For the first time since the recession started, Toyota is now losing market share for the YTD as of 5/31: down 39% even as the market overall is down "only" 36.5%. So it hasn't lost much market share as yet, but the loss is significant given the years and years now of steady and occasionally rapid increase in Toyota market share.
And as of May Honda is officially feeling the pinch too, as is Nissan, while the domestics which lost more sales more quickly last year are beginning to even the score.
The big winners? VW and Hyundai, growing market share like crazy since 1-1-08. Especially Hyundai. Oh, and litle Subaru is doing best of all, relatively speaking, which is perhaps good news for Toyota given its ownership stake in little ol' Sube.
I am surprised by Toyota and Honda's erosion in market share, although Honda has an excuse that last May was their best May on record. We'll see if Government Motors and Fiatsler will improve their market positions in the future -- I wouldn't bet on it. Ford should do fine though, if they can avoid burning through all their cash. Hyundai is definitely on a roll, and congrats to Subie too. Somehow, I don't think VW will be able to keep this up unless they improve their poor reputation for reliability.
I don't think Honda's market share has eroded, it is just flat this year, and you're right, they gained a significant portion of the market last year, so they had big shoes to fill this year, so to speak. Apparently May 2008 was the best May they had ever had in the history of the company.
And Toyota's is only down a little this year, but that was with $1500-2000 cash back on Camrys and Corollas, the highest cash incentives Toyota has had on those models in a long long time (I can't recall a Corolla incentive of more than $1000 in the last 20 years, but I could be forgetting something, who knows).
What other tricks can Toyota pull out of its bag to gain back sales?
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Well, there should be a new Sienna on the horizon and a hybrid version would probably help. Also, the third Gen Prius hasn't been on the lots yet and I bet that one will sell like hotcakes, especially with the gas prices creeping up again. They also have the HS on the lexus side for those who want a bit more luxury in the Lexus nameplate for the same price as an econobox Volt is predicted to be...
Whether any of these actually improve sales or just steal sales away from other models, I have no clue.
....Toyota is intentionally giving up marketshare due to the currency situation. We've been told to expect ZERO new Japanese-made vehicles in the 2nd half of the year...excluding the Prius.
This includes all Scions, all Yaris', all 4R's, all Land Cruisers, all FJ's, many if not all Highlanders. IOW...'Plan to live off the Corolla, Camry, RAV, Prius, Tacoma, Sienna, Avalon and a few Tundras, Sequoias and Solaras.'
I can't speak about the Lexus brand.
This strategy is clearly shown in the monthly stats for May sales. Toyota is NOT going to ship extra units into a bad market especially at a currency penalty. I think that the days of chest-thumping when the sales stats come out are all but over.
GM and Chrysler are about to shrink to miniature versions of what they used to be. Ford??? Toyota is shrinking itself. Honda?? Nissan?? Hyundai is growing itself but it's limited by production capacity.
AFAIK yes they did. The only survivors in this entire segment will be the 4Runner in very small numbers and the Wrangler. Explorer gone ( may return as a crossover ) Aspen/Durango gone TrailBlazer/Envoy going Pathfinder going ( may return as a crossover )
This midsized BOF SUV segment is a 'deadman walking' segment. It has no future.
The '09 verision of the FJ Cruiser is shown on Toyota's website, but I do know it will be going away at some point in the near future. I also don't know how many '09s were actually built.
Toyota’s assembly plant in Higashi-Fuji, Japan, was awarded the Platinum Plant Quality Award by J.D. Power & Associates for making vehicles with the fewest defects and malfunctions. The plant, which builds the Lexus SC 430 and Toyota Corolla, averaged just 29 problems for every 100 vehicles built.
J.D. Power released its 2009 Initial Quality Study this week, and for the sake of not repeating ourselves, you can find details on the rankings and procedures here.
Is the Xterra going away, too? It's essentially a Pathfinder with about half a foot taken from the wheelbase. Actually, unless sales are really miserable, I'd think keeping the Pathfinder around would make more sense, since it's based so heavily on the Frontier pickup.
Once upon a time, the domestics had that relationship, too, where the Durango/Dakota were the same basic thing, as were the Blazer/S10, and the Ranger/original Explorer. Must have been pretty cheap to make an SUV and a pickup, when it was from the same platform. In more recent years though, they got away from that.
So what will Toyota do with NUMMI, now that it is burdened with the full costs of keeping it open and running?
GM to end NUMMI deal
The “New GM” that emerges from bankruptcy is shedding another plant--the NUMMI joint venture with Toyota in Northern California.
GM said on Monday that it can’t come to terms with Toyota on a new product for NUMMI to build, so it’s leaving the plant behind in the “Old GM” that will be put to rest in bankruptcy.
Throughout the 25 years of the joint venture, the plant provided GM with Toyota-based products such as the Chevrolet Nova, Geo and Prizm and the Pontiac Vibe, which ends its run in August.
