Flights are delayed, so let’s hear Toyota’s take on on March sales: “We out-retailed both Ford and GM by nearly 40,000 units,”according to Don Esmond, head of automotive operations at TMS USA. “Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. sold more vehicles to retail customers than any other automaker.”
In an article at Automotive News [sub], Toyota makes the case that the momentum is back, and that its incentive programs for March didn’t steal forward sales, but picked up those waiting on the sidelines during the recalls. And the incentives are not about to stop now. “Toyota Division boss Bob Carter said the New York auto show that the company has no plans to halt incentives. “Short-term, we gotta sell cars.'”
Exactly what form those incentives will take isn’t yet clear, but come they will:
“We will continue to take the necessary steps to keep our dealers competitive,” said Don Esmond, head of automotive operations for Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. in a sales call today. “We won’t walk away from our customers. I’m sure they will continue to see good deals in the marketplace.”
Carter adds: “Dealers needed a shot in the arm. I have to restore sales, and I have to do it now. I’m not going cold turkey in April,” he said.
It doesn’t appear that Toyota learned anything from their recent downfall. Who cares who is number one? It’s who builds the best cars that matters. I was at the car show yesterday, and the Toyota section was depressing compared to everyone else.
It’s not so much being number one as it is being set up to produce a certain volume of product. If your cost structure is such that you need to sell X vehicles and yet you’re only selling X-Y, it make make more sense to incentivize away that gap and live with reduced margins than incur the costs.
Downsizing is particularly painful for manufacturers in general and automakers in particular: they have huge fixed slow-to-change costs. It’s not like, eg, consulting, services or outsourced resource extraction where you can just stop.
Toyota is a shark: they have to keep swimming or die of asphyxiation.
@psarhjinian,
Didn’t GM used to have that problem?
GM still has that problem. Every manufacturer does, except for bespoke coach-builders.
Manufacturing is hard. Auto manufacturing is very hard: not only do you have to keep your own lines humming or drown in cost, you have to keep growing and leveraging scale to beat out your competition, lest they do the same. Some marques can carve out a niche for themselves (Mazda and sporty, Suzuki and keijedosha, BMM or Daimler and luxury) but it’s a market where you either grow or die.
If you start shrinking, you will get eaten alive.
GM was interesting in that not only did they have cost problems, they had revenue problems as well. Towards the end, revenue was the problem: even when they cut to the bone, they couldn’t sell their cars for enough money because a) they’d pissed in their customers’ collective cornflakes too often and b) their product planning and marketing was so bad they couldn’t convince people to pay what they needed to make.
People harp on Toyota for growing too fast, but if you look at the state of manufacturers that didn’t grow (eg, they became takeover meat) you can see why staying small and making cost-uncompetitive products was quick suicide.
psarhjinian,
I’m sorry, sometimes my wit is too dry, subtle, or perhaps only funny to me.
I was just trying to carry the shark analogy out.
(Not to negate the validity of your response, the points were spot-on.)
So Toyota published its fleet sales? What were they?
http://www.toyota.com/businessfleet/
I’m curious too, how many Camry’s are being bought to be used as taxi’s?
Any chump can give away their products and label it “sales.” Total the spiff and customer cash and cash equivalents and you have a company buying the headlines.
Toyota has pockets deep enough to keep this up as long as necessary to buy their way back into the game. Three-to-five months of this and nobody will remember any of the recalls.
The rich are not like you and I.
I’ve certainly been wrong before, but once the media fed mass hysteria of UA (whatever it really is) dies down, people will look out onto the automotive landscape, people with no desire for anything other than basic, reliable and not very interesting transportation, and conclude as they have in the past that Toyota is still the way to go. Some will turn to Hyundai as a more or less viable alternative, but I doubt they will disturb Toyota much.
LOL, it looks like the SUA hysteria hurt Toyota’s competitors more than Toyota. I have never seen so many new Corollas, Camrys, Lexus IS/RX on the road in my life.
You are right Carperson…. anyone can “give” away their vehicles and call it sales. GM and Chrysler have been doing it for years; both before and after government bankruptcy. Toyota is still less than other auto makers in terms of incentive spending per vehicle. And as the article says, they are selling more to consumers directly. Not to the rental companies to be used as CABS.
