The idea that Toyota, with all their resources, couldn't possibly conceivably produce their own engine for this car without it being utterly cost-prohibitive makes me shake my head. So much I get dizzy.
Was it easier to do it this way? Absolutely. Was it the only realistic way to make it happen? I aint buyin' that one.
Well it's not your area of expertise, so I understand why you don't get it. But an engine program (particularly a high performance engine like this), from scratch, is anywhere from $300 million to $1 billion US. That includes the design (of course), all the testing, emission testing certification (which sucks), re-tooling for existing line...if it's a flex line. If not a flex line, you might need a brand new manufacturing plant for that engine. Now this isn't a huge deal if it's going to be spread out over several car models or become the corporate engine. But for a single car? Non starter. To give you an idea of manufacturing costs, it cost Toyota $500 million for the V8 found in the LS series...and that was 25 years ago. GM...who I think we can all agree are experts in V8 manufacturing...spent $1 BILLION PLUS just updating/modernizing their already formidable and
existing V8 program. $1 billion...on a program that already existed.
So yea...it costs lots and lots of cheddar.
You'd probably not believe me if I told you how much it cost for a single mold for a headlight or tailight. I once worked on a lense for a navigation buoy...the kind you see flashing in a lake or river? $1 million......20 years ago.