Media reports say Toyota has offered a version of the Prius hybrid to GM, which could be built at NUMMI and would keep the factory busy.
Basically, everything sold as a GM vehicle over the years and built at NUMMI was mechanically a Toyota. But with Toyota abandoning plans for expanding production in the U.S., even to the point of leaving one plant 90% built and non-operational, you have to wonder what they will do with NUMMI.
Certainly it is an important facility in terms of Corolla production, and Tacoma production too although they could probably build a lot more Tacomas at the other plant in Mexico if they wanted to.
The evening news interviewed workers coming out of NUMMI last night, who talked about another meeting coming up this week when the staff will be told what is going to happen. They looked worried.
Of course, Toyota might have seen the writing on the wall several months ago with regard to this, and this might be the source of the rumors that Toyota was planning to start building Priuses at NUMMI. That would be a good way to fully utilize an existing plant while avoiding disruption of the supply of Corollas (and Tacomas). But if Toyota has to buy out GM's share of the plant, I'm not sure this would be the moment they would want to be making such a purchase.
Of course, if all the "old GM" assets are essentially worthless as is expected, maybe the pricetag would be acceptably low.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
I don't believe it does, no. They have been bringing mostly assembled Tacomas from Mexico to NUMMI for finishing from what I can tell, but it is unclear whether they are actually building and finishing some of the Tacomas in Mexico.
What is clear is that Toyota has a substantial investment in the Mexican plant and has asserted more than once that there is room for a lot of growth there.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
In addition to NUMMI they also have three other under-utilized plants in the Midwest; i.e. Princeton, Blue Springs and San Antonio. Something's gotta give. Sales are going to be down 20-25% for the entire industry for quite some time to come. All these plants are not needed.
all those who were concerned about Toyota's supposed huge excess inventories coming into 2009 need no longer worry:
Toyota on track for U.S. output boost
July 2, 2009 - 12:01 am ET
DETROIT (Reuters) -- Toyota Motor Corp. is on track to increase production for the U.S. market by about 65,000 vehicles after truck inventories dipped too low and demand showed signs of stabilizing, executives said on Wednesday
.....In response to the expectation of steadier demand, Toyota has increased planned production of light trucks such as the Sienna minivan, RAV4 SUV, Tacoma small pickup and Tundra full-size pickup as well as the Camry and Corolla passenger cars, Carter said.
Efforts by Toyota to bring down U.S. dealer inventories succeeded in reducing stock to a 40-day supply overall, Carter said.
"That's our target," he said. "But we're a little lighter on the light truck side than we'd like to be."
As an example of that shortfall, Carter said Toyota had just a 20-day supply of RAV4 SUVs at the end of June.
Weren't there some saying Toyota would be forced to hold fire sales all through the year, and would still be left with unsold 2008s at year's end?!
Not so, it would seem. The 2010s are rolling out as scheduled, and Toyota is adjusting production UP to meet its new estimate of 10 million annual sales for the U.S. market.
OTOH, as an example of just one reason why I will never pay for HIDs:
Prius headlamp troubles could dim Toyota brand's reputation
June 30, 2009 - 1:57 pm ET
DETROIT -- Amid the launch of the third-generation Prius hybrid, Toyota Motor Corp. is taking a beating online and in court by owners who charge that some older models of the popular car have faulty headlights that can cost more than $1,000 to replace
.......Owners are upset that their warranties don't cover the HID bulbs, which can cost between $300 and $1,800 -- with labor -- to replace all or part of the light system
YIKES, that's a lot of money! It's unclear from the article whether owners are grousing because their HIDs fail soon after the warranty ha expired, or whether Toyota is refusing to replace them while still under warranty. On the one hand, it is a lightbulb, not usually covered under warranty, while on the other hand it is a heck of a lot of money and a vital component of the car which impacts safety when it burns out. The NHTSA is looking into it.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
for all the folks who debate whether a Japanese car built here is "American" or not:
Toyota's Camry ranks as most ‘American' car
July 6, 2009 - 12:01 am ET
The most “American'' car is the Toyota Camry, according to a study by Cars.com.
The Camry topped the Ford F-150 pickup to place first in the auto information site's annual American-Made Index. The index, in its fourth year, ranks U.S.-assembled vehicles using a formula that includes the percentage, by cost, of their parts made in the United States and Canada as well as their U.S. sales volume.
......Four other vehicles of Japanese origin -- the Honda Odyssey (4th), Toyota Sienna (6th), Toyota Tundra (7th) and Toyota Venza (10th) -- completed the list. The Sienna's 85 percent of parts made in the United States or Canada is the highest of any foreign-brand vehicle.
And in case anyone really thought this was an important debate for the majority of consumers:
But how much do consumers care about a car's origin? In a recent Cars.com survey, 23 percent of respondents said they wanted to buy only American-made cars, Olsen said, while about 10 percent wanted to buy only foreign-made vehicles.
