When we reported that unintended acceleration in general and Toyota in particular are not a big topic in Europe and Japan, the answer was: “What do they know? They use their excellent public transport system and drive less.” (A myth, by the way. Unless there are mandatory annual odometer readings, nobody knows for sure. But the generally accepted average number of miles driven by year and car is 12,000 in the U.S.A. In Germany, the industry works with a 20,000 km average. Which is 12,427 miles.) The only countries halfway accepted as comparisons were Australia and Canada. Well, their numbers are in.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that despite the negative publicity and media bashing that Toyota has endured, Toyota increased their market share in Australia to 20.5 percent in February, with sales increasing year-on-year by 13 percent. This cements Toyota’s reputation as Australia’s number one car brand. So, it seems the Aussies aren’t that concerned with a worldwide recall over 9 million vehicles for safety defects (which is a pretty serious defect). Now, at this point, I suspect you are thinking “But Cammy, this is Australia. They’ve always had a thing for Toyota. They’re brand loyalists”. OK, let’s try somewhere closer to (your) home.
The Vancouver Sun reports that Toyota Canada sales have risen 25.2 percent compared to February last year (the car-pocalypse). Toyota sold 12,693 Toyota and Lexus cars, trucks and SUV’s for February 2010. In addition, the Toyota Prius, Corolla and Matrix recorded their best ever February sales. “We thank our customers for continued confidence in Toyota vehicles –– vehicles that are reliable, safe and fuel-efficient,” said Yoichi Tomihara, president of Toyota Canada Inc. “We also thank our team members at our coast to coast dealerships for their quick and reliable work in servicing recall repairs and bringing peace of mind to our family of Toyota and Lexus customers.” With those numbers, he probably meant it.
Now here’s a question for you. What do Australia, Canada and the United States all have in common? Some of you already answered it: they are all huge countries, sparsely populated in huge stretches, with transport infrastructure not as sophisticated as Europe or Japan. In essence, these countries rely more on their cars in order to get around. And it seems that Australia and Canada are OK to entrust that job to Toyota. Or maybe it’s a vote of confidence against the witch hunt which they feel Toyota is unfairly getting? Either way, Toyota aren’t down and out down under and in the Great White North.
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…and what do Australia, Canada, Europe and Japan have in common? a healthy resistance to over-hyped media panic-mongering it seems.
:)
As a Canadian, I feel that the Media in the USA, made a big thing about Toyota, way over the Top as far as I am concerned, don’t you all remember all the Problems General Motors had with Head Gaskets and Manifold problems that had to be settled with a Law suit! There never was a stink raised on that really, there should have been, I suspect as many Canadians do that it’s easier to blame someone else, especially a foreign maker that has made in roads on the USA Vehicle scene, and probably the United Auto Workers and your Government are behind this whole mess about Toyota, who is next eh? If you want Asian Vehicle makers to move there manufacturing plants elsewhere, this is a good way to do it,it will add to the Thousands of unemployed Workers in your Country and let the Detroit two start making crap vehicles again and letting them return to Profit!
I totally agree with you that the U.S. media has over-hyped this issue, and wouldn’t be surprised if many of these incidents were the result of mass hysteria or social contagion. But I’d also point out that the media in all countries have some sort of causes célèbres, be it fear mongering about safety, outrage over business practices (as I’ve seen in Canada) or focus on the teams and stars of football (“soccer” to us Yanks; I’ve seen the media do this almost everywhere outside of the U.S.).
Comparing this coverage to that of GM’s head gasket and manifold failues won’t get you very far. The typical worst-case scenario resulting from the GM issue is a seized engine. That hardly generates attention-getting headlines – or fear in the minds of the public – on the same level as the perception of runaway cars that can’t be stopped.
I wouldn’t run to your investment broker with that pro-Toyota optimism just yet.
Wait until we have a good handle on such things as fleet sales which have been really high in early 2010 compared to 2009. I suspect Toyota has not been punished by fleet buyers in either the US or Canada nearly as much as by retail buyers.
Canada continues to punish both GM and Chrysler for their bailouts, with Ford now ruling the sales roost in Canada. We naturally reserved (and record Olympic gold medal winning) Canadians do not criticize others easily, but once we take a position against something, it tends to stick for a while.
Let’s discuss this again in 2 or 3 months.
@cammy
What is Holden and Ford market share down under?
Stingray,
I honestly don’t know. But for what it’s worth, according to the Australian article, Holden came second (even increasing their share) and Hyundai jumped over Ford to claim third place in the Feburary sales list.
Did the US mass media stir up some hysteria concerning the possibility of SUA in Toyota Camry? Yep.
Did a measurable portion of the car buying public buy into the story? Yes, again.
