At least they’re getting rid of the ugly version. The sedan has always been much better looking.

Don’t tell that to BMW. Please! Toyota just not have a exciting coupe so the market does not exist.

does bmw have a 5 series coupe?

Good, get that Toyota junk the hell out of a segment that they don’t care about, so the new Accord Coupe and Altima Coupe and have successful product runs.

whatever u say toyota

With the Pontiac G6 and Chevy MonteCarlo flying off dealers lots, it is pretty easy to say the coupe market is far from dead. It just looks like ailing Toyota can’t handle the pressure when it comes to competing. The General is just too strong.

Btw, the Solara and the Camry in general are non-existant in Michigan. All the ones that are left that are surprisingly (read below) still running are moving targets of vandals and import haters. So it seems Toyota is losing ground and fast.

Just yesterday, I passed a girl with a new Solara. She was sitting on the side of the 405 here in Cali with the hood up and smoke blowing everywhere. She was pissed, you could tell. But I thought nothing of it. So when I got to my destination to meet with my clients, I hear in the background that the receptionist was running late because she was having car touble. Sure as ****, after my 3 hour meeting, who comes waltzing in, but the receptionist. I overheard her saying that she was at the dealer trading her car (with some colorful language). So when she was done with her conversation, I went up to her and asked her about her car trouble. Sure as ****, she told me she had this POS Solara that was always breaking down on her, had tranny issues, electronics failing, steering failure and the convertible top was broken. But this morning she said the engine just caught fire for no reason and it was the final straw, she was dumping it. I asked her what she bought and she said she was looking to getting one of those sweet new G6 convertibles. I told her she was making a good choice and she couldn’t believe all the positive things I had to say about the car and GM in General. When I told her how problematic and unreliable Toyotas really were, she told me “I had to find out for myself, never again”

Surprise, surprise.

LoL this is coming from Toyota, the ones who braught us the Solara? Is that their idea of a mid-size coupe? Maybe THEY think the segment isn’t doing well, they should speak for themselves. Others are doing well. Honda’s Accord coupe in the past couple years has been a hit, and so has Pontiac’s G6 and so on. Just because they haven’t had much success with that doesn’t mean everyone is having the same luck with them.
My mother has an ‘05 Solara and I believe it is THE ugliest mid-size coupe on the road.
But yeah, I like it how since they aren’t doing well in something, they automatically think it must be the type of vehicle.

the solora never sold anyways

more like the Toyota Solara is god-awfully hideous looking.

the new Accord Coupe / Altima Coupe / G6 Coupe are all massively better looking than the Solara. the Solara is really one of the most disgusting designed cars i have seen in a very long time.

i think that is the real problem.

sorry for the rant, Toyota just pisses me off sometimes with their “know it all” attitude.

Andre— precisely what i was thinking.

yournamehere..

The 5 series is a step above the accord in size. its more in tune size to a maxima or avalon. the accord/camry/G6/altima are moreinline with teh 3 series.

THIS JUST IN!!!
Pontiac has just announced that they have ceased production on the Pontiac Aztek because they feel that there is no demand in the “Mid-size Crossover SUV” segment. heh

Whenever you post, GM4ever, you make me not want to be associated with GM. Not GM’s products, mind you, but *you*.
How happy would GM be with their number one fan if they knew you were driving potential sales away? Not very, I imagine.

Let’s face it, the Solara is not a great car. I’ve driven it several times. It’s underpowered, clumsy(handling), unresponsive(steering), nose heavy, overprice, and has more blind spots than a Lamborghini Countach. Toyota, try again.

—–>No DUUUHH “YourNameHere”, the coupe version of the 5-series is the 6-series……..

Hey Andre Neves, tell your mom to bring her SOlara to Michigan and let us decorate it for her She’ll wish she had a G6 afterwards!

I think that’s GM4evers plan, little do we know he is actually being paid off by Toyota to drive business away from GM. This is how Toyota plans to get those sales in this year to pass GM, lol. Doubt they need much help though. I was just thinking about this segment though. Why don’t you see more two door coupes? Dodge doesn’t have any. I know Ford has the mustang, but do they have anything else? Chevy has my Monte C, but don’t know how much longer. Doesn’t seem like there are a lot of choices in an affordable two door coupe.