“That means basically two-thirds of the people are saying, ‘I'll buy whatever car is best and most reliable,' ” he said. “It's a big open pool of potential customers.”
.......Owners are upset that their warranties don't cover the HID bulbs, which can cost between $300 and $1,800 -- with labor -- to replace all or part of the light system
Good Lord that's a lot of money for a light bulb! Kinda brings me back down to earth though, to where I feel kinda bad paying $14.99 for a low-beam bulb for the Intrepid when the same thing for a 1979 New Yorker is about $6.99!
I guess these HIDs are run by computer and sometimes the computer burns out along with the bulb.
Ridiculous. There was a time when it was only my respect for the property of others that kept me from just bringing a crowbar along wherever I went and knocking these suckers out. HIDs are a menace, and an extremely expensive one it would seem.
Apparently Toyota has agreed in at least one case to pay for the parts ($1350)but not the labor ($450). If that's the case and the car in question was still under warranty, I would be VERY interested to know the rationale for refusing to pay for the labor.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
I guess HID in a non-lux auto is not a good idea. I believe LED lights such as the ones in the newer audis that looks like eyebrows last a very long time. In the mean time, I'll stick with $34 (a pair) of bulbs at autozone every 5-6 years for my under $25k vehicles.
How come Canada gets a free ride but Mexican factories making auto parts get left out? It shouldn't matter if the part comes from Toluca or Toronto if they are counting "American" parts.
LED will be the way of the future...eventually HID will just be a way to tell when a car was made, like with tailfins or wraparound windows. The eyebrow look could become dated, though.
I've never experienced the hate caused by HIDs, myself.
I've never experienced the hate caused by HIDs, myself.
They are a menace to oncoming drivers. Some are worse than others. I sometimes wish I had a couple million candlepower spot lights mounted on my car to give those blue lighted devils a taste of their own medicine.
When they first came out there were cases of them being stolen out of Lexus and the insurance refusing to cover the cost. I guess it was a simple chore to get them out.
Knock on wood. At 120,000 miles nothing to report here and I'm way way out of warranty. My buddy CARBOT who also posts here just turned in his 2004 for a 2010. He had 246,000 miles on his with nothing to report. Actually I haven't heard anybody come back and complain to me personally since they began to arrive in 2003.
It's certainly an issue but I don't think it's very common if one goes by the level of complaints on PC for example. I'd be pizzed though at a $1500 bill for new lights. It would make me look at the body shop for totalled vehicles with the lights still intact. I'd make an offer to the insurance company if I could.
Congress wrote the bill about 'NA Content' at the behest of the UAW ( and its sister organization the CAW ). At the time there were few if any Mexican plants and they were non-unionized anyway....
Maybe some people are more sensitive to that light than others. It can't be any more of an issue than trucks and SUVs with headlights that aim at eye level to drivers in normal cars, as the larger vehicles don't seem to be required to make any adaptations to their height. It's also a technology that did not originate in the US - and I don't recall it being an issue in Europe, where it was adopted first. I find the fake HIDs to be more annoying, as they are often aimed wrong.
I think the stolen light issue was on ca. 2000 Maximas, one of the first midlevel cars to have HID as a common option.
Really disappointed here today. I own 2 Toyotas and went today expecting to buy a new Toyota....until I was actually shocked at the attitude of the dealer. Very cocky. Seems they have gotten too big for their britches and they acted like they were doing me a favor by selling me one of their cars. I do NOT like Chryslers or GMs but the Toyota dealer really acted as if they are the only act in town now. To make matters worse, they even pulled the act of the manager holding on to my key while the salesman tried to convince me that they were giving me a great deal (very little under MSRP). Shameful.
Really, it is simply that there too many morons in America for HIDs to be responsibly sold. Not to mention too many folks that don't properly maintain their cars. Between the ones that are mis-aimed and all the idiots that just leave their high beams up rather than dim them for oncoming traffic (which is really crippling to your vision when the guy with the brights has HIDs), they should absolutely be made illegal. Don't even get me started on the ignoramuses that are so clueless they aren't even AWARE they have their high beams up.
You should check out how it is when the guy right behind you in your Mercedes sedan is in an Escalade with HIDs. ESPECIALLY if he has failed to lower his high beams. Then make your decision.
I can't wait for LEDs to completely replace these things.
*rant over* Thank you for your indulgence. Needless to say, I'm not crying too many tears for the Prius customers with the HID problem, but word is they are trying to get class action status, so there must be more than just a few of them.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Yeah, definitely try a different dealer like Mcdawgg suggested. There are enough of them around that you could weed out the bad ones. But yeah, I've been there myself. A big reason why I've never owned a Toyota product yet.
Heck, I remember changing a low-beam bulb on my 1988 Buick Park Avenue last year. Apparently, those bulbs last a L-O-N-G time. The bulb I replaced was the original as it was date stamped FEB 88!
