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"In the U.S., however, Toyota had not yet fully recovered from last year’s unintended acceleration fiasco when the Japan earthquake hit. As a result, Toyota posted a lower market share for the fiscal year even as the company spent 26 percent more on incentives compared to the previous year. Other highlights of Toyota’s U.S. performance for the fiscal year, calculated by Edmunds.com include: 1.8 million vehicles sold in its 2011 fiscal year, up slightly from 2010 fiscal year, but well under the pace of the overall industry; market share falling to 15 percent to 16.6 percent; costly incentives climbing 26 percent, despite lower incentive spending in the January-March 2011 quarter; an increase in the number of days it took to sell a Toyota vehicle, to 51 days from 44; and falling lease penetration to 21.9 percent in its second half from 25.4 percent"
Great Quake Downs Toyota's Profits (AutoObserver)
Nissan Stirred Not Shaken by Quake (AutoObserver)
Let's try the Q4 charts for comparison:
I would say a bad RAP in the USA...
To be honest I'm surprised they are making any profits at all. Probaly from sales of stock piles. Surely profits will disappear and we should see losses soon.
I do praise them when due. Like keeping people working at their loss during hard times, as in San Antonio.
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"Recall and warranty costs increased by ¥30 billion during the fiscal year, even though many of the recall costs were incurred in the previous year. And those increased costs aren't expected to peak until later in this fiscal year. That cost estimate does not include legal expenses or lost sales from the recalls. The negative publicity from recalls caused Toyota to increase its spending marketing and cash-back offers to buyers in an effort to hang onto sales.
So even as high gas prices should be lifting sales for its fuel-efficient models, Toyota finds itself facing unusual struggles for a company that could seem to do no wrong just a couple of years ago.
"Toyota has been socked with one thing after another," said Edmunds.com senior analyst Michelle Krebs. "They had not yet recovered from last year's (recall) fiasco when the Japan earthquake knocked out some of its production."
Toyota production picture improves (CNN Money)
Meanwhile, the 2011 Nissan Titan took home an acceptable rating in the rollover evaluation while the 2011 Chevrolet Silverado, 2011 GMC Sierra and 2011 Ram 1500 netted marginal scores.
So does that mean that Tundra sales will be taking off? Means something only to Tundra owners. Not a big deal. But post on........
But post on.......
Did you look at the truck before buying it or did it appear ugly and uglier as you discovered how bad the ride and the bed flex could be? Just curious as most won't buy a vehicle that doesn't appeal to them. Course if it was a tax free gift I'd take one too.
Hate has nothing to do with it. I'm just trying to find relevance.
Winning the Top Safety Pick designation doesn't mean as much in the pickup segment as it does, say, in the minivan segment, but it could still hurt Dodge and GM when it comes to Harry Homeowner buyers who also use their trucks to haul their families around.
Gas prices are more likely to hurt GM/Dodge truck sales than a lousy safety score, though.
You know, it was a shiny black when I saw it, had tons of great options, was a limited, had factory DVD, and I like Toyotas generally. But it was a disappointment, and just not up to my expectations. The longer I owned it, the less attractive it seemed to get. I don't know.... :confuse:
My fault, no test drive at all. I normally drive Ford trucks, but thought I'd try this one, and expected it to be like other Toyota cars I have had. It wasn't. Only kept it 6 months, went back to Ford. Which I don't test drive either, but have never been disappointed.
Did like the roll down back window on the Tundra though, nice feature.
Example: on paper, the Kia Optima seems like the ideal car. 200hp, modern tech, nice styling, 6 speed manual, good MPG, etc.
I test drove one with my brother. While nothing is out of line with this class, the class generally consists of boring sedans, and indeed it was ... boring.
The Sportage is a lot more fun to drive, even with less HP, no DI in the engine, and more curb weight. So both cars surprised us, the Sportage in a good way, the Optima in a bad way.
The Optima is your uncle's car. The Kia is you're nephew's car, the cool one who's still a college student.
It also had vices - poor visibility among them.
Seems like they did push it back a bit.
Around here that's Fall, lol.
http://www.autoblog.com/2011/01/10/toyota-prius-v-detroit-2011/
I see a Sportage or other soft roaders as my nieces car, if my niece just joined a sorority and is still living on the parental dole. Any nephew of mine would be driving a normal car or maybe a legit off roader. And yeah, the C-pillar on that thing looks to be about 6 feet wide.
I could look up skid pad numbers, but that misses the whole point - subjective feel is just as important, if not more.
People pick a manual because they want involvement, and the Optima doesn't offer that. The Sportage does.
We drove the Sportage first. We both liked it. Then he took the wheel of the Optima. He didn't say anything, just waited for me to try it, to see what I said. Sure enough, we both felt exactly the same way.
By the way, it only took about 10 yards or driving to come to that conclusion. It's the steering.
I generally prefer the more linear feel of the old-school hydraulic power steering systems. EPS = numb city.
Sonata is probably an identical ride, just with much more excessive "styling"
My V6 Genesis has the traditonal pump driven assist, but I have driven a V8 Genesis with the EPS and really couldn't notice any difference.
