Toyota builds cars with average attributes for average people. Average attributes as in staid handling, drab styling, bland interior, and lots of Brady Bunch wholesome goodness. Not for me.
For years, Honda was different. Cars handled better, there is more attention paid to driver enjoyment rather than passenger enjoyment. The Civic is styled far sportier than the Corolla, and Honda had a death grip on the youth market.
All that appears to be changing. The new Accord looks bloated and ugly. The Civic makes do with the smallest sized engine in the entire class, and not even aggressively styled new lights and front lip spoiler can distract on-lookers from its overall frumpy body proportions. Honda has lost it's differentiation from Toyota in many ways and has just experienced a 20% drop in Accord sales barely second year into a new generation.
Mazda is different. So is Nissan. And for being different, Mazda and Nissan may not become mass-appeal car brands like Toyota or Honda. But with quality and reliability to back-up its spicy personality, along with a VIN number that starts with a J, Mazda3 is the car for me, more so than any sub-20K Toyota or Honda that's currently on the market.
Think the new Scion is different? In some ways it is. Think it will catapult Toyota's share of the youth market? I have my doubts. With all the glitzy advertisement of 20-somethings in jeans, satin shirts and goatees, the old gray-haired business suits still show through in the details. Just look at the so called colors for the tC, such a fine palette for the Avalon.
Doesn't really matter. Everybody copies everybody. I like the styling for the most part, but I'm not crazy about the front end.