Sorry Toyota, you just made a terrible, terrible car in the current (hopefully dead soon) Solara. The segment isn’t nearly gone, but you need to go back to the drawing board on this one (just look at how the new accord coupe puts it to shame…) Haha, good one André

I was driving my ‘81 Chevy Citation (X-11 baby!) the other day and happened upon the following cars on the side of the road: 1932 Bugatti Royale, 1957 Mercedes Benz 300SL, every BMW ever made, 1962 Toyota Crown, every Ford model T that ever rolled out of the assembly line, a Cizeta Moroder V16, a gaggle of new Accords and a Renault 4CV. You know what they all had in common? They all had their hoods up and smoke was bellowing from the engine compartment. GM rules!!

Should read:

Toyota: “We suck at this segment, so it must be a dying one, just like diesel vehicles.”

Just smoke? Did they eventually all blow up? What am I saying, of course they did.

gmnum4ever – hahahahahahaha…you are hilarious…so bad, but very hilarious…

Oh no! How are they going to artificially prop up their Camry sales figures in order to project record sales?!?

Toyota, the segment isn’t disappearing, your product is just bland. Now bad, mind you, just a bit bland and way too feminine.

you know, I don’t think that the old generation solara looks bad… and it sold very well. But this one that’s been out for a few years is bad. Although, I really like the interior.

Toyota just didn’t understand the market, and marketed to the wrong segment. the lack of a manual transmission on the v6 for many years helped deter more customers.
Then again, they have the TC. why have the TC and the solara.

andre neves.
great comparison haha

yo GM. you ever heard about those tests they did with the toyota pickups? you know the ones where they dropped them off a pier into the water, left em there for a while took them out and drove them home? yeah. id like to see a chevy do that. your an imbecile.

yeah, either drop the solara or make a “big” tC to replace it.

What he meant was “there is no market for bland, ugly, appliance-like coupes”.

Admittedly, the coupe market is tough, but when you come to play with a great product, the’ll sell. I don’t see Ford or BMW complaining about the sales of the Mustang or 3-series. I think they saw that Accord and said “jeez, there is no way we can make ANYTHING cool off the Camry.” Their products are good, no doubt, but man are they dull, and frankly leaning toward ugly. That truck is butt-ugly too.

Plus…did ya’ll hear about their latest recall of 1/2 million trucks for faulty ball joints? Didn’t think so, as their recalls NEVER make the front page like the Domestics. If this were the Chevy truck, it would be on every newscast and Dateline, and Good Morning America and this forum. I am pretty sick of that bias, frankly, and it makes me resent Toyota. Well, that and their stupid Hybrid commercials that imply they are saving the earth. Do you know the Prius emits more harmful emissions than the Focus PZEV and Sentra ZEV?

The Prius emits harmful smug
haha

hey golf, everyone makes mistakes. it just so happens that domestic brands, generally speaking, make MORE than toyota. One of toyotas biggest selling points is that they refuse to die. a friend of mine has an 87 tercel with just over 400k on it, with no major work, just tune ups. american garbage doesnt even come close

Lol. Gm4ever is pure comedy. I’m starting to consider that maybe he IS a paid shill.

In any case, I saw no less than 86.532 GM vehicles (with a standard deviation of 0.933) on the freeway when suddenly their axles flew off and the drivers were all simultaneously ejected out of their vehicles. It was like Cirque du Soleil: Rush Hour. It was awesome.

I actually liked the Solara even though I generally don’t like Toyota

could this be toyotas way of making room for the next Supra?

something that toyota has always done is evolve there products, making changes where they need to be made, and having better product afterward. for them to drop out of a segment means something is going to happen.

Booby_Forkman,
The only “garbage” I see here is your uneducated opinion that nobody cares about. I can tell your not an “enthusiast. Enthusiasts are open minded unlike you.

Booby hate to disappoint ya but my brother and his wife had a 93 Sunbird and a 91 Cavalier both with well over 300k with no work besides maintenance! Sunbird died when she was t-boned in the drivers door in a 55mph intersection (no injuries!), and they sold Cavalier to my friend to get a newer car, both cars ran perfect when they got rid of them. I personally have had many domestics with out any problems, besides a radiator in my S10 going out around 145k miles, and a handful of other minor things. American cars are great, sorry your too ignorant to see that. Oh by the way, my other brother owned a 91 CRX that had to have four transmissions and a alternator that gave out almost monthly. So I guess all Japanese cars suck, blah blah blah, grow up.

