More likely the Toyota execs thought back to the early 90's when "decent JDM" stuff was imported here and failed dismally due to their high sticker price. ST205 GT4 and Nissan R32 GTR are two very good example - awesome cars, highly desirable, but a sales disaster. The Australian buying public simply won't fork out that sort of money for what they perceive as cheap Japanese cars.
The R32 and ST205's were overpriced. If Nissan and Toyota were not greedy and had them at a reasonable price then they would have sold more.
For every failure there is a success. Toyota sold the Cressidas here for years and did very well because the asking price was realistic. It seems that all that is too hard now.
The Australian public can be bloody stupid. They 'apparently' won't fork out "that sort of money" for Japanese cars yet willingly fork out big $$ for ANY european car, even if it is a shitty Alfa/Saab/Volvo/Peugeot with ugly styling, flawed dynamics/quality and questionable resale.
Mon, 06 June 2005 03:41
