Toyota December Sales Snapshot: A Fishbowl Full of Not Good
Truth be told, there’s not a damn thing automakers can do to revive the U.S. auto market to 2007 levels. All they can do is ride out the economic shitstorm that was, in no small part, created by the lax lending standards in which they were active not to say maniacally enthusiastic participants (I’m looking at you GMAC). Who would have thought the fact that all automakers are suffering would provide the basis for an excuse for GM to extort $17.4b from Uncle Sugar? Ahem. Anyway, yes, Toyota’s going to take it in the shorts. One TTAC’s front line contacts runs a store in the DC area for the Japanese brand [NB: not the one shown], and checks in on your behalf. “We sold 428 vehicles for December. 148 Used, 380 New Toyota. We sold 625 new and used vehicles last year in Dec. Prius is selling at or below invoice, Camry Hybrid below invoice, Highlander Hybrid below invoice. Just thought you’d like to know.” Uh-oh. I make that a 32 percent drop.
More by Robert Farago
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I feel sorry for all those dealers in other places who are having trouble moving the metal. Toyota and Honda sales here are through the roof; it wouldn't surprise me if there are six-month waiting lists for a Camry or Accord. In fact, they may be sold out through 2009. Or even 2010. I base this solely on the fact that the local outlets are still adding their own window stickers for $500 to $1000 of protect-o-wax, nitrogen in tires, window etching, etc. Toyota itself is the most egregious, however. It's "distributor" adds their own unnecessary junk to the MSRP before the cars are sent on to the dealer. You can't avoid it. At least when that despicable Toyota dealer charged a lady $18 for a spark plug, he didn't claim the price included insulator polish. Fitzmall may be 1200 miles away, but I think it'd be well worth the drive. One of my neighbors went to Memphis for his Odyssey and saved a ton of money.
200k-min Yeah, couldn't imagine getting serviced at a VW dealer...and I drive an old passat myself. I have a very seriously obsessed VW-nut friend who helps me work on mine (taking apart a late 90's passat requires help, one engine mount can take hours) and he's admitted to parking cars out back to add billable hours when he used to work at a dealer. Not his decision either, orders were from management. The way he tells it, this is common dealer behaviour, but I haven't heard another first hand account of this. Personally, I believe it, especially after I went to a VW dealer for an estimate on installing some Bilstein HD's (already bought) and they quoted me almost twice what the job was worth. For what it's worth I've had great interactions with Honda before...my mother bought an element for a winter car and I was just blown away by the lack of pushiness and general honesty of the experience. Best part is, they haven't backpedaled after the sale, she still deals directly with the salesman when she goes in for service. On the flip side, I've been in several Toyota dealers and each time I was surrounded by snake-oil salesmen who were willing to blatantly lie to move metal. People claim good experiences with that company but they are 0 for 3 with me, so I don't get it. Plus their cars fail a test drive comparison in a huge way.
GMAC's auto loan unit took advantage of cheap credit, along with everyone who refinanced their homes, sold a home, took home equity loans or invested in rental properties. While GMAC has a bigger role in the financial/credit meltdown than the average real estate broker I don't think anyone was selling securities based on subprime auto loans. Perhaps it was done, but I haven't heard of it. In GMAC's case, their real estate unit obviously had a greater role because those of mortgage based securities. The automotive loan unit was more like the banks that were giving out high risk credit cards. The upside of captive auto financing companies like GMAC and Ford Credit is that they help sell cars, the downside is that by making money from money it takes away from focus on product.