I saw the Venza in person today and it is clearly going to be a hit. Unfortunately, it is going to be one of those cars that gets all of its sales from the former RX350 owners or Camry owners looking to get something taller versus taking sales from other brands. Some shades of GM there.

Even with Toyota’s zero-percent headache, their sales were still down by 34%. If they were that bad with the special deal, how bad would they have been without it? (I’m think 50% or more)

Lexus sells 1) boring sedans and 2) boring SUVs. Sure, they are nice, but the lineup is yawn-worthy and needs to be augmented if they are to sell in a changing market.

Here in Canada, Toyota sales where up over 2007 for November, I know we dont count for much looking at the whole picture of NA Sales, but locally my Dealer sales for November was 102 New Cars sold! The Recession has not hit us hard just yet, but soon!

Good for you. somewhere. The nouveau riche energy barons will continue to do just fine. I hope this energy exploration thing catches on in the States, too. I recall it from my childhood as being quite profitable and lending real stability to the economy.

indi500, when we bought our 2nd, sales were down YoY by a large margin, but there were still waiting lists. They weren’t able to supply as many that particular month as the one the year before, in other words, but still sold every one they supplied.

Now that Prioria are a dime a dozen and have lost the carpool bonus, it has to make it on its own. Like every other vehicle, you weigh purchase price, running costs, utility, and entertainment.

The tax credit is now phased out, so this $23k car is really and truly a $23k car now. Unfortunately, it has the content of an $18k car. It gets better gas mileage than any other $18k car, but even that is less of a concern now that gasoline is 1/2 the price it was just a few months ago. It’s hard to see the financial benefit of a Prius over any number of $15k to $20k cars.

I guess the Prius can compete with Civics, Minis, and Mazda 3 hatchbacks as a “fun” car. Yeah, right.

Toyota deathwatch?

Toyota’s sales are down about the same as Ford and significantly less than Chrysler and GM.

The deathwatch can start when Toyota becomes burdened with 7500 dealers instead of 1500, 8 brands instead of 3, and, worst of all, the UAW.

Toyota deathwatch?

Not yet…

Looks like GM just posted their numbers. They are down 41.3%, so the answer is no, their market share probably dropped if Toyota and Ford are down 30-33 percent.

http://media.gm.com/servlet/GatewayServlet?target=http://image.emerald.gm.com/gmnews/viewpressreldetail.do?domain=2&docid=50747

Bad numbers all around. Looks like everybody is screwed. Of course, Toyota still has their Scrooge McDuck money pit to fall back on. Detroit is not so lucky.

I have heard various rumors of GM being over 25% but I’d like to see the numbers from an authoritative source.