2023 Mercedes EQE 350 4Matic / 2022 Ram 1500 Bighorn, Built to Serve
For me a car doesn't need to be mega-sporty or anything, though, so long as it has some personality. The Sportage had that.
First electric PS I sampled, I think, was on the Saturn Vue - it was terrible. I think they've gotten better at tuning them, but hydraulic is still more linear with feedback.
I think the electric steering I saw was in a Malibu, it was terrible too. My mother's Camry has normal steering, but it feels as numb as anyone could imagine with electric.
http://www.autonews.com/assets/PDF/CA73943512.PDF
Toyota still leads in sales per dealer, despite the shortage of cars to sell. Lexus sells the most luxury cars per franchise, too.
Ideal supply is 60 days, and Toyota has 46 days' inventory. Lexus only 32.
Stand outs?
Viper - 321 days' inventory
Ram - 123
Fiat 500 - 148, but at least it's dropping
BMW truck - 11 days (!), the X3 is hot...
Flex - 113
MKS - 150
Escalade EXT - 140 (gas prices no doubt)
Cobalt - 146 days even though the Cruze is for sale already and popular (39 days)
HHR and Impala are very short (strange)
Avalanche/Silverado in trouble, same for Sierra and Yukon.
Must be the IIHS crash tests. KIDDING.
ZDX bombed.
Element is just old.
Lots of Hondas are in short supply.
Hyundai/Kia are in short supply probably because everyone who can't find a Honda/Toyota buy one of those instead. Just 25 days for the two brands combined, WOW!
Mazda is struggling to sell its sports cars and the Tribute.
Mitsubishi is struggling badly with the Outlander. I bet the Outlander Sport, its little brother, cannibalized it.
Nissan, oddly, has plenty of supply. They're the least affected Japanese brand.
Subaru way short at 36 days.
Audi is short, but VW has excess.
There you go. FWIW, anyone shopping for a car, check those out, as they are a STRONG indicator of what incentives will appear in the future as automakers look to clear out those models 100+ days of supply.
Hmm, Fiat 500 Abarth, anyone?
We have to wait another year for the Abarth, don't we? :-(
Toyota could blow them away if they stuck the Yaris' engine in the iQ and strapped a small turbo on it, along with giving it a handling package. Could sell the whole thing for under $20K, I'm sure. But such a thing would never occur to Toyota, the king of blah.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Unless sales pick up soon, rebates will appear in short order.
Only thing I could figure out was that there were only 7 HHRs within 500 miles of the poster.
Very odd - no news about Chevy limiting production.
This is a bit closer to Toyota news:
Secrets Of The Toyobaru (AutoObserver)
So true! A huge problem for them right now. The first dealer within a 50-mile radius of me finally came on-line about 3 weeks ago, and the San Francisco dealer isn't supposed to be up and running until November! So I can drive 40 miles to buy a 500 and for its warranty service, or I can drive half as far to own a Mini which sells for not much more with the equipment I would want....seems like a no-brainer....
The iQ will sell at 1200 dealers nationwide....put a sport package on it and a faster engine under the hood (along with a manual of course) and I would be THERE. But this is Toyota, so you can forget anything remotely like that....
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
A Mini dealer is maybe a mile further.
A Toyota dealer probably splits the difference between the two.
I guess they're in no hurry, at least Subaru isn't, since they already can't build enough of what they're selling now.
And, its practically in NC, in a town immediately outside of Charlotte, NC.
Man... I thought MINI dealers were rare....Fiat seems to have added a new definition to that term.
I would have thought the Chrysler dealer network would have been used much more intensely in setting up the Fiat sales organization.
You can't sell out of an empty wagon...or, in Fiat's case...no wagon!
I suppose we are a bit off the Toyota subject. But they are busy getting their factories back up to speed.
Here at work I felt the effects of the Tsunami for the first time directly...we ordered some computers and they are on back-order because some of the chips are sourced from affected areas.
They literally cannot supply us with our orders. We're hoping June.
"Social networking services are transforming human interaction and modes of communication. The automobile needs to evolve in step with that transformation. I am always calling for Toyota to make ever-better cars. The alliance that we announce today is an important step forward in achieving that goal."
Toyota And Salesforce Form Social Network Alliance (AutoObserver)
In other Toyota news, 2012 Prius V Wagon Hopes To Upend CUV Ranks
The numbers are way different, but it sure didn't look all that much bigger inside than the Prius sedan when I eyeballed one at the auto show.
Launch has been delayed to mid-October though. (link).
Look at the RX - it probably offers about the same amount of room inside, and just look at the volume of sales.
So it doesn't have to be huge to be successful.
The tsunami delays are a bummer because gas prices will have likely gone down by the time it launches.
...there's up to 35.9 inches of legroom out back, which is 1.4 inches more than the Honda CR-V can offer. With the thrones up, there's a full 34.3 cubic-feet of cargo room, and that number swells to 67.3 cubes with the back seats folded. As Toyota points out, that's more room than crossovers like the Chevrolet Equinox, Honda Element, Ford Escape or the Nissan Rogue can offer.