If you think Toyota has problems, you sure can’t see them on their monthly report. Toyota just released sales and production numbers for July, and they look beauteous:
From January through July 2010, worldwide production rose 40.3 percent to 5m units. The July number is a bit more subdued (+ 10.7 percent worldwide,) but there is not a single minus sign on the whole report.
Last year in July, Toyota had made half of their annual production (7.2m). By that formula, Toyota could break the 10m mark this year. Unlikely to happen. The Japanese home market is expected to collapse in October. The U.S. market does not show signs of vigorous recovery. The European market will remain anemic. In China, Toyota does not have a strong position, and even China is cooling off a bit.
Nothing lasts forever, and yes, China cannot sustain it’s remarkable growth of recent years. People are spent-out, and the loss of American domestic manufacturing for consumer goods is bad news not only for us, but trickles down throughout the world. Those jobs don’t appear to be coming back anytime soon, and without them, you can’t have a viable middle class. That adds up to a very anemic consumer economy.
Somebody, please jump in who understands this stuff better than me and offer us a deeper analysis.
Maybe I can dig up an old Gremlin and make it run with cobbled parts for transportation when I can no longer afford any new or recent vehicle! Of course I’ll have to make my way to Eugene to find one. That’s a long hike from Ohio!
Zackman – You understand it pretty well actually, especially the part about:
“People are spent-out, and the loss of American domestic manufacturing for consumer goods is bad news not only for us, but trickles down throughout the world. Those jobs don’t appear to be coming back anytime soon, and without them, you can’t have a viable middle class. That adds up to a very anemic consumer economy.”
I don’t think there is a solution, certainly not an easy one or a quick hit. This is another example of bone-headed political maneuvering that hasn’t come close to turning out the way our Government “Policy” brainiacs pontificated that it would. Add in the massive debt that we have taken on by buying a lot of crap that we don’t need and can’t afford from countries who we do business with simply so they’ll continue to financially prop up this economic model of “health and well being” has put us in an intractable position.
Gotta pay the piper at some point.
Oh Yeah… The unions pulled a segment of the blue collars,into the middle class. In recent times, economic reality has pushed this same group back down to the working class,”where they belong”. At least that is the sentiment voiced by many of the “white collar” middle class.
As “Zackman” pointed out, say good bye to a huge group of consumers,and they ain’t coming back. I’ve bought eight new cars in my life. I’m never going to buy another one. Most,if not all of my peers feel the same way.
We ,the well paid union members, were the low hanging fruit,on the socio economic scale.
So guess what socio economic group might now have replaced us as “the low hanging fruit” ?
C’mon Mikey. Us white collar types have always respected the illegal aliens that mow our lawn more than union thugs. They work a helluva lot harder. Turns out, they also build cars better than union thugs too. We would have never known if it wasn’t for the union greed that made us take a chance on letting them bolt together cars on their own side of the border. Seems they understand the American work ethic better than the “American” unions. Work hard for a fair wage and get ahead – as opposed to the union creed of slack all day, collect my pay and then complain. If you think that white collar jobs are next, you’re absolutely right but not for the reasons you think. We’re taking white collar jobs offshore because Congress is an enemy of business, making it too diffcult and expensive to do business in the U.S. We’re not being replaced by foreign workers, we’re voluntarily moving to countries that respect and support business. And we’re leaving you behind to lay in the bed you made.
So …your gonn’a move to another country. Seems a bit radical. Do entry level “white collar” jobs pay 40 or 60k a year in India?
Toyota makes the most durable, reliable, and affordable cars on the planet. They will continue to grow and prosper.
Americans love an underdog, and that’s how Toyota seemed when the UA thing was going down. I don’t think people were very concerned – maybe even thought it was bunk – and responded by continuing to buy Toyotas.