This SUA stuff was media induced and driven by the Obama administration. Payback to the UAW who supported him in 2008. GM/Chrysler and others have had millions of SERIOUS safety recalls just during the recent SUA frenzy, and it has barely even registered on the media watch.
Toyota makes better cars than any one else period. And consumers know that. And this is why they are flocking back in droves to buy Toyotas again.
I wonder how long Chrysler can last? Each month, sales are up for just about everyone EXCEPT Chrysler.
Better cars in what respect?
MPG. Well more and more competitors are beating them there.
Exciting industrial design? Well, Americans do love beige.
OK, I know, I know, great handling, road feel, brakes, a car that you can appreciate on a twisting turning road. Oh wait, they don’t do that well either, do they.
I’m awaiting the Industrial Design of the Year award for their floor mats. Or failing oil lines. Or welds so bad doors fall of Sienna minivans. Or rotted out Tundra truck frames. Ya, they do a GREAT job, don’t they.
Toyota does one thing really well. They build dull, beige, toasters on wheels for people who can’t figure out that the gas pedal is on the right and the brake is on the left.
What does Toyota make that is better than everyone else?
The F-150 and Silverado are both superior trucks in pretty much every way to the Tundra. Likewise the Expedition and Tahoe are both better big SUVs, and sell better, than the Sequoia.
The Fusion is just as reliable and more fuel efficient than the Camry, and has better handling, a more well executed hybrid model, and unique features like Sync that Toyota can’t touch.
The Civic and Mazda3 are both more enjoyable compacts than the Corolla, with the Civic being just as reliable if not more so, the Mazda3 coming close, and the VW Golf embarrassing it when it comes to fit and finish.
The Taurus and new Buick LaCrosse are both better drives and have more features, more style, and more consumer interest than the Avalon.
The Escape and CR-V both regularly destroy the Rav-4 in sales, so they must offer something that consumers find appealing.
The Honda Fit and Nissan Versa are both better packaged, more practical, and better selling than the Yaris.
The Venza is sort of lost in the tall-wagon crowd, the Murano was there first and does a lot better, as does the Ford Edge.
Toyota does have a couple top-notch products, the Tacoma is probably the best small pickup on the market, the Land Cruiser is a great fully capable SUV, and the 4Runner is one of the best mid-size truck based SUVs you can buy. The Prius is, well, the Prius it has done more for making hybrids acceptable and common technology than anything else.
The days that Toyota made better products than anyone else, if they ever existed at all, are long gone though. Toyota buyers are buying Toyotas for the same reason that GM buyers used to buy GM – because they are used to it, and because they believe the marketing myth that Toyota is the best. In the short term the SUA debacle might not have done any long term damage, and people might forget in time, but they won’t forget if Toyota doesn’t clean up its act and start putting the build quality back into core vehicles like the Camry and Corolla which have been trending downwards for years.
GM didn’t crumble overnight, and Toyota won’t either, but history repeats itself, and if Toyota doesn’t get a lot of long term planning right, it may well be headed on the same path.
outdoor place dude, here in East TN, when we’re getting back in the woods, the only things we see are Jeeps of the CJ vintage or Toyota pickups or 4-Runners. Your mileage may vary. I was kind of hoping all this Toyota hoo-hah might make it worthwhile to go and check out a deal on a new Tacoma 4×4, but my city-slicker cousins down in Knoxville say they are selling them like hotcakes and don’t bother to make the trip.
Toyota makes better cars than any one else period.
The question is, better for what? If one is looking for something a bit more exciting than soft margarine, Toyota is not the stop. On the other hand, if driving for you is not unlike making toast in the morning, and you’re looking for a transportation appliance–a reliable Chevy or Buick as it were, then there’s nothing wrong with a Toyota and, indeed, it may be the best thing going. Maybe even the equivalent of a Panasonic toaster, without the panache of course.
“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
@ psarhjinian,
Sorry, sometimes my humour is too dry, too obtuse, or only funny to those as cynical as me.
I was just riding the shark analogy out a bit.
(Not to take away from your post, it was spot-on…)
Hiring that phony runaway Prius guy (who even remembers his name??) was a stroke of marketing genius on Toyotas part.
Toyota- “We’re #1 in retail giveaway er sales.”