Why cant there be more people like Andre and Piablo on here rather than the people like GM4ever and Booby_Forkman?

I removed the door panel on my Pontiac to repair the window regulator to find that not only was it a prehistoric pulley system, GM decided to abandon the so-called “wheel” and just run the steel cable around a plastic groove. Repeated use of course caused the groove to be burned away, which basically disassembled the regulator and wound the cable up inside, destroying the motor.

Even the ****ty aftermarket part from China that I bought to replace it had a damn wheel. Congratulations, GM. You are professional grade (TM).

Hey Booby forkman, come on over to Michigan sometime. Your Toyota would be like an exotic over here, especially a Toyota that is still kicking after its first oil change. 400k? Toyotas don’t last that long. 4k? Yeah, now that I can believe and it should be time to trade that POS on a real car like a Chevy or other GM. Toyotas have been **** for years, 1987 was how long ago?

Oh, and on the way to work I saw a GMC Yukon and a Chevy Tahoe veer across traffic and slam into eachother, exploding in a huge fireball. It was as if the laws of nature compelled them to annihlate eachother, like matter and anti-matter.

“Hey Booby forkman, come on over to Michigan sometime. Your Toyota would be like an exotic over here”

Holy ****, he said something that makes sense.

^ Haha- so the Tahoe is the Yukon’s anti-particle, and they annihilated? Sweet, so now if the rest just do that… the world would be a better place (or it would blow up)

wow, talk about hubris. The market is bad because they can’t make anything that works in it? Please. I’m sure that they have the same data as Nissan and Nissan is entering that market for the first time.

I pray that this is not a portent of the future when Toyoa takes over GM. They’ll sit on the mountaintop denouncing market segments because they can’t compete in them. As a matter of fact; their recent rhetoric on hybrids vs diesel; CVT transmissions vs 7+ speed transmissions , seems like we’re already there.

Toyota has lost its luster. Recalls (that they convenient try to defer to problems in the Indiana plant), bland styling and weak engines suddenly make buying a Toyota just about the same as buying domestic.

I personally believe that the entire mid-size FWD coupe/sedan segment should die. The cars are generally large, ugly, slow, heavy and are bewildered with a poor weight distribution, thus making them handle like ox carts on square wheels. A midsize AWD(Subaru Legacy) or a RWD midsize car are the ways to go.

My dad has a Solara convertible and it is a swell car for pops down is south Florida; he doesn’t care about cars so it’s ideal.

Never underestimate Toyota, ever.

Endurancevm^^^ I have a Legacy GT and it does not handle like an ox cart; it handles like a real sporty speed boat.

I’ll give you that they maybe large(prefer that), handle like poop and the slow part(sorta). But I could never be seen in a Subaru, I find them to be some of the worst looking cars on the road. I hate the Solara, it looks like ass, and not the cute teenage cheerleader ass.

the problem is the thing is just to big, just like the monte carlo. ppl that need a car this big, buy it because they need the room for ppl. ppl getting in the back seat like 2 extra doors. People are not buying mustangs for family cars, the tC is not a family car. i really think this is a way for toyota to make room for the next Supra.

Endurancevm…

I agree with you totally… FWD was decent (liveable, not desirable) when cars were weighing 2500lbs, but after they pass the 3000 pound mark, they should atutomatically be AWD or RWD…

Toyota needs to do some more research… To say no one wants a midsize coupe is ignorant…it just needs the right chassis… Look at the G35 coupe… For expensive as it is, I see a lot of them… Just imagine if they were cheaper… No one wants a FWD midsize coupe, that’s what Toyota needs to understand… They could capitalize on a largely untapped segment of automobiles… People want an affordable, Light (under 3000 lbs), RWD Coupe with back seats (think 240sx…). I hear it all the time… But some reason the industry is lagging… I hear excuses like “only enthusiasts want a RWD coupe”. Well, that maybe true, but what’s wrong with that? There are A LOT of enthusiasts in this world… go to cardomain.com to get an idea of how many enthusiasts are out there… Google (brand name) forum… And when you think that’s alot, just remember, it’s only a fraction of the total number of enthusiasts out there… Enthusiasts are like “instant demand” for a properly built car… Enthusiasts swarm to great cars… Then they spread the word… Then the regular joe Shmoe goes to buy the great car cause an enthusiast told him it was a great car…

It’s not a hard formula, but a lot of auto makers just can’t get it right… They use excuses like, it’s more expensive to build a nice car than it is to make a cookie cutter… They can’t see past the instant dollar signs… They’re blinded by numbers… What they don’t realize is a proper sports car (often a coupe) becomes a big shining pendant of Identity for the brand. When a company has a bad ass sports car, brand equity increases dramatically… Every brand needs a halo car, then the rest of the vehicles are influenced by that and so on… Toyota does not have one… They are becoming known as the sterile, beige, boring automopliance… watch them sink.

