Call me a pessimist, but this is why I never get my hopes up about new cars anymore. Every time a new car design comes out, everyone freaks out and expects it to be awesome, but when it hits production it's always watered down, heavy, and boring.

Manufacturers don't make fun, lightweight, sporty cars like the AE86 or 240sx anymore. IMO this is due to safety regulations, model bloat, trying to be "green" by turning everything into a hybrid, the poor economy, etc.

This same thing happened to some degree or another with the CRZ, 370z, Genesis coupe, and so on. Enthusiasts hear about the concept of a simple, light, sporty coupe, get their hopes up, and end up largely disappointed with the heavy/underpowered production model.

I still can't believe people really expected Toyota (of all companies) to suddenly make a cheap, light, nimble sports car again. Have you seen Toyota's other cars recently? Name one that's even remotely sporty. If you ask me, the odds of Toyota suddenly going after sports coupe buyers is about the same as Buick suddenly bringing back the GNX.

Move along folks, nothing to see here.

 

that's the fun in engineering. objective: have a fun to drive light weight sports car while meeting all current and future safety standards. i'd rather be handed that task than a software objective.

yes, i would agree that it is Toyota we are talking about here and that would ring true maybe a year ago but there's a reason to be very optimistic because of one guy, Akio Toyoda...