Comments on: Toyota Attacks! Launches $250m 0% Loan Campaign

By: npbheights

npbheights — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:18:59 +0000

O% for 36 months ($27.78 per month per thousand borrowed) is hardly earth shattering considering GM did 0% for 60 back in 2001 ($16.67 per month per thousand borrowed) and recently 0% for 72 months (13.89 per month per thousand dollars borrowed)

So $20,000 GM car 10 percent down: $250/month for 72 months

$20,000 Toyota car 10 percent down: $500/month for 36 months

OR double the Payment, and Americans are payment shoppers (remember negative amoritization, option ARMS and the like)

And I am sure that is with stellar credit and many will take the 60 or 72 month terms.

My friend bought a Corolla with 75 month Southeast Toyota Finance credit !!! Crazyness.

A good website for checking Toyota’s current incentives, at least for the south east US is http://www.earlstewarttoyota.com and click on “current rebates and incentives.

By: 50merc

50merc — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 22:05:11 +0000

SherbornSean: “$250M buys a lot of airtime”

Right. And doesn’t Toyota realize that they’ll be broadcasting those commercials to an audience that’s in a deep coma from watching Obama and McCain ads?

By: Landcrusher

Landcrusher — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:56:20 +0000

What normally available discounts? Their website is crap, btw. I could hardly get a price, nevermind discount info.

I think the Tahoe may be the better deal at this point. They are going for about the same price.

By: marto

marto — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:55:40 +0000

0% for only 36 months (at least in Western Washington)

Chrysler did 0% for 72 months

By: 26theone

26theone — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:37:10 +0000

What are the terms of the 0%? Do you also get the normally available discounts in addition to the zero %?

By: Landcrusher

Landcrusher — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 17:04:28 +0000

“and the quarterback is toast.”

Didn’t someone quote that one the other day? Seems to apply here.

Guess I may need to go look at the FJ. I like to pay cash, but I would also like to preserve my cash for the market at this point.

By: tom

tom — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:13:59 +0000

@toxicroach

no need to be sorry…I should know by now that it’s difficult to spot irony on the Internets.

By: sellfone

sellfone — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:32:12 +0000

The amount of money being spent really shows. We are being bombarded by the “Saved by Zero” ads here in PA. At least the song is not as annoying as most other car ad jingles are (at least to me).

I am annoyed however, by the exagerated suspension flex in the commercials shown by every Toyota model as they zing up to and around the giant zero. If cars really moved that much on their suspensions we’d all need dramamine when we drove.

By: John Horner

John Horner — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:08:08 +0000

$250 million in one month is a serious amount of marketing cash to be putting on the table. I wonder how agressive Toyota will be visa-vis the credit ratings of customers? There are an awful lot of once Detroit loyalists who can’t get a loan or lease from the 2.8 right now. Toyota can afford to take a measured amount of risk there.

Remember that Toyota’s policy is not to lay any of their direct employees off (contractors and sub-contractors be damned), so they need to get the metal moving again. Shades of the job bank, eh?

By: toxicroach

toxicroach — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:55:02 +0000

Sorry Tom.

By: jcoll

jcoll — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:46:44 +0000

I have to admit I visited a toyota dealer for the first time ever, and not because they have wonderful cars (a debatable point around here) but because of this financing deal. Oh, your accompanying picture is dynamite!

By: tom

tom — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:36:40 +0000

Obviously, I wasn’t all that serious. Actually, I’m sure Toyota will be fine. However, it looks like their North American business might be headed for some rough times. But of course that’s still just a minor pimple on Toyota’s giant corporate ass.

By: denial

denial — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:23:47 +0000

To wait until GM’s employee pricing program was completely finished — no, really, this time they mean it…probably(!), and then survey the daily — hourly, really — critical damage being thrust at all of the domestics on every front that matters to an automobile company, for Toyota to do this NOW, at this moment, in this reality, is as Art of War as business can get. If GM, Ford and Chrysler had a living will, it would be in probate right now.

By: toxicroach

toxicroach — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:10:14 +0000

If you fired everyone at Toyota and replaced them with everyone from GM, it would still take a lifetime to drive the company into the ground. It took GM 30-50 years to do it, and they went about it with an almost supernatural ability to pick the wrong thing to do.

Bit premature to start a Deathwatch. A lot of the criticism of Toyota is valid, but if you think Toyota is going to fall anytime soon b/c of some fairly minor quality issues & Scion, you’re full of it.

They could buy GM and Ford and Chrysler with their 2008 profits. The Big 3 are playing t-ball, Toyota is in the Majors.

By: tom

tom — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:08:38 +0000

Time for a Toyota death watch…

By: br549

br549 — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:56:07 +0000

Maybe Toyota’s movers and shakers have finally come to the same conclusion as those of us long affiliated with the domestics: The American auto buying public could not give a rip less about GM, Ford, et al. The very idea of any “fallout” over Japanese dominance in 2008 is patently absurd. Any “political backlash” would be limited to a couple of states’ legislators and hardly worth mentioning.

By: AGR

AGR — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:53:56 +0000

It was only a question of time for Toyota to find the opportune moment to flex its muscles, pull the appropriate levers, and gain an advantage.

By: ihatetrees

ihatetrees — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:48:47 +0000

Tora, Tora, Tora!!!

By: SherbornSean

SherbornSean — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:40:38 +0000

$250M buys a lot of airtime: I can’t get “Saved by Zero” out of my head.

I still believe that consumer incentives cheapen the brand and hurt long term. GM never recovered from its post-9/11 0% campaign, and that was 7 years ago.