Are the mass media in the US beating a dead horse by over reporting the possibility of a software defect in Toyota vehicles? You betcha.
Did Toyota deftly make decisions to stay ahead of the hysteria and reassure the public early on in the game that they would leave no stone uncovered to correct any possible problem? My answer is not so much.
The “one, two punch” over a couple of months, going from floor mats to an errant gas pedal The second punch is what led to the Kangaroo hearing in DC, which played out dramatically in the US mass media.
Here in the hinterlands of Texas, the hearings revealed a slow to react giant whose decisions on styling, marketing, parts procurement, and safety upgrades seem to be “Made in Japan”.
That’s the collateral damage. After building up a “Toyota as American as apple pie that doesn’t cut corners like GM” image for the past few years, – the present reality is – one – Toyota may be just another car company and – two – all the important decisions are made in Nagoya not Kentucky.
The single biggest difference is the absence of the Congressional dog and pony show. Tearful, God-fearin’ (yet disingenuous) witnesses and limelight adoring politicos (Rep. Brad Sherman) don’t help.
Australians have an inbuilt bullshit detector, something that is removed in most Americans at birth and replaced with a 15-minutes-of-fame-at-all-costs beacon.
“Australians have an inbuilt bullshit detector, something that is removed in most Americans at birth and replaced with a 15-minutes-of-fame-at-all-costs beacon.”
.
.
That’s true.
But the Oz and the Canucks drink strong beer. Lots of it. So you have to overlay the appropriate adjustment onto your demographic model. ;-)
Ford February Canadian sales spiked 51-percent. Toyota’s sales were up 25-percent. GM saw its sales jump 20-percent. Chrysler’s grew 17-percent.
The majority of local news reports have been sympathetic to Toyota. Canada has experience with U.S. administrations twisting issues to yield home team advantage. The motivations behind the Toyota inquisition are obvious. Obama, peace be upon him, owns two domestic car companies and is sucking up to the unions.
The recession has not been as hurtful here. Canada’s gross domestic product grew 5-percent in the fourth quarter of 2009, beating forecasts. Our federal government, which previously posted annual surpluses, is running a deficit around three or four percent of GDP, about a third the U.S. deficit. Canadian financial institutions did not require bailouts and are reporting first quarter profits triple and quadruple last year’s, house prices are +20-percent, the building sector is healthy and there is no foreclosure issue. Real unemployment is under 10-percent, mostly in Ontario and Quebec manufacturing, compared to the U.S. 17-percent. We foolishly bailed out GM and Chrysler, more to protect CAW retiree pensions than to save the companies.
http://tinyurl.com/yao5pfd
Gardiner,
You left out one other important point. We also set a record for the most gold metals in Winter Olympics ever.
Yeah Canada!!!!
;-)
Wooo Canada! Are we annoying any Americans yet?
Through my wife’s work and our car club friends, my wife and I enjoy the friendship of a lot of Americans. We have been delighted that they are not at all annoyed by our cheering for Canada. In fact several of them have cheered right along with us about the success of the games.
blah blah blah Canada gold medals blah
4 on 4 overtime? Come on… the Olympic committee musta gone Ovechkin there.
Crosby is a wuss… and so is Thornton. Luongo was shaking like a leaf, and was waaaay off his angle on that rush down the left side. One unassuming wrister, and the weeping and wailing from Canuckistan woulda broke the NVH needle.
;-)
Stingray, Ford’s share is around 9% and GM 14%
Thanks. So Toyota is giving them a good ride down there.
There are two differences. First in government:
* Canada and Australia are Westminster Parliamentary democracies. What this sees is a much stronger house leader (the Prime Minister), no president and no real opportunity for MPs (representatives) showboat. MPs outside of cabinet are forced to tow the party line; heck, even in cabinet they defer to the PM. Unlike the US, there’s no incentive (and very serious disincentives) to for MPs to get up on the soapbox; their local constituents don’t care and the PM and cabinet take a dim view of showboating. US representatives and senators can be an individual political force; Canadian and Australian MPs are just butts in seats; whichever party gets the most butts wins and it’s better for everyone if the butts keep their opinions to themselves.
* Canada and Australia don’t (often) have strong, unelected officers of government. Ray La Hood’s equivalent is an elected Minister in cabinet. Again, ministers usually defer to the PM or handle things internally; getting up on the aforementioned soapbox is frowned upon.
The other part of this is the media. The US (and the UK, to a lesser degree) have what has to be the most hyperactive media cycles in existence. That’s because:
* the media market is hypercompetitive. You have to be shrill, alarmist and loud to keep your share of eyeballs.
* because the media has been shrill for so long, the populace has become numb and they have to shout louder and whip up more fear and panic.