Get one of those tactical lights like the ones you would mount on a rifle. Heck, remember when you could buy spotlights to mount on the A-pillars? I haven't seen any on cars outside of police cruisers or cars from the 1950s back.
Oh, man! I remember when my girlfriend and I were foolish enough to visit a Toyota dealer just to see what the hype about the Camry was all about. The car was alright, but the dealership experience was akin to swimming in a shark tank while wearing a bloody meat suit. They pulled the bit where they refused to give her the key to her car back and they deliberately tried to separate us so I couldn't help her. There were like five of their salesmen surrounding her throwing all kinds of confusing terms at her while trying to force me in a corner by a 4Runner. Heck, maybe they were going to try to sell me the SUV while they conned her into a Camry? If we EVER thought of buying a Toyota, we sure as heck won't after this experience.
Just wait a mere 20 years or so and there will be a lot of LEDs out there. So, don't hold your breath....for that or HIDs to become illegal. Too many of them out there.
I wonder if any fuddy-duddys complained likewise when headlights made the switch from the 3-candlepower sealed beams to halogens?
I have a lot more annoyance by dopes, usually in small SUVs like RAV4s and Highlanders before they became obese (gotta remain on thread topic) who drive with their foglights on each time they drive. I live in a city, so I don't encounter high beams very often.
It's when you intend to trade in the car you arrive in: they ask for your keys to check the car out and give it a trade value. Then if the deal sours, sometimes the keys get "lost", at bad dealerships.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
I had that pulled on me once maybe 20 years ago. Would have to be that because my 20 year old daughter was an infant at the time. One "Either give me my keys or let me call the police and straighten it out," got the keys back.
Funny, though. This was before cell phones. How would I have called them?
2015 Mazda 6 Grand Touring, 2014 Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback, 1999 Mazda Miata 2004 Toyota Camry LE, 1999.
Had it happen at a Chrysler Jeep store also before I started buying Toyotas. Old time stuff. Come to a modern store.
However something else was mentioned above that I think bears discussion. Flexibility. Over the last 10 years the buying public has been wooed and tempted and drawn-in by SALE, SALE, SALE....name your price.
I don't know this for certain buy I am a betting man and I would be willing to wager that when the smoke clears from the BK proceedings that buyers will find themselves somewhat shocked by the attitutes from the vehicle makers and dealers.
The reason for the give-away mentality was that volume had to supercede everything. The makers had to have monstrous volumes to cover their unused Fixed Costs and dealers had to dump all the excess inventories that were being shoved down their throats by the D3 and to a lesser extent Toyota.
Now what if the only metric will be profit and minimal inventory. Dealer A: 'Here's the MSRP! There are no incentives from the manufacturer.' Dealer B: 'Here's the MSRP! There are no incentives from the manufacturer.' Dealer C: 'Here's the MSRP! There are no incentives from the manufacturer.'
I would be willing to wager that vehicle makers will cut way back on both incentives and production now that they have little or no Fixed Costs to cover.
The LEDs that will be used will be BRIGHT and likely aimed too high or the high beam left on inadvertently. Nothing will change as the same &*%$# will still be driving.
One "Either give me my keys or let me call the police and straighten it out," got the keys back.
Funny, though. This was before cell phones. How would I have called them?
LOL, that reminds me of something that happened a few years back, when one of the security guards at the Safeway grocery store got a wild burr under his saddle and tried to accuse me of shoplifting. I called the cops on 'em, and said I was being held against my will....essentially, kidnapping!
So, if the car dealer's keeping you there against your will, it's sorta kidnapping too, right? :P
FWIW, years ago when my Dad wanted to get a car, after being car-less since around 1984, we went by the toyota dealer, same place where my uncle bought his '03 Corolla. Almost as soon as we walked in the door, it's almost as if they could smell fresh meat, and the salesmen started circling us like a flock of seagulls around Tippi Hedren a flock of lawyers around an accident victim a school of sharks around a mortally wounded and bleeding Poseidon-era Shelly Winters , well, you get the idea! :P
Thought this might be an interesting story as we were earlier talking about HID headlamps. The first part of the article mentions a fiasco with a taillamp bulb:
By CHIP CUTTER
Associated Press
NEW YORK - When the taillight of Laura Musall's five-year-old Nissan Altima burned out, she hoped to avoid the repair shop by letting her husband replace it at home. It seemed simple enough: Buy a bulb, pop off the cover and make the switch.
But her husband struggled to remove the plastic casing, and when he used a screwdriver to pry it off, it shattered. What came next was even worse. Her Nissan dealer wanted $250 to order a new one.
Musall, a real estate agent from Fishers, Ind., figured "10 bucks, we'd be done."
"But apparently," she said, "it's not a do-it-yourself thing if you don't know what you're doing."
Car owners looking to trim expenses are sidestepping the mechanic and plunging into their own repairs. Or trying to, anyway. Their efforts can backfire, costing more in the end and creating do-it-yourself horror stories.