Well, maybe if these midsize fwd coupes were actually attractive, then you will see growth in the segment.

I have a 2002 MC, I’m single no kids etc. I bought it because I wanted a two door car, something I like the looks of, Competition Yellow paint, it has a little pep though I wish they offered the SC than, reliable, and the price was decent, I got it even cheaper because I worked for the place. Oh and I don’t want something the size of a Neon, I like a bigger car. There is a market for two doors, but it is sorta a niche segment I guess. I doubt even a “properly built” two door would sell as well as you think. I agree with moving things to RWD or AWD! And a lighter car is always better.

I always called the Solara the “6-series Beta.”

Yeah sorry the god damn solara is even uglier than the aztek, maybe thats why the market for such cars has dropped off. Toyota, you style your cars, including the solara, for middle aged women. The majority of buyers for such coupes is men, and when they look at your chickmobile-solara they turn to the accord, or another body style. Now that the altima coupe is on its way, i assure you it will sell like hotcakes as i may just go get one myself. Its a male-tailored car, and its the kind of car that manufacturers need for this “gen-y” segment. You finally got something right with scion in the form of the tC. Sorry the only people who consider a solara are girls. THEY arent the ones mainly looking for a midsize-coupe bodystyle. Style a replacement much more aggressively, much more classy looking, but with some kind of a mean face. Either that or drop out like you planned, but dont give us another Solara.

“Our sense is that the midsize coupe segment continues to be a deteriorating segment,” Lentz said… yes, for them with a car like that.

Well, Toyota is going ot seel a ok looking 3 door hatch for the next gen Corolla in Canada, but not USA(from what i heard) because they think that hatches don’t sell, yet, their Scion tC sold over 150,000 units from 05 and 06.
That’s a lot of 3 doors(avg of over 75,000 units per year sold, and Mazda 3 sold 92,000 avg, with sedan and 5 door hatch: 2 versions!).
Toyota makes little sense, at times.

I was on a chat @ Edmunds wed, 9-10 EST,with Ian Beavis, mareting mgr for Kia USA. I asked if they were going to bring a Optima Coupe to markey in a few years, and he basically said they were discussing that just recently(smething like this..ps, don’t laugh too hard, Optiam cmae in 3rd out of 6 cars, in a C&D shootout… 1was Accord, 2 was altima, 3 was Optima, 4 Aura, 5 camry, 6 Sebring…Optima has been praised for everything but 0-60 times, and even those aren’t “white knuckle” ordeals).

You have Altima Coupe coming out, G6, Accord Coupe, and possibly(1-2 years) a Optima Coupe.
Yeah, the market’s dead! LOL!
roll-eyes.

The Solara was kind of bland, and COST too much for what you got!

just a test, sorry guys.

just a test, sorry guys.puters acting up

Toyota just never made anything that will fly very long in this segment. They make great family cars and whatnot, but they never made a particularly good mid-sized coupe… there was the Celica and the Supra at their times but…

Anyway, Everyone says the mid-sized coupe segment is dying at one point or another, then FORD comes along with a new mis-sized mustang and GM and DCX are hot to follow. If you got deep pockets, go Euro.

Toyota can play in the fields they want but don’t cry sour grapes just because they haven’t come out with anything in a segment that works out. They could have made something of the Celica when they were steadily up-sizing it, before turning it into a cute, spaceship looking, Integra wanna-be.

I’ve never been a Toyota fan but now I have even less reason to be sympathetic with them.

Couldn’t sell their product so they’re whining. Not typical of Toyota but a bad response for their disappointment.

Hahaha…excellent. Toy Ota, leave this market to the big boys, you’re too busy recalling your vehicles and fighting off lawsuits anyway.

