alternatives within the Accord line up were some more of it.

In other words, in terms of potential buyers the tradeoffs compared to a 'conventional' Accord didn't make sense - as a group.... it's always about assets versuses liabilities - this one just didn't add up right for the intended buyer.

The standard Toyota spin concerning this car always also leaves out that this one was very specifically intended for a specific group of Accord intenders - and that's real important in understanding it's real failure

The Lexus HYBRID programs (Auto ) now represent the biggest fail in powertrains offered for sale in the history of the United States ( post '23 ) - for much the same reasoning.

The last ones had pretty good rebates on them in my area.

YEP - they sold four last month and eight the month before........

I don't know why you think there are 2 separate Accord hybrids < I said 'groupings' - and referenced the epa #s - which is accurate enough >.......... In 2005 (first year) the Accord hybrids were rated at 29 cty/37 hwy.

This is part of what what I can't remember for sure - model years offered and when, and also when the tweak and in what direction it was made.

No changes were made to the power plant itself, but the 2006 models were rated at a more realistic 25 cty/34 hwy.

Well, I'm not sure, but I thought the change up was for the model year 2007s.

That's almost completely inaccurate - the IMA system was most definitely tweaked and improved and some IMA 'capacity' increases were part of that - and by tweaks I don't just mean software.

There were definitely some small, but important tweaks for the rest of the powertrain as well - Honda went thru it with a fine toothed comb..

The Accord hybrid is almost single handedly the reason for the new 2008 EPA's new fuel economy standards IMHO.

Absolutely and positively false - the Prius and its owners complaints ( see UK for instant replay ) was by far the most important and influential contributor - when the full DOE/EPA/NHTSA 'story' is examined.

It was for obvious reasons ( sales volume ) the largest grouping used to correct for hybrid error - an effort by the way which didn't even come close to being a full correction in a longterm high age kind of way.

If you look at only most of the story as opposed to all then you could say its a horse race between the Civic Hybrid, the Prius, and the Insight.

One commonly overlooked aspect of all this was the DOE program that discovered and documented a consistent 15 -20% error ( optimistic ) in the on board (DIC) fuel economy reporting system of the Prius, and the Civic Hybrid ? or Insight ?....... lots to that....... and I do mean 'lots'.

[AMERICA 123]

Well, this is interesting.

According to fuel economy.gov for the Accord Hybrid ( all 4dr/ 5sp. AT - as expected )


................Revised........................... Old
.........city combined highway....city combined highway

2005:.25..... 28......... 33..... /.29.......32.........37

2006:.22......25..........31...../..25.......28.........32

2007:.24......27..........32...../..28........31........35

[PMC the 1st]

Good article...

[PMC the 1st]

Originally Posted by Tone

The actual sociological part -- the part that discusses why Americans are swayed by this kind of branding effort -- would probably apply to all consumer branding.

You think so? I thought the paper read like Fear of Freedom or something Nietzeche would write, since the idea of Toyota exploiting current trends and contrasting it with narcissism on the college campus seems to ironic in its effect at generating the idea of a different, backwards social human.