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Not the first time either. Toyota is thought of very highly because if a supplier has an innovation, or a better way of doing something, Toyota will use it, and pay for the upgrade!
Sorry to totally refute the big, bad Toyota theory....call them the 800lb. gorilla....with a heart.
DrFill
Success With Suppliers
One area where U.S.-based companies and Toyota have diverged is supplier relations. While certainly there are some shining examples of supplier relations among "lean" manufacturers other than Toyota, these have been overshadowed by across-the-board mandates at large OEMs that push pressure for cost-cutting disproportionately onto suppliers' shoulders. This move to make their companies more competitive has actually made them less so. Toyota's dominance proves this.
"The process needs low cost and quality, and Toyota is a role model example of how to use cost and quality to get on the playing field," Matheson says.
http://www.industryweek.com/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=11301
DrFill
"Could be"---no, not in the least!!!
I can speak to first hand experience on that score.
The Detroit bunch are really terrible.
Ford will ask for a quote with all the supporting engineering, then take your engineering and go to other suppliers with it--and get them to quote using all your costly hard work!!
Chrysler will accept your quote, but as a condition of acceptance, will insist you drop the price 15%!!
GM is the worst of all. They want the engineering so they can get other quotes, and then come back to you and insist others have a lower price so 'what can you do for us today'!!
Toyota is straight. They don't play games. Their standards are the highest of all. (Honda is pretty close) They want quality with guarantees, but seem willing to pay the price.
Most importantly they pay on time--not 120 days or longer like the big three. A supplier could easily go broke waiting for payment from them!!
I stopped doing business with the big three because they just play silly head games, and don't care if their suppliers ship crap--which is what they get most of the time because suppliers learned to play their games pretty quickly in order to stay in business.
72K is low for the year, did she change her oil at least twice a year and check the oil once in a while in between?
I am still waiting to see a real sign (more than mea culpas by top officials, IOW) that they have turned things around and resumed the top notch QC they had in place for so many years.
Or that the engineering teams have gotten the word that "just in time" inventory is fine, but "just enough" engineering is not that great. Witness two generations of Camry and RAV4 4-cylinders with the widespread seal-hardening problem. Yeah, they go on running, but by the time they have 80-100K miles on them, many of them are smoking, some enough that at cold start-up they blow a cloud of smoke that can obscure the car from view.
I will say it again: until they are positive they have the quality and design problems kicked, they would do better to slam on the brakes on their expansion, and redouble their efforts. Much can be made of anything in the press, and here at the Town Hall, that has little impact on people in the real world. But they do have a rep to maintain, a rep that is integral to their sales success, and that can be destroyed by enough bad press, regardless of how happy the customers are.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
You might want to check out this old thread on the issue.
Good Luck
cblake2, "Toyota Engine Sludge" #6, 6 Jan 2001 12:27 pm
For proof - Just look at Toyota supplier Denso (market capitalisation 38 Bn USD, more than that of BOTH Ford AND GM combined) with Delphi (bankrupt, with a possible negative value). And Denso is just one of many very successful auto parts suppliers which for some reason do not feature in the discussions here (they do play a critical role in the future success of the Auto companies themselves).
Just my two cents....
But maybe they got one of those rods that wasn't checked for quality by the supplier since they can't check every product, according to an earlier poster, and it's not Toyota's fault.
Or we can say sludging must have been the fault of the owner not changing oil, letting the Toyota dealer use the wrong oil, or hot-rodding the auto. Couldn't have been the design, engineering, or JANG.
At 72K I too would be talking carefully to the dealer and company about a replacement. Agreed.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I worked the dealership as well as the regional rep for a couple of weeks, their comments were 'the car is tens years old - what do you want us to do !'. Not our personally to be aggressive and pushy, so that makes us the loser in this situation.
The dealership checked for sludge and said that wasn't the problem. I have a friend who is a mech at an Acura dealer he checked and agreed.
Toyota lost not only a car buyer but also someone who serviced her car reguarly at the dealership - I just wish it made a difference !
We bought a new Honda Pilot and so far are very happy with it, trying to decide if we should buy the extended warranty - any thoughts on this ?
