Party Time At Toyota: March Sales Way Up
While others have a bit prematurely called for a Toyota death-watch, we’ve been following the story of comeback kid Toyota for a while. In Japan, ToMoCo’s production, domestic sales, and exports are solidly up. In the U.S.A., where Toyota had taken the biggest recall-pummeling, Edmunds predicted a 37.1 percent rise over March 2009. Looks like their crystal ball is in fine shape. Expect Toyota to surprise when March numbers come out.
Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., told Automotive News [sub] that Toyota expects March sales to be up 30 to 35 percent over year-ago figures, outpacing industry gains. As far as industry gains go, Edmunds expects those to be 31 percent, we’ll hear a big sigh of relief when March numbers will be announced in a few days.
Much to Lentz’s surprise , their RAV4 is selling like gangbusters, which caused Lentz to suspect ”that perhaps RAV4 incentives were a bit high.” Speaking of trucks, they are back from the dead, at least as far as Toyota is concerned. “It’s really light trucks that are driving the business,” Lentz told AN.
Lentz said he thinks (hopes, prays) that the worst is over in the crisis surrounding claims of unintended acceleration of Toyota vehicles: “It’s a matter of time. The dealers are doing a great job taking care of customers with their existing cars,” he said. “That’s where you start to rebuild the brand. And with NASA and the National Academy of Sciences on the case, we’ll get, to steal LaHood’s favorite line “to the bottom of this.” In six to 15 months.
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Not surprising at all. The dealers around here are still hopping while the local Government Motors and other Detroiters are ghost towns.
37.1% is better than the drop last month, but remember that Toyota dropped 39.0% in March 2009 from a good number in 2008, and is only regaining 37.1% from a bad number last year. And that cost them how much in incentive spending? Doesn't sound like a lot of cheering is in order just yet.
Beware percentages. If you had 100 of something and you lost 50% you then have 50 pieces. It will take a 100% gain to get back to where you started.