CMS-GT4":16jtbjm9 said:
After reading that articles, I really start to wonder if this act could have been part of the downfall of the gtfour. They drop out for a long time where people begin rooting for Suby and Mitsu. Perhaps that helps raise thir fandom and over all reducing sales of the gtfour.
Just a thought.
Well I imagine it couldn't have helped, and no doubt they decided that moving from the Celica name to the Corolla was a way for people to forget about the Celica GT4 and focus on the "new" Corolla WRC upon their return to the sport after being banned for a year.
But the reality of it is the GT4 died because of several factors:
- It was a small volume high priced car built to satisfy homologation rules during the time they chose to compete in the WRC.
- Once Toyota made the decision to have TTE leave WRC to concentrate on Le Mans, the only thing that could keep the GT4 alive would be sales, of which there were very little. The Le Mans effort was nothing more than a buildup to their F1 effort to which they are currently fully committed. And without another pseudo-factory group like TTE to run another WRC effort, chances are extremely slim we'll see another turbo4wd rally car from Toyota anytime soon.. (unless of course theres a Subieyota half-breed)
in terms of the US market itself:
- Toyota was gearing up for the launch of the MKIV Supra (which offered TT and more power than a 205 for roughly the same cost) for the same year the 205 wouldve been slated to come to the US.. Offering 2 cars in the same price range for the same market would've been counterproductive, and based on the fact Supra sales were strong its first year (for a sports car) and 185 Alltrac sales didnt even top 100 their last year in 93', it was easy vindication for the beancounters at Toyota about their decision.
- The mid-late 90's also had a shift in the US market which pretty much lead to the death of $30-40k JDM sports cars like the Supra, RX7, 300ZX, and 3000GT.