Toyota also handing out big cash rebates on Highlander Hybrid, Sequoia, 4Runner and Sienna.
http://www.autoobserver.com/2007/06/new_incentives_.html
Now as for the Tundra itself, yes breaking into the big time is proving very tough. I would say it may be teetering on the edge of flop-dom if it doesn't start to do a LOT better soon, and without all the cash on the hood. But I don't think that's a result of quality problems either, but rather something Toyota already anticipated (and underestimated maybe?): truck buyer loyalty to the Big 2.5.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
A loaded 5.7 Crewmax with the toys breaks 42 thousand bucks. By comparison, a 5.3l GM is about 37k. It's not till you get to the "Niche" 6.0l Denali (45k) that the GM'ers ask more than the Yota.
Incentives bring the price down to more competitive levels.
WAS: $2000 on all Tundras except the CrewMax ( $0 )
NOW IS: $2500 on all Dbl Cab and CrewMax Tundras; $3500 on Reg Cab Tundras.
[Regional variations may apply]
Highlanders, Sequoias and Siennas are within 10 months of a model changeover. This always occurs when new models are imminent. When the new models arrive there is little or no 'old inventory' overrlap; e.g. when the new '07 Tundra arrived on Feb 5th we had one 2006 Tundra left in stock. It was gone within 10 days at a HUGE discount.
The loaded CrewMax is higher than the loaded CrewCab by a couple of thousand$ but that volume is small relatively.
I think a slower economy all around and BIG STICKERS on the top of the line vehicles are keeping some buyers on the sidelines. OTOH a Dbl Cab 5.7L 2WD or 4WD now, after rebates, is lower in real dollars than they were back in 2001.
Now if I could find a single cab, short box, 2WD with the 5.7 here in N.E. it would make a great sport truck buildup. :shades:
http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070625/FREE/70625001/1528/newsletter01
This is the second "mea culpa, we are now going to change things at Toyota" in less than a year. I wonder if this will be the last.
Will Toyota become a victim of its own cost-cutting efforts? This is certainly a disease many other carmakers have fallen prey to in the last decade.
On the plus side, their hope with the new development process is to widen Toyota's quality lead again.
"Don Esmond, Toyota Motor Sales' senior vice president of automotive operations, says Toyota was worried about losing its leadership position in the quality wars.
"We reallocated our resources to get quality back under control," Esmond says. "We need to stay the leader and increase the gap again."
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
mfrs. monthly figures are vehicles produced NOT
vehicles SOLD to the end consumer !!!!!!!!!!!
There were/are posts about this over in the smart shopper
threads............
Do you have a link for this info as it's the first I've heard of it and want to verify this for myself.
Thanks
http://www.tundrasolutions.com/forums/tundra/103690-2007-6-speed-transmission-failures/
http://www.tundrasolutions.com/forums/tundra/97561-6-spd-automatic-transmission-problem/
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
According to the Edmunds.com automotive Web site, GM had about $3,600 worth of incentives on the Sierra and Silverado 1500 models, but Toyota bumped its Tundra incentives to an average of just over $5,000.
How about them Avalons, down almost 18% for the YTD. I did not know they were having problems.
A long row of unsold 2007 Avalons sits at a Toyota dealership in the southeast Denver suburb of Centennial, Colo., on Sunday, June 17, 2007
I counted 13 of Toyota's 29 models are in the negative for the YTD. Now with Tundra transmissions failing??? I think some heads may roll in the QC department.
Dealers here in NY are choking on them !
Local dealers are offering $5000rebate AND special APR rates along with dealer discounts off sticker to move them...........
GM only has a $1500 rebate OR special APR rates on the 1/2 ton. NO rebate on the 3/4 tons tho.............
June 2007: 21,727
June 2006: 8822
Percent increase: 137.2
First half, 2007: 82,840
First half, 2006: 57,458
Percent increase: 44.2
Toyota is sitting on such a huge pile of cash that they could give every 10th Tundra away for free and not make much of dent in that pile.
Not a big deal about the model year changeover -- most car makers do it in July or August, if not sooner for some models. Also the 2007 models were only produced in numbers since about December or January.
http://blogs.edmunds.com/Straightline/3027
http://blogs.edmunds.com/Straightline/3013
Someone in another discussion had said that Toyota counted cars that are dropped on US shores as sold units, unlike other companies who actually count cars sold that month. Does anyone know about this?
