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Automotive News & Views Toyota in decline in 2009?
3726 messages, Last post on Dec 04, 2009 at 5:40 AM
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Replying to: boaz47 (Dec 22, 2008 10:21 pm) To put this in perspective, Toyota made more than $22 billion in profits last year. So about 15 days of profit from 2007 will be required to cover their entire annual loss this year. Still, it is of course a major problem, and they are cutting back all production expansion for a while, and eliminating overtime production across the globe. I learned something new: they have 72 plants worldwide. And on the bright side, the rumor is that Toyota has finally done it: 2008 is the first year in which it is on course to be the #1 selling brand in the U.S., beating out both Chevy and Ford.
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Replying to: nippononly (Dec 23, 2008 8:36 am)  HOW is this the bright side 
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Replying to: kenym (Dec 23, 2008 9:01 am)
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Camry has not been an especially brisk-selling hybrid for Toyota. Will Ford have better luck with the new Fusion hybrid? The new Fusion and the new Mercury Milan hybrids were certified by the EPA at 41 mpg in city driving and 36 mpg on the highway. That beats the Toyota Camry hybrid by eight mpg in the city and two on the highway. Ford also says it betters the Honda Civic hybrid by one mile in city driving. I guess even Honda may need to worry a little, although the Civic hybrid is a less expensive (and smaller) car. http://www.autoweek.com/article/20081223/FREE/812239986
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Replying to: nippononly (Dec 23, 2008 9:42 am) Uhhhhh right!!!!!!!!!!!  Guess I missed your point
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Toyota Motor Corp. may be getting a new leader in 2009. The Wall Street Journal reported today that Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe is expected to quit sometime in 2009. Toyota officials in the United States, contacted by Automotive News, would not comment on the report. Toyota is projecting a rare operating loss for the fiscal year, which ends in March. But the expected operating loss would not be the reason for any change in management, according to the report. Watanabe would assume the mostly ceremonial role of Toyota chairman and take over for Fujio Cho, who is suffering from health problems, according to The Wall Street Journal. But is he quitting or is he being promoted? I would expect a top executive or two to fall on the sword after the forecast of the first annual loss in 60 years of manufacturing history. http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081223/ANA02/812239973/1178- - (registration link) In related news, it's now official: unwanted Toyotas are piling up in California. California has always been an important import car market. But unsold cars, fresh off the boat, are stacking up in Benicia, as well as in Southern California. Toyota and Mercedes alone have leased an additional 46 acres to store cars in California that have no buyers and nowhere to go. Japanese automakers now find themselves in the same predicament as Detroit. Consumers are staying away from showrooms, either unable to get loans or unwilling to make a big purchase right now. And that's causing new Toyota shipments to stack up at its facility at the port of Benicia. The president of Toyota told reporters in Japan: "It's a kind of emergency that we've never experienced before." "Places where we thought there was going to be great strength -- better than here, it looks like we're all in the same boat right now," said Sean Randolph Ph.D. Randolph is an economist and president of the Bay Area Economic Institute. A global economic flu has spread from the U.S. to Europe and now to Asia. Japanese exports to the U.S. are down 33 percent. http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/business&id=6567989
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Replying to: nippononly (Dec 23, 2008 1:30 pm) None of this should have been a surprise. Look to our history and see what happened to the rest of the world when the US went into the depression. Same spread of the same flu. Now if Fox News had reported this news instead of ABC they would have released the Story on December 7th.
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Replying to: boaz47 (Dec 23, 2008 4:51 pm)
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Replying to: nippononly (Dec 24, 2008 11:28 am)  If Toyota hadn't decided to make the Prius look like a fat door stop I might not have taken a dislike to it right off the bat. I did look at the Insight when it first came out and considered it before I got the PT or the Focus. It reminded me a bit of the CRX if only it didn't have those stupid wheel skirts. But when I was shopping a good friend of mine did drop the coin and bought one. He had a horrid commute to Edwards AFB and yes it got better than 60MPG. Not often have I wished I had picked a car and now think of getting a used one. But the Prius was never in the running because while I will put up with some bad road manners, remember I lived in the mountains, I simply couldn't put up with a wallowing toad like the first gen Prius. Not if it wasn't going to deliver 60 MPG.
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Replying to: nippononly (Dec 23, 2008 11:32 am) It's also significant for another reason. This is the first vehicle from the 4 hybrid makers that's placed in direct competition with another hybrid. Yes the HAH was there for a while but it disappeared as soon as the TCH arrived. Yes the NAH is sold in competition to the TCH but in fact it is a TCH in a Nissan skin....and only in limited markets. Now the FFH will be the No 1 most fuel efficient midsized auto on the road. Although it too will be sold only in 'hot spot' markets due to battery supply limitations it is right in the face of the TCH. By my perception this is the end of the 10 yr 'introduction period' where the hybrid makers did not compete against one another directly. Now they do. We enter a new period.
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