Toyota: Whose Turnaround is This Anyway?
Far be it for me to extend TTAC’s reputation for putting a negative spin on news trumpeted as a sign that the auto industry’s dark days are coming to an end. But this story—“Toyota sees turnaround, boosts U.S. output”—is making the ’rounds, and it bears closer examination.
The headline arrives via Automotive News [sub], who reports that Toyota will ramp up production of six of its best-selling models over the next three months. “‘We see a turnaround coming,’ Bob Carter, general manager of Toyota Division, said during a conference call.” What do you mean “we,” white man? Toyota or the whole US automotive market?
Reading between the lines, it seems that AN was trying to get Carter (great movie) to say this wasn’t just a ToMoCo thing. “There was an improvement [in May] on the retail side of the business for the entire industry . . . We may be witnessing a slight rebound in the industry,” he said.
Or not, after you factor in incentives and such. And that’s only relative to the previous month, which sucked Big Style. And anyway, how many more vehicles are we talking about?
North American production will increase by 65,000 units over the previous plan for the three-month period as Toyota boosts output of its Camry, Corolla, Sienna, RAV4, Tacoma and Tundra models, Carter said. Toyota’s North American total production in June, July and August of 2008 was 349,835 units, including Lexus models.
Just to keep that in perspective (sorry, must be done), that’s 65,000 units over the previous plan, which was . . . what? In other words, its highly likely this “good news” simply means that Toyota’s not cutting production as deeply than they would have, rather than “adding” new units to production.
The US auto industry is not out of the woods yet. Not by a long chalk.
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3rd Place: 2009 Toyota Yaris S Liftback As-tested price: $17,953 A good example of why Toyota is in trouble. As Bob Lutz said at Chrysler, you won't sell many cars if you are everyones's second choice. Toyota often is third, fourth or fifth choice. GM cars such as the new Buicks are far more attractive than any Toyota branded cars (not including Lexus here which does have some very nice cars). We have a lady at work who bought a near loaded Camry hybrid for $40K. The cloth and seats remind me of the interior of a fleet Taurus five years ago.
THanks for your answer HolyDonut. Just to add some trivia.. in Spain the dealership used to register most of the unsold cars in December and then sell them as "used with 0 kilometers.." so they looked good to the factory. I know some people who paid outrageous prices for the FJ when it was produced for the first time and now they have big discounts.