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
For the Tundra, which is produced here, production will basically equal sales over the long term (except for a relatively small number sold in Canada or possibly Mexico).
I obtained the sales numbers from an industry source, Ward's Automotive Reports. These will agree to the unit with Automotive News, which I haven't yet seen for this week.
Oh and the San Antonio plant just went to a 2nd shift in June.
You want a real shocker.... the new T900 Sierra which is worlds better than the old T800 Sierra is far far behind the sales of last year's model. Now what does that say about the new wonder truck of GM? So the new T900 can't even outsell its ancient predecessor. So answer me this. what is it about the T900 Sierra that's so bad? GM can't be happy about this ugly turn of events.
I doubt that the Tundra is a good enough truck for me to look past the ugly when I open the garage door.
Our Chevy store, both Toyota stores, Acura, Nissan, Mazda, Hyundai and Suzuki and soon Honda stores all use the same system.
Regional incentives may vary but in CAT the incentives are
$2500 on all Tundras except the Reg Cab where it's $3000.
OR
0% for 60 months
Now what the dealers do is of no consequence financially to Toyota. Each is independent of the other.
Clearly the numbers are sales to customers, because you see vehicles discontinued from production in the June sales figures, like the Celica, Scion xA, GTO, Rendevous, etc. These all have small numbers of course as stocks are being depleted.
Where?
I seriously doubt that.
Maybe $5000 off retail, but that's not the same thing at all.
than 80k "sold" thats quite dismal................
The titan and ridgeline are floundering as well........
It just makes me wonder about the tundras poor sales.....
Far from the 200k numbers that have been splashed all over
the net by toyota and the fans.
Could it be all the transmission failures (posted at tundrasolutions) noted on the net?
The camshaft issues?
The $40k pricetag?
Or because its just ugly?
Maybe gas prices?
Sure the toyota faithful will run out and spend $15k for a corolla. But not $40k for a tundra?
And YES its $5000 plus special interest AND dealer discounts
on the hood here near Syracuse NY
I think you got that wrong. $5000 is the savings in interest, and it's that or the $2500 cash, not both.
What's your zip? You can always look that up using Edmunds' nice tool.
on the hood here near Syracuse NY
Yes for sure it is geo9 ( aka alexbay on TN and Sonjaab on GMI ). Ya know it doesn't matter which skirt you hide under you still post the dopiest statements.
There is no $5000 plus special rates and dealer discounts in Syracuse. Ask your wife to read the paper to you and then explain it. Comprehension doesn't seem to be your strong suit.
Oh, BTW did you realize that the year isn't over yet....it's only July. The year ends in December. Just a helpful reminder. Back under the bridge you go.
JoAnn and Darryl Cook, a couple in upstate New York, waited eight weeks for the salsa red 2007 Toyota Tundra they ordered to arrive at a dealership near them.
Like many of the early buyers, the Cooks had a Toyota connection. They own a Matrix and traded in an older Tundra that were both trouble-free. They simply wanted a bigger truck, which Toyota delivered with the 2007 Tundra.
The Cooks are happy, but the new Tundra, among the most closely watched new vehicles this year, has had some hitches as Toyota challenges U.S. automakers in their strongest segment.
Toyota already is offering significant incentives and deflecting quality concerns, issues not usually associated with a vehicle launch by Toyota.
Early data, though, suggest that Toyota loyalists have led the initial sales boost. If Toyota wants to reach its sales goal of 200,000 Tundras this year and expand on that number next year, the company will need to steal more customers from Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and the Chrysler Group's Dodge, experts say.
Is this the typical Toyota owner?
"I felt like I was a king again driving that truck," said JoAnn Cook, 66, a soft-spoken policy rater for an insurance agency. "I felt like if somebody got in my way, I could tell them to get out of my way."
Five months into the launch, the picture is still forming on the type of consumer looking at the new Tundra, but the early buyers appear to be Toyota loyalists.
The leading buyer for the 2007 Tundra is the owner of a previous Tundra, with 23% of trade-ins for the April-through-June 10 period coming from owners of the old model,
Who's Buying the Tundra?