Bailout Watch 487: Toyota USA Prez: We're Ready for GM C11

by Robert Farago

Published: April 8th, 2009

bailout watch 487 toyota usa prez we re ready for gm c11

Holy NSFW. When Toyota’s No. 1 American executive steps up to the microphone and declares that his employer’s ready for the fallout from a GM Chapter 11, you might as well stamp “done deal” on the, uh, deal. The AP reports that “Toyota Motor Sales USA President Jim Lentz says his company shares about two-thirds of its 500 parts suppliers with GM. . . only a small number of Toyota suppliers are critically short on cash.” Of course, we knew that already. Both the GM and the supplier thing. But still. You gotta wonder: is Jim Lentz sticking the knife in GM to goose ToMoCo’s April and May sales. According to Automotive News [sub], Lentz says US auto sales may rise in the second quarter. Well they will for someone.

And that someone believes they have a higher quality of customer.

Lentz said Toyota has no plans at present to match the incentive programs of Hyundai, General Motors and Ford Motor Co., which cover car payments in case of job loss.

“We are really listening to our dealers, and thus far they are telling us that it’s really not a discussion on the showroom floors,” Lentz said.

Don’t ask, don’t tell? Lentz’s remark also shows a remarkable insensitivity to the working stiffs who are scared stiff at the prospect of buying a new car and losing their livelihoods. Man, these guys sound more and more like GM every day.

Robert Farago

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4 of 31 comments

Pch101 on Apr 09, 2009
The Allies had also learned the lessons of World War I - namely, humiliating a defeated foe by stripping it of its resources and industry is not the way to lasting peace. A prosperous and democratic Germany and Japan would be much less likely to cause trouble in the postwar world. Which, of course, turned out to be true. +1 to that. It's funny how these things turn into national pissing contests, when they shouldn't and when the facts are obvious. Here's a metaphor that might help. An old lady needs help to get safely across a busy street; without the help, she'd probably get hit and die. A bystander jumps in to help her, not because he's particularly kind hearted, but because he's on the outs with his wife, who will be impressed (i.e. let him stop sleeping on the couch) if he acts like a mensch and helps Grandma to the other side. Can the old lady claim that she didn't benefit? No. This help made all the difference to her, even if the intent wasn't entirely selfless. She doesn't need to be a patsy, but she should be grateful for the help, because she got tremendous benefit from it and the person who helped her had no obligation to do so. Can the guy claim to be an angel? No. He certainly helped, but had ulterior motives for helping. Those motives didn't compromise the value of what he did, but his actions were also self serving in some way to a degree that she need not grovel or bake cookies for him every day for the rest of his life under the guise of his sainthood. This is analogous to the post-WWII situation. Yes, we rebuilt them to help ourselves, but they still came out of it with the goods. Yes, we should stop bragging and pretending that we're godly, but they should stop bitching and occasionally take a moment to thank us for helping them, because even if it did us some good, we didn't need to be quite so nice about it.

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Psarhjinian on Apr 09, 2009
The Allies had also learned the lessons of World War I - namely, humiliating a defeated foe by stripping it of its resources and industry is not the way to lasting peace What a pity we haven't applied that lesson in the middle-East.

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KixStart on Apr 09, 2009

toxicroach: "I think your reading too much into it. He has shareholders who have been getting told that a GM bankruptcy would destroy the suppliers and kill the whole industry. He has every right to reassure the public that Toyota will be ok." Well put and I agree.

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Derm81 on Apr 09, 2009
Studying history can be educating. Bertel, I have said it before and I will say it again...without the help of the US, it would have taken Germany 3 times as long to redevelop itself. Who cares if the US did it just for its own interests? Doesn';t matter.....anyways, it's water under the bridge. So who’s to blame for the resurgence of Germany and Japan? The heads of American industry, that's who.

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