Mechanics say they've seen it all in recent months, including incorrectly applied brake pads and antifreeze poured into engines.
"A lot of people, they're in dire straits," said Pam Oakes, owner of Pam's Motor City Automotive in Fort Myers, Fla. "They try to do this stuff at home in their driveway."
The results can be frustrating, and sometimes outright dangerous.
Beth Riggs, who lives near Lebanon, Ohio, took her Chevy Trailblazer SUV to a car-savvy neighbor nearby who charged $500 to replace her front and back brakes, far less than the going rates at nearby repair shops.
Later, on a highway ramp, her car suddenly froze up and pulled to the side of the road. The problem? Riggs says her neighbor neglected to put a certain part on a bolt of the wheels, setting off a chain reaction that caused the tires to lock up.
The car had to be towed, and Riggs ended up paying an additional $400 to have it fixed at a suburban Cincinnati auto shop.
While well-intentioned, many people forget that today's cars are vastly more complicated than models made just years ago. Most are so computer-controlled that owners can't spot problems without access to specific tools and data programs, said Dave Striegel, owner of Elizabeth AutoCare in Elizabeth, Pa.
Even jobs that were once simple, such as changing the oil, can take hours to complete now.
"They're not able to do nearly the work that they used to do - it's even going beyond the heads of a lot of technicians who aren't keeping up-to-date," Striegel said.
The urge to cut out the middleman extends to even the wealthy, said Stephen Viscusi, a New York-based author and career consultant. "We feel the need to be frugal and save money."
However, people who try the at-home tinkering are usually out of work or low on cash, said Evan Brodof of Evan's Auto Repair in suburban Cincinnati. Many work as contractors or handymen in another trade and think they can apply those skills to car repair, said Craig Douglas, owner of ASG Automotive in Indianapolis.
"It's those people who have that mindset, 'Hey I can fix this, I can fix that,' " Douglas said. "Bob the Builder-type people."
Auto shops say there's an easy way to save money: Just be upfront about the repairs you've tried at home. Most do-it-yourselfers, perhaps out of sheer embarrassment, play coy when mechanics start asking questions about what went wrong with the car, said Paul Lambdin, owner of Cary Car Care in Cary, N.C.
"Rather than saving themselves time and money by telling us the whole story, they'll just say, 'This doesn't seem to be working.'"
Musall, with the broken taillight, says she's learned her lesson. Her husband won't be working on the car.
"It's all fixed," she said, "and he's not going to do any more car repairs." *
Funny thing to me when they mention oil changes in there. I've reached the point long ago that an oil change is too cheap to have done for me to bother but I've noticed that while my daughter's Camry and my Celica would be a snap to do the oil on, our Accord and Ody would be bears - the filters are pretty well hidden.
Is this a Honda vs. Toyota thing? What's it like on other makes these days?
2015 Mazda 6 Grand Touring, 2014 Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback, 1999 Mazda Miata 2004 Toyota Camry LE, 1999.
Last car i did an oil change on myself was my 1988 Buick Park Avenue. There isn't much clearance, so I had to roll the car up on ramps. Other than that, oil changes on it were a snap.
Anyway, I could already see disaster when the lady with the Altima's husband got a screwdriver to pry the taillamp lens loose. These days, taillamp lenses are usually fastened to the car via umpteen plastic wing nuts hidden behind the trunk lining. I practically had to disassemble the inside of the trunk of my 2002 Cadillac Seville STS to change a bulb. The whole taillamp assembly comes out in one big long piece! I sure do miss the days when a bulb change only required a phillips head screwdriver and took about 30 seconds.
Comments
And as of May Honda is officially feeling the pinch too, as is Nissan, while the domestics which lost more sales more quickly last year are beginning to even the score.
The big winners? VW and Hyundai, growing market share like crazy since 1-1-08. Especially Hyundai. Oh, and litle Subaru is doing best of all, relatively speaking, which is perhaps good news for Toyota given its ownership stake in little ol' Sube.
http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090602/ANA05/906029980/1078-
(registration link)
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
And Toyota's is only down a little this year, but that was with $1500-2000 cash back on Camrys and Corollas, the highest cash incentives Toyota has had on those models in a long long time (I can't recall a Corolla incentive of more than $1000 in the last 20 years, but I could be forgetting something, who knows).
What other tricks can Toyota pull out of its bag to gain back sales?
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Whether any of these actually improve sales or just steal sales away from other models, I have no clue.
This includes all Scions, all Yaris', all 4R's, all Land Cruisers, all FJ's, many if not all Highlanders. IOW...'Plan to live off the Corolla, Camry, RAV, Prius, Tacoma, Sienna, Avalon and a few Tundras, Sequoias and Solaras.'
I can't speak about the Lexus brand.
This strategy is clearly shown in the monthly stats for May sales. Toyota is NOT going to ship extra units into a bad market especially at a currency penalty. I think that the days of chest-thumping when the sales stats come out are all but over.
