I must say that in some ways, Honda only have themselves to blame for lack of early success in the automotive field. I clearly remember the pre-'82 Civics were rust buckets and in Hong Kong, the only way to get rid of a Civic was to take the licence plates off after parking the thing in the streets at night. Otherwise dumping it cost lots of money. That gave Honda a very bad reputation especially when the Toyotas had a very good reputation against rust.
Now we have the BAR debacle where after zillions was spent, and a WDC hired to drive the HondaBar, the achievements always depended on many top cars dropping out. Without checking the records, I am willing to bet that no BAR has ever scored points unless the cars in front of it dropped out with mechanical problems or crashed. I do not remember a HondaBAR ever contesting a podium place right from the start off a race and getting onto the podium as a result. Now, with all that money and good drivers, that is a lamentable record of success.
I say that if Toyota is willing to spend money big time to produce a half decent car to compete with the top three, then go for it. I'm looking forward to it. So far, I think BAR is spending more per year than Toyota.
Finally, there was this Japanese lady who went to see an optometrist; after the examination, he said to her: "Mrs. Fujimoto, you have a cataract". "No, no!" she replied, "I have a Toyota!!"
Valve