MatizNiels

This is really clever. I'm sure you can use the lights from an old E-class as spare. Why didn't any other car maker outside of China think of this?

Buying inferior foreign-designed products. What a legacy.

Yes. I'm also glad they are choosing to consider the whole world marked instead of having the national socialistic stigma we see in most other countries. But what makes you think the products are designed outside of USA? I'm pretty sure the DTS was designed in USA and it is not inferior when you only consider home marked competitors.

Yes. Now it is official that the GP is gone this year. A shame because it is one of my favorites.

The NASCAR case was against Bill Davis. To say it was Toyota who stole the plans for the prototype would be wrong. I can't say if any Toyota employee knew about Mr. Davis' affairs, but I doubt anything you are able to find out about it will change your point of view.

I wonder if I will become like you if the Chinese car makers enter motorsports. I'm fine with it. I just had to find out why you wrote that kind of posts in the other thread.

Peace.

I'm going to see what the court decides. There is this old saying: "Innocent until proven othervise".

FIA has announced that there are no plans for removing Spa from the race callendar.

BTW. See comment about auto generated replies.

That case has been under its way for years now. You can even in the link you provided read that: "A Cologne court that specialises in economic crime will hear the case but no trial date has yet been se".

And yet you say Toyota cheats! That's so far fetched that I didn't even consider that conclusion from you part, hence why I mentioned the restrictor problem - this is the only place where you can claim they have been cheating.

I didn't say that you have posted about this specific incident, I simply made the mistake to think that you used facts to back up your claims. I'm sorry for that baseless assumption.

The only place where I can see F1 being "in deep doo doo this year" is in USA where Michelin has taken blame for the scandal last year.

I can see that I have to point out Toyota is not Michelin. Toyota is not to blame for the scandal in USA. Got it?

F1 has increased its popularity last season because a single team isn't dominating anymore. We saw a lot of exciting fights mainly between Renault and McLaren, and even teams like Red Bull, Toyota and Ferrari sometimes had a chance to play with the new big guys. This is what fans of F1 missed before last season, and this is what we hope to see again this year. No team is trying to ruin that.

(PS. Do I really have to back this up with links to people saying the same, but whose integritation apparently is higher because they have published it on the net?)

You can hope for some strict safety standards which would hinder Chinese cars from the market.

We all remember the Landwind. They had to make it weight more than 2500kg in order to bypass European safety standards. I hope USA doesn't have similar loopholes.

The subject was exhausted allready at the first post. All comments could easilly have been auto generated.

IF title contains "toyota"  then:

  Create random comments with the words "ugly" and "bland".

[off_topic]

Yes. Toyota has done much to F1. It is has developed rapidly and was last year competitive with the best. It draws more fans and sponsors to the sport. It is just like all the other teams in F1.

So you say a few members are being investigated and in the other thread you obviously referred to the problem a couple of years ago where both Toyota and BMW Williams were found to have too large air restrictors. They were disqualified and life went on. You can find such things on everyone!

No. I didn't love the sludge problem (It didn't affect me since I have never owned a Toyota), but it seems like the problem is solved and that Toyota has learned a lesson from it.

It's fine with me if you keep having a grudge over it. Just stop those mindless comments about Toyota ruining everything. As you can see, somebody might read them and comment on them.

Also.

Take a look at the plastic panel visible behind the rear window at the right side. Is that supposed to stick to the green metal?

Hey Angry Dad. Do you also think it was the engine sludge that lead to Toyota ruining Formula 1?

LED taillights are not that important. They often end up with weird bee-cube holed designs. Even the little Volkswagen Polo has them!

I edited my post to cover it up

In other news in Europe, Toyota's partner Peugeot will likely allow Toyota to use some of its platform such as the very Epsilon-like platform used by the 407 and the very Chi-like platform currently used by the 607. What does this mean? That the the next gen Yaris and Corolla will get handling and suspension help from the French. More interesting is the fact that these euro-platforms will lead to Toyota finally having a Camry and an Avalon that have good handling.

The 2012 Camry,ES, & Rav4 will likely be on the 407-platform. The next Avalon, Highlander, Sienna, and possilbly the next Tacoma will likely be on the 607-platfrom. This will mean several things. GM must be more capable than Toyota to deliver great product accross the board. Toyota will have an Avalon that can match the Chi and P40 sedans from GM and Ford. By then a Toyota Avalon V-8 doesn't seem farfetched.

Say what?

You need to put a whole lot of "IMO" into that text!

The Yaris is smaller internally as well, believe me. You can't cut 3-4" from the wheelbase and not lose some interior room, no matter how much smaller you make front and rear overhangs. The impression of size matters as well and these new European cars are 7-9" longer than the Yaris, and that really is a different size class. Along with the Suzuki Swift the Yaris occupies a definite niche in the European market, and the European makes are all keeping their smaller previous-gen models in production alongside their larger successors.

The Yaris is not smaller internally, believe me! I have been in most of these cars.

The "A-segment" city car from Toyota is named Aygo. The Yaris is one of the smaller superminis, but it is still a supermini, or "B-segment" as you like.

Would you also classify Peugeot 1007 in the "A-segment"?