GM and Chrysler are about to shrink to miniature versions of what they used to be.
Ford???
Toyota is shrinking itself.
Honda?? Nissan??
Hyundai is growing itself but it's limited by production capacity.
Explorer gone ( may return as a crossover )
Aspen/Durango gone
TrailBlazer/Envoy going
Pathfinder going ( may return as a crossover )
This midsized BOF SUV segment is a 'deadman walking' segment. It has no future.
Toyota’s assembly plant in Higashi-Fuji, Japan, was awarded the Platinum Plant Quality Award by J.D. Power & Associates for making vehicles with the fewest defects and malfunctions. The plant, which builds the Lexus SC 430 and Toyota Corolla, averaged just 29 problems for every 100 vehicles built.
J.D. Power released its 2009 Initial Quality Study this week, and for the sake of not repeating ourselves, you can find details on the rankings and procedures here.
Once upon a time, the domestics had that relationship, too, where the Durango/Dakota were the same basic thing, as were the Blazer/S10, and the Ranger/original Explorer. Must have been pretty cheap to make an SUV and a pickup, when it was from the same platform. In more recent years though, they got away from that.
Is the Grand Cherokee going away?
GM to end NUMMI deal
The “New GM” that emerges from bankruptcy is shedding another plant--the NUMMI joint venture with Toyota in Northern California.
GM said on Monday that it can’t come to terms with Toyota on a new product for NUMMI to build, so it’s leaving the plant behind in the “Old GM” that will be put to rest in bankruptcy.
Throughout the 25 years of the joint venture, the plant provided GM with Toyota-based products such as the Chevrolet Nova, Geo and Prizm and the Pontiac Vibe, which ends its run in August.
Media reports say Toyota has offered a version of the Prius hybrid to GM, which could be built at NUMMI and would keep the factory busy.
http://www.autoweek.com/article/20090630/CARNEWS/906309995
Basically, everything sold as a GM vehicle over the years and built at NUMMI was mechanically a Toyota. But with Toyota abandoning plans for expanding production in the U.S., even to the point of leaving one plant 90% built and non-operational, you have to wonder what they will do with NUMMI.
Certainly it is an important facility in terms of Corolla production, and Tacoma production too although they could probably build a lot more Tacomas at the other plant in Mexico if they wanted to.
The evening news interviewed workers coming out of NUMMI last night, who talked about another meeting coming up this week when the staff will be told what is going to happen. They looked worried.
Of course, Toyota might have seen the writing on the wall several months ago with regard to this, and this might be the source of the rumors that Toyota was planning to start building Priuses at NUMMI. That would be a good way to fully utilize an existing plant while avoiding disruption of the supply of Corollas (and Tacomas). But if Toyota has to buy out GM's share of the plant, I'm not sure this would be the moment they would want to be making such a purchase.
Of course, if all the "old GM" assets are essentially worthless as is expected, maybe the pricetag would be acceptably low.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Can they build the Tacoma in Mexico? Does the Chicken tax apply to Mexico with NAFTA.
What is clear is that Toyota has a substantial investment in the Mexican plant and has asserted more than once that there is room for a lot of growth there.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Toyota on track for U.S. output boost
July 2, 2009 - 12:01 am ET
DETROIT (Reuters) -- Toyota Motor Corp. is on track to increase production for the U.S. market by about 65,000 vehicles after truck inventories dipped too low and demand showed signs of stabilizing, executives said on Wednesday
.....In response to the expectation of steadier demand, Toyota has increased planned production of light trucks such as the Sienna minivan, RAV4 SUV, Tacoma small pickup and Tundra full-size pickup as well as the Camry and Corolla passenger cars, Carter said.
Efforts by Toyota to bring down U.S. dealer inventories succeeded in reducing stock to a 40-day supply overall, Carter said.
"That's our target," he said. "But we're a little lighter on the light truck side than we'd like to be."
As an example of that shortfall, Carter said Toyota had just a 20-day supply of RAV4 SUVs at the end of June.
http://www.autonews.com/article/20090702/ANA05/307029950/1078/ANA08
(registration link)
Weren't there some saying Toyota would be forced to hold fire sales all through the year, and would still be left with unsold 2008s at year's end?!
Not so, it would seem. The 2010s are rolling out as scheduled, and Toyota is adjusting production UP to meet its new estimate of 10 million annual sales for the U.S. market.
