Toyota Inventories Swell, GM Cuts Truck Production

by Robert Farago

Published: April 29th, 2008

toyota inventories swell gm cuts truck production

Jim Croce wouldn't like TTAC; we have no compunctions about tugging on Superman's cape. In fact, it's no big deal. But it is for Automotive News [sub]: "Still, Toyota's vaunted inventory controls have come up against market forces even it cannot tame." Whoa! And there I was thinking ToMoCo had moved past inventory control to weather control. Nope. "The number of units in dealership stock and en route have swelled to about 376,000. That's about 100,000 units more than were on the ground last summer, and up from about 348,000 a year ago." While ToMoCo's "turndown pool" (vehicles rejected by dealers) has swelled to 9700 vehicles, these stats are, frankly, small beer compared to the situation over at GM. GM's cash flow and profit-critical truck inventory may be in great shape, but that's because the American Axle strike means they ain't building them. And they've just announced their decision to make 138k fewer trucks this year. That's in addition (?) to all the trucks they're currently not making. "With rising fuel prices, a softening economy, and a downward trend on current and future market demand for full-size trucks, a significant adjustment was needed to align our production with market realities," said Troy Clarke, GM NA Prez. This, folks, is the reckoning.

Robert Farago

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4 of 28 comments

Tiger260 on Apr 29, 2008
KatiePuckrik : April 29th, 2008 at 11:15 am Starlightmica, There’s no way the Camry was sold 5-6 years ago in the EU. The Avensis has been around for 10 years and before that it was the Carina E. Last Camry I saw on the roads was about the late 80’s. Katie.... You're wrong about this one. I owned a 1992 model year Camry I the UK. I bought it used around 2000 and they were defnitely still selling the next generation Camry (97-2001?) at that time. You're certainly right that they were never really a success in the UK. I think they never found thier niche in the UK? They were marketed in a price band that put them up against the lower-end BMWs and such like - and I think that folks just didn't see them as outwardly flashy looking. It did make them an absolute bargain as a used car. They tended to by bought new by middle age, middle-income, middle-class folks who had them properly serviced and didn't thrash them or run up huge mileages. So there were some very nice condition low-ish mileage one-owner trade-ins out there.... If you weren't too concerned about "image" they were very confortable, very spacious compared to their peers, very well-built, utterly relaibel and a bargain. One of those strange enigmas.... never really caught the UK car-buying public's imagination yet people that actually owned them. invariably loved them to bits... Mine was virtually faultless. bought it with 65,000 miles on it, put another 50,000 on it with nothing more than a blown light bulb to fix (aside from regular scheduled service work).

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Cammy Corrigan on Apr 29, 2008

I stand corrected. I read Honestjohn.co.uk and apparently there was a 2006 model! I really am at a loss at to how this one passed me by, especially since I'm a big fan of Toyotas! My apologies, to all.

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George Labrador on Apr 29, 2008

On a recent Tour of the Toyota plant in Cambridge, Ontario, we where told that most of the production of Corollas and Matrix model are shipped to Toyota in Clarence, California. this plant also makes the Lexus RX350, only plant outside of Japan that makes a Lexus Model, saw one in front area of the Plant, it was a good looking vehicle but out of my price range, to make the Leather Seats they use a local Mennonite Manufacturing plant in nearby Elmira, Ontario.

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M1EK on Apr 29, 2008

I really can't see Camries/Corollas being the problem. We went to the local Toyota dealer the last two weekends to look at Prius colors in person (for our 2nd), and there were rows and rows of Tundras sitting unsold. (They are back up to about a month wait on a Prius unless you like buying one that is loaded up with dealer crap). People who used to buy SUVs but won't now are perfect future Camry customers - that, after all, is what people like that used to drive.

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