Obviously they are doing something right, they have sent the “Big Three” back to the drawing board, and lets not even talk about the financial hurt they have put on these fatter, slower manufacturers.

I could go on but bottom line is they may not be the sexiest, fastest vehicles on the road. But thats obviously not what people want.

Look at the facts. Toyota is not the best at anything. But they are damn good at just about everything.Resale Value…(Check the KBB on your GM lately?) Reliability, Quality,Value.

Get used to it people and complain about cars that deserve it. Stop Knit Picking

Based on my experience (I’ve worked in both systems), it just would be very difficult to do.

BOF need 2 separate lines in the trim shop for assembly: 1 for the chassis, 1 for the cabin, and at some point the body marries the chassis. On unibody, you just have one line.

For operator ease, chassis should be assembled upside down, then turned over… engine comes is installed from over the chassis. In unibody, engine comes from inside, which requires to elevate the car to install it, and if they’re very ergonomical friendly, while the car is elevated, rotate it to an angle of about 45º for easier assembly.

If they assemble unibody in that plant, example Sienna, that also shares platform with the Camry, then it’s easier to switch.

The body shop would need perhaps new jigs and surely robot programming to handle the new model. The paint shop would need almost the same. Then you have to train operators in the 3 shops on that car, run pre-production examples, audit them, start mass production.

Does Toyota really need to increase Camry volume?
It looks to me that the market has shifted down one size and the volume leaders will be Civic and Corolla, as they were in May.

The Accord and Camry were in the same ballpark as the Civic and Corolla (all four beat the F-150 which was in fifth).

It’s ToMoCos image with the Camry and Corolla that hurts. ToMoCo wants to be recognized as the responsible, safe, and green company. The fun kid has grown up and the cars have all the personality of a brick wall these days.

Sure my Corolla is the best appliance on wheels I’ve owned. It gets me where I’m going on the cheap and never breaks down. Mission accomplished. It’s the around town grocery getter and errand runner.

And it still has the stodgy image of a menopausal librarian’s car with granny glasses that needs more cupholders for the prune juice.

Like I said, it’s my second vehicle.

Didn’t ToMoCo buy the former Isuzu assembly plant in Evansville IN from GM for the sole purpose of building more Camry’s?

Sort of. That plant originally was a 50/50 joint venture between Subaru and Isuzu. When Isuzu imploded in the US, they sold their half to Subaru for a buck. The plant was then underused. Then GM sold it’s stake in Subaru and Toyota bought some of it, so now Subaru rents out part of it to Toyota now. (Toyota also bought some of GM’s stake in Isuzu, but that was an unrelated move-Isuzu left the plant long before that happened.)

I had a rental 2006 Corolla last year, and all I could say was that it had decent headlights. Everything else was mediocre at best. But I guess people that don’t care about cars are fine with mediocre vehicles. Otherwise Toyota would be headed toward bankruptcy too.

I bought an early 2000s model Corolla over those choices. The Focus had a trash interior and lousy reliability so I didn’t bother with it. The Civic had the best interior, nice steering, a wonderful shifter, but there was no power at all. It also plowed like hell through the corners, and I’m not big on the stiffy-style throttle. The Protege also had no power, and backed that up with pathetic fuel economy. It also had a lame shifter. On the other hand it had amazing steering and handling.

The Corolla had not only good power, but class leading fuel economy. It also has a comfortable ride, and it has been flawless in terms of reliability. The steering sucks, but that’s really my only beef with it.

Toyota to Build Hybrid Camrys in Australia

Internet Protocol? Intellectual Property?

Anybody know if it’s easy vs. next to impossible to build unibodys and BOF stuff on the same line?

I’m not trying to be mean- I don’t know why anyone even buys the Corolla. It was the second car I ever drove and I’d never take it over a (then) Focus, Protege, or Civic. I guess it’s for people who can’t swing a Camry and are oblivious to the fact that other manufacturers sell better cars. At least the Camry is roomy- the Corolla (even in its most recent iteration) has always had poor use of space and only middling efficiency.

Toyota, unlike the other big truck companies, isn’t dependent on truck sales to make money. They ride through this collapse and pick up the market share that used to belong to Chevy or GM when one of them croaks and come out with a profitable chunk of the market when it stabilizes.

Also, it has to be pretty nice to be able to switch a truck factory over to sedans. I bet GM would kill for that kind of flex.

Btw, same goes for the Corolla.

While one month usually does not a trend make, you’re probably right here.