Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesqf
But there are people out here (and not all of us are young and poor) who never have occasion to carry more than one other person. So why should we have our buying choices limited to 4-door sedans?
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We shouldn't. But in most every market, taxes are specifically structured to put people in certain cars. In the US, it's domestic pick-ups (chicken tax... though right now it's pretty useless, since the "imports" have nearly as many factories stateside... and CAFE regs that go by footprint and are more lenient on trucks), in Japan it's Kei cars. And in India, it's sub-4 meter sedans with 1.2 liter engines.
I imagine an S-FR, equipped with a 1.2 turbo, could make a mockery of that tax exemption. Just like Honda did with a local tax exemption for 10 seat vehicles.
They stuck a third row bench into the trunk of the CR-V and all of a sudden had a crossover selling for 2/3rds the price of a RAV4. The government, upon seeing this, realized how stupid the exemption was, and dropped it.
I think the S-FR could open up new markets for Toyota. But again, sports car buyers are such snobs that it probably won't sell in huge numbers.