Interesting article about Toyota's sales here;
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4764748.stm
One quote that I found quite astounding;
In North America in particular, Toyota Motor made a splash last month when its market value reached fresh records, crashing through the psychologically-crucial $200bn ceiling for the first time.
Not only did this make Toyota the world's tenth most valuable company; it also meant the Japanese giant was worth more than twice as much as General Motors, Ford Motor and DaimlerChrysler combined.
I know that GM, DC etc are having a rough time but for Toyota to be worth twice as much as them ....!
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It seems to me that they are most people what they want, a safe, reliable and well built car and good customer service.
The others don't.
Simple really
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They offer very good vehicles in every segment,everywhere in the world.They design them so they are easy to build,easy to repair,and especially for developing countries they are not overcomplicated with fragile and difficult to repair parts or systems.
They are very good at developing niche brands within the Toyota Family(Lexus,Scion,Will)and they spend huge amounts on R&D.
I am sure that Toyota will continue to outperform all other motor manufactures,the US big 3 in particular are in huge trouble and are just trying to perfect the 'headless chicken'routine.
Whatever you think of Hybrid systems,can you think of any other manufacturer(other than Honda)that you would trust to get the technology as right as Toyota have?
The UK is not a huge Toyota market and Toyota UK only import a very small number of the different models that Toyota make,it is an eyeopener when you see what is available under the Toyota brand in other markets,especially Japan.
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If they had pleasant interiors, I'd buy them, but at the moment, even Lexus are awful places to sit. I can't understand why they don't just emply a good interior designer from Europe, and use tactile materials.
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Pleasant is subjective,and Toyota may not sell to you but the interiors must have an appeal to a lot of punters.
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I was lucky enought to visit a number of Japanese car plants (in Japan) last year - and got paid for it!
The Japanese car plants, and their working style, is very appealing. I went to Toyota's Miyata plant on Kyushu (the southern island). It is extremely modern, quiet and clean, and set in landscaped forest.
One of the things which I'm sure helps the Japanese to be successful is their social structure. The average Japanese CEO earns about 18x the wage of his shop floor workers. In the US it is about 150x.
Also, it is rare for even senior managers to have their own offices - compare this with the way US managers operate in 'splendid isolation' away from their workforce.
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I remember reading in a Landrover Magazine that in remote places in the world the first car anyone would have seen would have been a Landrover. Now i think it's a Toyota
Cerainly here in Sudan where i'm now that would be the case. Infact in one site where i have work with over 1000 people working i counted in excess of 100 vehicles in the car park about 90 were toyota (Hi Lux, Crusers,& prado's) some mitsubishi L200's & 1 American Ford P/U
AS well as the usual good reliability a lot has to do with good global marketing too
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I remember reading in a Landrover Magazine that in remote places in the world the first car anyone would have seen would have been a Landrover. Now i think it's a Toyota Cerainly here in Sudan where i'm now that would be the case. Infact in one site where i have work with over 1000 people working i counted in excess of 100 vehicles in the car park about 90 were toyota (Hi Lux, Crusers,& prado's) some mitsubishi L200's & 1 American Ford P/U AS well as the usual good reliability a lot has to do with good global marketing too
I've said on here before (and been ridiculed for it) that the Taliban weren't daft when they bought Toyotas. Its the kind of vehicle you want in a remote place like Afghanistan where there aren't too many main dealerships and factory-trained mechanics.
Another thing is that if a Japanese car DOES go wrong they are not too bad to fix. One thing I hate about so many European cars is that if you disconnet parts of the electrical system then when you plug it all back together again the bits won't talk to each other and need to be 'recoded' by the dealer. It seems almost everything has to be recoded to everything else. Like on the A-Class, the AFM is integrated with the ECU. Need a new AFM and its about £600-700 for the part and then the dealer wants £200 to recode it!!
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Too right Aprilia,and you don't appreciate that quality until you either have to fix it yourself or find somebody else to do it for you.
I like the quality of the engineering and the quality of the components that go into a Toyota,they are very rarely in my experience made deliberately to a low standard that does seem to be the case with a lot of other manufactures.
Another thing that kills profits is warranty work and recalls,both things that Toyota manage to keep to a minimum in whatever market they are in.
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But, Aprilia and mm, leaf-sprung Land Rovers are pretty straightforward too and were certainly much respected a few years ago at the other end of the Sahara from where mm works. Indeed some desert men preferred it to the already encroaching Land Cruiser and Range Rover for its fuel economy and solidity... but the Algerian police in particular thought it too slow (it couldn't catch a Land Cruiser, so the Tuareg smugglers down south were Toyota men). I suppose Land Rover like the rest of BL or whatever you call it just gave up trying in the face of rational competition. You certainly wouldn't want one of these complicated, comfortable V6 turbodiesel Land Rovers in the desert. It wouldn't stand up to it at all.
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They just lack 'character' - very subjective I know.
They also lack a car with a decent diesel auto, Toyota or Lexus.
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Toyota produce plenty of diesel autos,just Toyota UK don't bother to bring them in.
Define 'character',now that is difficult if you omit the dubious pleasure of breakdowns.
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Character:
Getting into it on a cold morning and knowing that you must follow the right sequence to get it started:
Prod throttle 3 times
Crank for 10 seconds
Prod throttle one more time
Pull choke out 3/4"
Crank for another 10 seconds and it should fire.
Gently ease choke back in over next 10 mins.
Don't stall it or it won't start again.
That's character - been there, got the T-shirt and don't want to go back.
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They just lack 'character' - very subjective I know. They also lack a car with a decent diesel auto, Toyota or Lexus.
Funny when back home in UK i quite like a car with "Character" hard to define i know)
But out here when i've got about 300km of rough desert track to cover all i'm concerened about is getting there!
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