“The only “garbage” I see here is your uneducated opinion that nobody cares about. I can tell your not an “enthusiast. Enthusiasts are open minded unlike you.
Comment by Andre Neves”

I strongly agree with you. Why there is always someone trying to make this forum look idiot?

oswald,

I actually believe the new Tundra will do extremely well compared with the previous years. I think the current price of fuel will finally change the mind of those who were Ford/Chevy/GMC/Dodge loyalists when it comes to pickups. Especially with a 381HP V8 that only asks for a 16/20 MPG EPA. Interior comfort and quality looks promising according to several reviews that i’ve read. The ‘07 Tundra looks like a promising all-around package. You just seem upset that the Japanese are finally catching up to the Americans in their own game.
BTW, the control knobs are made that way so you can use them more easily when wearing thick working gloves. But why would you notice that, your too busy acting stupid and calling them a bunch of dip****s because you don’t know any better. Grow up.

Bring back the Toyota of the early ’90’s.

381HP V8 that only asks for a 16/20 MPG EPA, it’s hard to argue with that. Not bad Toyota. It’s better mileage than my Wrangler in a vehicle 2 times the size. I’d like to see one of these Tundra’s in person to get a feel for it. While I’ve seen plenty of Toyota faults dealing with some of them in a fleet, for the most part, they are mechanically bulletproof. It was rare one went down for a head gasket or tranny, etc. It was always stupid stuff like window regulators, broken door handles, wornout suspension bushings, or what could be considered “normal wear”. Those 3.0V6 motors they had were tough as nails so long as the valves were properly shimmed and timing belts changed. But, as far as the forum topic Solara’s death, no loss. It was an ugly car, and I’m glad it’s gone. I think what Toyota needs to realize is the FWD midsize coupe market is dying, the RWD and AWD coupe market will always be stronger. So, Toyota, go build an attractive RWD coupe, and you’ll see sales return.

Does this include the Celica?

Celica and MR2 were both killed off at the end of 2005.

Unfortunately, for TOYOTA, I think their “family car” approach to almost every market is what caused the Solara to slump and fail. Think sporty, think “sports car”-like, and you get cars like the Accord Coupe, G6 Coupe and so on.

Personally, I think the Solara was, like the Thunderbird with FORD, the wrong car for the division. If TOYOTA sold the Solara as a Lexus, a coupe version of the ES, It could have worked out much better. Like wise, for those who care, the Thunderbird would have worked better (if at all) as a Lincoln.

I don’t see the FWD mid-sized coupe segment dying out, but growing up and reorganizing, as the youth racer and sport compact crowd grows up they will inevitably want a larger car that still reflects their youthful wants. Honda I think sees that as does Nissan, Mazda could easily follow suit (MX-6 anyone?). American tastes may eventually rule out FWD in the long run but until then, as it is said, “Get with the program or get lost”.

I remember a car called the Cressida. It was like a Camry, but less a toy and more of an actual sedan with a proper rear drive engine. Oh, and in Japan they offered a couple of turbocharged versions all the way into the 2000MY.

It was still a four door family sedan but it also had a good rear drive chassis and an optional turbo engine– with an automatic.

It really doesn’t seem that hard for them to offer a sedan like this in a Toyota package, especially since as a company they are PROFITING so much they should be able to afford to sell interesting cars for a change.

The Cressida and the Corona were my two fav cars of all time from Toyota. If I remember correctly, it was the Corona that offered the first all digital instrument panel. That was a big thing in the 80’s.

“Toyota says midsize coupe segment disappearing”

Hopefully this will be just the start of Toyotas eventual exit from this country.

^ I concur.

To echo GM: “this is our country”. And if you watch that Chevy commercial carefully, you can catch a glimpse of the mushroom cloud somewhere between the Vietnam and WTC ground zero scenes–just so all you foreign car companies know…

Toyota is going down! Might as well pack it up and go back to Japan.

Just admit you don’t like Imports and shut up already.

Deantj,

Since you like Imports, try to use that singular working brain cell, that hasn’t been wrecked with what ever it is you smoke, drink, and/or inject, and understand I probably wasn’t referring to you. You stopped being funny or even remotely amusing the instant you used a single swear word since like most fools you just can’t express yourself effectively. Must be compensating for something… based on your ranting Most of us can guess what.

Also, My alias “Blakkar”… TRY READING IT YOU DAMNED DEGENERATE APE! Blak… kar… Black car…

Not so clever an ass-brain could miss it but apparently one did.

deantj, don’t bring race or ethnicity into this. grow up.