OTOH, as an example of just one reason why I will never pay for HIDs:
Prius headlamp troubles could dim Toyota brand's reputation
June 30, 2009 - 1:57 pm ET
DETROIT -- Amid the launch of the third-generation Prius hybrid, Toyota Motor Corp. is taking a beating online and in court by owners who charge that some older models of the popular car have faulty headlights that can cost more than $1,000 to replace
.......Owners are upset that their warranties don't cover the HID bulbs, which can cost between $300 and $1,800 -- with labor -- to replace all or part of the light system
http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090630/ANA08/906309987/1186- &AssignSessionID=273352870341713
YIKES, that's a lot of money! It's unclear from the article whether owners are grousing because their HIDs fail soon after the warranty ha expired, or whether Toyota is refusing to replace them while still under warranty. On the one hand, it is a lightbulb, not usually covered under warranty, while on the other hand it is a heck of a lot of money and a vital component of the car which impacts safety when it burns out. The NHTSA is looking into it.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Toyota's Camry ranks as most ‘American' car
July 6, 2009 - 12:01 am ET
The most “American'' car is the Toyota Camry, according to a study by Cars.com.
The Camry topped the Ford F-150 pickup to place first in the auto information site's annual American-Made Index. The index, in its fourth year, ranks U.S.-assembled vehicles using a formula that includes the percentage, by cost, of their parts made in the United States and Canada as well as their U.S. sales volume.
......Four other vehicles of Japanese origin -- the Honda Odyssey (4th), Toyota Sienna (6th), Toyota Tundra (7th) and Toyota Venza (10th) -- completed the list. The Sienna's 85 percent of parts made in the United States or Canada is the highest of any foreign-brand vehicle.
And in case anyone really thought this was an important debate for the majority of consumers:
But how much do consumers care about a car's origin? In a recent Cars.com survey, 23 percent of respondents said they wanted to buy only American-made cars, Olsen said, while about 10 percent wanted to buy only foreign-made vehicles.
“That means basically two-thirds of the people are saying, ‘I'll buy whatever car is best and most reliable,' ” he said. “It's a big open pool of potential customers.”
http://www.autonews.com/article/20090706/ANA05/907049994/1078
(registration link)
:-P
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Good Lord that's a lot of money for a light bulb! Kinda brings me back down to earth though, to where I feel kinda bad paying $14.99 for a low-beam bulb for the Intrepid when the same thing for a 1979 New Yorker is about $6.99!
I guess these HIDs are run by computer and sometimes the computer burns out along with the bulb.
Ridiculous. There was a time when it was only my respect for the property of others that kept me from just bringing a crowbar along wherever I went and knocking these suckers out. HIDs are a menace, and an extremely expensive one it would seem.
Apparently Toyota has agreed in at least one case to pay for the parts ($1350)but not the labor ($450). If that's the case and the car in question was still under warranty, I would be VERY interested to know the rationale for refusing to pay for the labor.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
I've never experienced the hate caused by HIDs, myself.
They are a menace to oncoming drivers. Some are worse than others. I sometimes wish I had a couple million candlepower spot lights mounted on my car to give those blue lighted devils a taste of their own medicine.
When they first came out there were cases of them being stolen out of Lexus and the insurance refusing to cover the cost. I guess it was a simple chore to get them out.
It's certainly an issue but I don't think it's very common if one goes by the level of complaints on PC for example. I'd be pizzed though at a $1500 bill for new lights. It would make me look at the body shop for totalled vehicles with the lights still intact. I'd make an offer to the insurance company if I could.
I think the stolen light issue was on ca. 2000 Maximas, one of the first midlevel cars to have HID as a common option.
And now the cars with the highest "American" content are "foreign." The UAW probably didn't expect that.
Haven't heard much about the Nissan Maxima: Stolen Headlights!! issue lately. Maybe the retrofit kits worked.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
You should check out how it is when the guy right behind you in your Mercedes sedan is in an Escalade with HIDs. ESPECIALLY if he has failed to lower his high beams. Then make your decision.
I can't wait for LEDs to completely replace these things.
*rant over*
Thank you for your indulgence. Needless to say, I'm not crying too many tears for the Prius customers with the HID problem, but word is they are trying to get class action status, so there must be more than just a few of them.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
I wonder if any fuddy-duddys complained likewise when headlights made the switch from the 3-candlepower sealed beams to halogens?
I have a lot more annoyance by dopes, usually in small SUVs like RAV4s and Highlanders before they became obese (gotta remain on thread topic) who drive with their foglights on each time they drive. I live in a city, so I don't encounter high beams very often.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Funny, though. This was before cell phones. How would I have called them?
However something else was mentioned above that I think bears discussion. Flexibility. Over the last 10 years the buying public has been wooed and tempted and drawn-in by SALE, SALE, SALE....name your price.
I don't know this for certain buy I am a betting man and I would be willing to wager that when the smoke clears from the BK proceedings that buyers will find themselves somewhat shocked by the attitutes from the vehicle makers and dealers.
The reason for the give-away mentality was that volume had to supercede everything. The makers had to have monstrous volumes to cover their unused Fixed Costs and dealers had to dump all the excess inventories that were being shoved down their throats by the D3 and to a lesser extent Toyota.
Now what if the only metric will be profit and minimal inventory.
Dealer A: 'Here's the MSRP! There are no incentives from the manufacturer.'