This is also the reason that the media companies in the US are some of the sickest on the planet. They’re huge, but they have no depth and very little customer loyalty. This is the dividend from their two-decade intellectual race to the bottom.
Sadly, as an American (but also having lived in the UK), I have to concur with you 100%, psarjinian. Every syllable, in fact.
psarhjinian; I think you’re right, but the media (MSM particularly) in the USA has been shrill/alarmist for so long they’re no longer trying to outdo themselves or each other, but it’s become SOP for those folks.
In past decades they did beat up on GM/Ford/Chrysler to the point where they developed into what Crazy Pete calls, rightly so, the anti-car/anti-Detroit intelligentsia. In so doing these media pieholes fully embraced Toyota as the anti-Detroit car company. The fact that Toyota would betray their role as the anti-car person’s car by being perceived as just as fallible as their competitors makes these quasi-journos just outraged – OUTRAGED I TELL YOU!!!
The whole shrill alarmism about Toyota is probably far less about gathering eyeballs or ratings and far more about the anti-car Toyota-lovers in the US MSM organizations being personally offended (and getting offended is their favorite hobby) that Toyota would so drastically screw them and mar their reputation after years of their tacit unpaid support of Toyota.
Just take a cursory glance at the ownership of US Media. Big, I mean HUGE, business. What could be their motivation. Hmmm, FOLLOW THE MONEY!
I’ll tell you what neither country does have, and that’s a population anywhere near as significant as the United States.
Also, in Canada at least, Toyota is not such a market force as in other countries. Without checking my facts, I believe it goes like this, GM, Chrysler, Ford, Honda, Toyota, in terms of market share and sales. Honda and Toyota sell a lot of Civic’s and Corolla’s, some Accord’s and Camry’s, but not a lot else. We are definitely D3 country up here, so a Toyota scandal is not such a big deal to us. P.S. Crashsled- stop being such a whiney baby. 14, that’s right, 14 GOLD MEDALS in one Games – a WORLD first and a WORLD record. When your country with TEN TIMES our population beats that-get back to me.
I am confused where you are trying to go with this article. The earlier article you referenced about UA was looking into UA complaints per country. This data is suggesting that strong sales mean that UA isn’t a problem there. Shouldn’t we be looking at reports or reporting data to analyze this issue instead of sales numbers? I mean, there were plenty of UA complaints before the issue really hit the media. If the media doesn’t pick up the story, then sales probably don’t take the hits they have taken today, and the recalls probably don’t continue either.
Down here in Australia there are a lot of people who buy Toyota and nothing but Toyota regardless of anything they hear. Similarly, there’s the diehard Holden and Ford people too.
But one of the main reasons that Toyota manage to get the market share they do is because their range is a lot bigger than most other makes. If there’s a segment, good chances are that Toyota’s represented.
Plus, they probably have one of the most agressive marketing teams out there, advertising anything and everything they can – I remember years ago they were advertising “the O2 advantage”, as if the Camry was the only car in the country that used oxygen…
Actually the average number of km a year for most European countries (and we have done some quite extensive analyses to confirm this) is around 12.000 km, not miles. While working with the industry threw up estimates of 20.000km, as you say, Bertel, these are completely out of whack with the real driving behaviour. Everything, from the tyre consumption, to fuel consumed, to masive 50.000 respondent longitudinal studies confirm the numbers of around 12k km, with small variations from country to country.
I didn’t say 20,000 km, Cammy did. But she’s right that this number is in wide use in the European industry. We worked with that number when I worked for VW, and we had what other people don’t have: Odometer readings during scheduled service. I don’t know whether the number still holds true, but I can’t find a better one.
In the context of SUA, it doesn’t matter. Whether you drive 20k km or 12k km, something should show up. As an industry observer, you will most likely confirm that SUA is not a topic in Europe.
Sorry Bertel, I read that incorrectly, then. The problem for deriving those numbers, as usually is sampling – the people who come in for a check-up / service (whose odometer readings you can take) are by definition skewed towards higher mileages (they have to come in more often). If one is not careful, this easily leads to estimates, which are too high. On top of that VW drivers might (or might not) represent people who drive more than average, this being Germany :)
As a road rep in Vancouver, I spend a lot of time stuck in traffic, and given the popularity of Camrys, Corollas, SwaggerWagons (aka Sienna), Pious’s etc, I seem to be stuck behind a Toyota more often than not. The only ones that seem to accelerate are driven by taxi cab drivers, the rest of them don’t seem to accelerate anywhere.
I think Toyota was the sacrificial lamb for the car industry. There have been a number of recalls from a variety of auto manufacturers that have occurred since the crap hit the fanbelt that have not had the media coverage enjoyed by Toyota.