Try to go from a Yaris to a Hyundai Accent - the Yaris's interior actually feels larger although the Accent is clasified as a small family car (C-segment)!

Funny how I forgot about the Fiat Stilo. That car has sold so poorly that I hardly ever see it.

The 206 it succeeds is an established model, one of Europe's most popular. This new larger 207 should be a real compact, like the Fiat Grande Punto and Renault Clio a much bigger car. Toyota's new Yaris (barely in the B-segment) once again manages to be a generation behind. These new Europeans make buying a more expensive Corolla hatch a really dumb idea.

Car    Wheelbase Length  Width Height
Yaris    96.9    150.0   66.7  60.0
Clio    101.4    156.9   67.2  58.8
Rio      98.4    157.1   66.7  57.9
Punto    98.8    158.7   66.4  58.7
207     100.0    158.7   67.7  58.0

All those cars have comparable interior space. The Yaris is shorter because of the front and a smaller length of the trunk. The rear seats can be pushed forwards to compensate for that.

The Euro Corolla competes with the Peugeot 307, Renault Megane and Fiat Bravo if we keep it to the brands you mention. It also has one of the smallest trunks, but is just as large in the cabin as the others. The only 'dumb' thing about buying it is that a new generation is on its way.

(Kia is rarely compared to these because it is a discount brand like Chevrolet in Europe)

F1 derived? It might use some ideas from the F1 engine like BMW M5's engine, but it will be far from derived. The F1 engines are 3.0 liter with just less than 1000HP (Honda roumered having more than 1000 in their special Suzuka engine) and only lasts for about 800km. One engine alone costs millions to make. Where do you have those crazy rumours from? And that black car is the Toyota Crown! ~Sigh!~

I wasn't suggesting that they tried to copy the neon or anything, just some resemblance.  Would be interested to see that matiz pic, though.

[post="57357"][/post]

With the "No" I only meant that I have never seen a Neon in person (We don't get them around here), but here is a pic of a Matiz:



(Not my Matiz though)

Anyone else catching a hint of Neon from those headlights?

[post="57174"][/post]

No. It is a Chevrolet Matiz copy - the doors are even interchangable!

Take a look at the last gen. Matiz and you will not believe how blatant it is. (I will soon have one in my signature - I just have to figure out how to do it...)

Just the most ill-informed, non-factual piece of crap I have ever read....a mere amateur.  This is not unusual...have you ever read some of the Euro auto rags?......amazing how stupid some of the so-called auto journalists are.  They haven't a clue about North American cars or our marketplace and don't really want to know.  They still look at us as the colonies.  Eurotrash!

[post="42348"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

Yep. Plenty, bu I haven't met any of that kind of articles you mention. Can you please come with examples. You are after all calling a whole lot of people idiots.

I, robot was an Audi commercial, Men In Black II was Mercedes commercial, Matrix Reloaded an Cadillac commercial and so on. The only Lexus commercial I have seen was Minority Report, but at least you only saw the logo of the car in a snip of a second in the end of the movie. Far less than in the other ones mentioned above, and nothing is settled yet about the new Bond movie.

As bad as crap like the new Yaris is, this and IS 300 really demonstrate that sometimes you can't rip Toyota.  If GM were only this thorough.  And we all wonder why GM and Ford are going in the tank with their 6 year old Escapes, pushrod Equinoxes and the like.  The Equinox interior was already worse than a Kia Rio in terms of interior plastics....now look at how bad it is compared to this thing.

As bad as crap? So you have tried it allready?
Sorry, but I can't seem to figure out what you are talking about. You can't rip Toyota because something is bad as crap but someone else will die because of interior plastic?

:blink:

"those geeky bicycles with a tiny electric motor attached to the rear wheel."

Geeky is the perfect word. The Velo Solex:


:D

Back to topic.
Why would you want to learn the dealers what to say about the Prius? I will say pretty much any other mid size would be more interesting. The Prius is still a niche vehicle. Learn the facts about the Camry and Accord instead. They are the ones worth taking sales from.

It's because it isn't a hybrid. A Volkswagen Lupo 3L does exactly the same. It is a cheap way to improve fuel economy, but the main improvement is with emissions (Just like hybrids). Stop-and-go automatic is a genious way to improve emissions at stop-lights and car jams. And the generator is also quite nice to have when there's a power shortage. GM only made the mistake to call it a hybrid. And apparently has to hear for it every time it is brought up.

We have had hybrid buses for many years now and even Toyota makes hybrid buses. On Iceland Mercedes even has hydrogen buses! There have been prototypes of natural gas hybrid buses that used regenerative brakes (mostly using hydralics) dating back to the early '80s (Leyland-DAB and Volvo B10M60/AA).

Correct. But that should still not be an excuse for making it so unsafe that it only receives 3 stars at Euroncap and tips over in the infamous moose test.

Well. If it has to be cheap...



The rims touched the ground so the car tipped over just like the first A-class.
It's Renault which makes the Dacia Logan, so what has Germany to do with it?

*Notice the use of the German word uber.

Is "Uber" a German word? Was das Volk über Sprache weiss!