Dealer B: 'Here's the MSRP! There are no incentives from the manufacturer.'
Dealer C: 'Here's the MSRP! There are no incentives from the manufacturer.'
I would be willing to wager that vehicle makers will cut way back on both incentives and production now that they have little or no Fixed Costs to cover.
Funny, though. This was before cell phones. How would I have called them?
LOL, that reminds me of something that happened a few years back, when one of the security guards at the Safeway grocery store got a wild burr under his saddle and tried to accuse me of shoplifting. I called the cops on 'em, and said I was being held against my will....essentially, kidnapping!
So, if the car dealer's keeping you there against your will, it's sorta kidnapping too, right? :P
FWIW, years ago when my Dad wanted to get a car, after being car-less since around 1984, we went by the toyota dealer, same place where my uncle bought his '03 Corolla. Almost as soon as we walked in the door, it's almost as if they could smell fresh meat, and the salesmen started circling us like
a flock of seagulls around Tippi Hedrena flock of lawyers around an accident victimaschool of sharks around a mortally wounded and bleeding Poseidon-era Shelly Winters, well, you get the idea! :PBy CHIP CUTTER
Associated Press
NEW YORK - When the taillight of Laura Musall's five-year-old Nissan Altima burned out, she hoped to avoid the repair shop by letting her husband replace it at home. It seemed simple enough: Buy a bulb, pop off the cover and make the switch.
But her husband struggled to remove the plastic casing, and when he used a screwdriver to pry it off, it shattered. What came next was even worse. Her Nissan dealer wanted $250 to order a new one.
Musall, a real estate agent from Fishers, Ind., figured "10 bucks, we'd be done."
"But apparently," she said, "it's not a do-it-yourself thing if you don't know what you're doing."
Car owners looking to trim expenses are sidestepping the mechanic and plunging into their own repairs. Or trying to, anyway. Their efforts can backfire, costing more in the end and creating do-it-yourself horror stories.
Mechanics say they've seen it all in recent months, including incorrectly applied brake pads and antifreeze poured into engines.
"A lot of people, they're in dire straits," said Pam Oakes, owner of Pam's Motor City Automotive in Fort Myers, Fla. "They try to do this stuff at home in their driveway."
The results can be frustrating, and sometimes outright dangerous.
Beth Riggs, who lives near Lebanon, Ohio, took her Chevy Trailblazer SUV to a car-savvy neighbor nearby who charged $500 to replace her front and back brakes, far less than the going rates at nearby repair shops.
Later, on a highway ramp, her car suddenly froze up and pulled to the side of the road. The problem? Riggs says her neighbor neglected to put a certain part on a bolt of the wheels, setting off a chain reaction that caused the tires to lock up.
The car had to be towed, and Riggs ended up paying an additional $400 to have it fixed at a suburban Cincinnati auto shop.
While well-intentioned, many people forget that today's cars are vastly more complicated than models made just years ago. Most are so computer-controlled that owners can't spot problems without access to specific tools and data programs, said Dave Striegel, owner of Elizabeth AutoCare in Elizabeth, Pa.
Even jobs that were once simple, such as changing the oil, can take hours to complete now.
"They're not able to do nearly the work that they used to do - it's even going beyond the heads of a lot of technicians who aren't keeping up-to-date," Striegel said.
The urge to cut out the middleman extends to even the wealthy, said Stephen Viscusi, a New York-based author and career consultant. "We feel the need to be frugal and save money."
However, people who try the at-home tinkering are usually out of work or low on cash, said Evan Brodof of Evan's Auto Repair in suburban Cincinnati. Many work as contractors or handymen in another trade and think they can apply those skills to car repair, said Craig Douglas, owner of ASG Automotive in Indianapolis.
"It's those people who have that mindset, 'Hey I can fix this, I can fix that,' " Douglas said. "Bob the Builder-type people."
Auto shops say there's an easy way to save money: Just be upfront about the repairs you've tried at home. Most do-it-yourselfers, perhaps out of sheer embarrassment, play coy when mechanics start asking questions about what went wrong with the car, said Paul Lambdin, owner of Cary Car Care in Cary, N.C.
"Rather than saving themselves time and money by telling us the whole story, they'll just say, 'This doesn't seem to be working.'"
Musall, with the broken taillight, says she's learned her lesson. Her husband won't be working on the car.
"It's all fixed," she said, "and he's not going to do any more car repairs." *
Is this a Honda vs. Toyota thing? What's it like on other makes these days?
Anyway, I could already see disaster when the lady with the Altima's husband got a screwdriver to pry the taillamp lens loose. These days, taillamp lenses are usually fastened to the car via umpteen plastic wing nuts hidden behind the trunk lining. I practically had to disassemble the inside of the trunk of my 2002 Cadillac Seville STS to change a bulb. The whole taillamp assembly comes out in one big long piece! I sure do miss the days when a bulb change only required a phillips head screwdriver and took about 30 seconds.