Yabe! (Oh shoot.) As the sun set over Toyota City and Tokyo, Toyota’s execs and Sararimen (salary men) alike were crying in their sake. Today was a sai aku (very bad) day. A day everybody at Toyota most likely would want to forget. No, no recall for a change. There isn’t much left to recall anyway, or so it seems.
The sai aku day started with Moody’s downgrading Toyota’s formerly stellar credit rating to “its lowest-ever level,” as The Nikkei [sub] laments. Moody’s came to the somewhat belated conclusion that “multi-million vehicle recalls and safety issues raise questions about its profitability and ability to stay ahead of rivals on pricing power until 2012 at the earliest.”
To make matters even more sai aku, Moody’s warned that its outlook for the rating remains negative. Why the pessimism? (Read More…)
Recent Comments
Lie2me - Wow! That’s an impressive Valiant
krhodes1 - In the days of the “voluntary import quotas”, Toyotas were both very expensive and very rust prone. And until about this generation of...
Buickman - sorry Doc, you’re wrong. Ford has the same labor costs as do the Germans. it’s nothing but bad management that drove GM into the dirt. you’re in...
krhodes1 - MPH is still used in the UK at least.
krhodes1 - Both the 85mph speedo and 55 highlight requirements ended in ~83. My ’84 VW Jetta GLI had neither. And I pegged its 120mph speedometer on more...
jimbob457 - Odd controversy here about tax refund season. Most products have a seasonal sales pattern. It was once commonly based on harvest season when farmers and ranchers...
Landcrusher - If you do it the way DARPA does, then just have DARPA do it. Its easier and more...
AJ - My father-in-law owns a restored Valiant that he’s used for drag racing. My wife and I drove it away when we were married....
nickoo - Personally, I would buy the caravan over this, but if someone absolutely needs awd then this might be the way to go. With the caravan and stow and go, there...
ttacgreg - Umm . . . I can’t think of any other nation that uses miles rather than kilometers.