Because we're Americans. We weren't designed that way.

 

Somehow some people dont get that...I mean I have yet to hear about Toyotas trucks being rust magnets, plus other problems...yet a small problem in any domestic truck its on the 5.11.and every TV bumper..

 

Apparently It seems we are innately designed to implode our economy by making sure everybody else has a competitive advantage over our domestic companies.

Normally, if the economy was healthy I'd be inclined to agree with you, but its not and I can't see where handing out all the aces to foreign competitiors is in some fashion a winning scenario?

 

If anything this proves that GM was not mismanaged..but rather a victim of the worst downturn in the automarket this generation. If Toyota had GM's legacy costs and did not have years of profit from currency manipulation they would be screwed too.

The current automarket is a doomsday scenerio that there is no plan for because it is almost unsurvivable.

 

quite frankly I hope that they post record losses for the next year or two to smack them off of their pedestal and people realize that they're not gods gift to the auto industry.

 

they were losing money before the downturn....

 

Last I heard, people don't judge product quality based on whether a company is making record profits or not. In fact to an extent some people may begin to wonder about the value they're receiving for their dollar when a company is making cash hand over fist.

So GM wasn't mismanaged... this is all just stuff outside of their control?

Funny, I thought it was sort of a combination of things. Some directly GM's fault, some indirectly GM's fault or due to a lack of preparation, and other things almost completely outside of their control. This is the equivalent to having your house's roof cave in during a storm, complaining to your builder, and having him tell you that he heard your neighbor's roof sprung a small leak during the same storm so that proves it's the storm's fault, not his fault. The storm is to be expected. How well prepared you are for it is up to you and your decisions.

 

6 slow months of sales should put a company out of business. That is what would have happened if the Gov't didn't step in. GM was losing money or making very little during some of the best boom years of the industry.

 

Self-fulfilling prophecy, eh?

I see your point on the CR reviews...but how come GM vehicles get such poor reviews if the review is from a person who actually bought GM? Is it a case of Toyota buyers raving about their car while the Chevrolet buyer complains about theirs (and both buyers are CR subscribers)? Because if so, it's not really self-fulfilling after all.

Now if a buyer shops three or four different makes, buys a Toyota, then trashes the cars he didn't buy/doesn't actually own...yeah, that's unfair and a garbage method of providing reviews on autos. And I can see why CR would be considered propaganda...including than the whole "XXXXXX has a reputation for quality so their new models get five stars" controversy.

 

Bah, the government gave the Big Three billions in the 1990s to develop hybrid technologies, putting us ahead of the Japanese.

And the only thing we got for it was "There's no market", "'Everyone' wants SUVs" and "Please don't close our CAFE loopholes".

Now, if I'm handing out Government R&D money, I'm going conclude that Biotech or Aerospace is a better bet because the auto industry just wants to keep making low-technology "metal".

 

Person buys a GM vehicle while being aware of CR but not giving them much credit. Person has horrible experience with GM vehicle and says "I wish I'd listened to CR... I'm going to start reading". CR sends that person a survey, they confirm their GM was a POS just like CR told them it would be. Person then buys a Toyota and continues to fill out CR surveys until (and if) they have a bad enough experience with their Toyota to decide CR is a bunch of crap.

Basically people are going to believe the results that somewhat mirror what they have experienced in real life. So if you poll those people they are going to, on average, give you results that are similar to the results you already publish.

 

The problem is, GM is paying the piper now for decisions made 30 years ago in terms of union contracts. Essentially decisions were made then by management, the UAW, and the government that would not allow GM the flexability and profitability needed to survive a sudden 50% drop in the market for several months.

My personal opinion is that I don't think that the GM of the last 5-6 years was "mismanaged" from a prouduct perspective. The product we have on the road is great..and I think 30 years from now we will consider it a golden age. GM factories are some of the most efficiant in the world, the quality is there to go toe to toe with anyone. The concessions the current GM management got from the UAW *before* the bailout were undreamable 10 years ago.

Many of the bad decisions were made with the goal of being as profitable as possible (too much investment in SUV's), or under pure duress (selling and seperating off GMAC because otherwise it could not get capital).

 

Quote:

"Toyota Motor, the world's top automaker... lost 765.8 billion yen (7.7 billion dollars) in the quarter to March alone, even more than General Motors, as it idled plants to ride out the biggest crisis in its more than 70-year history. "

I'm sorry folks... I've read the entire article and a couple others from other news agencies in the last few days. It's really depressing and all that. But I simply can't get over one of the tiniest little details in the article...

How is it that an AMERICAN car company that makes AMERICAN cars in AMERICA is reporting their income in Japanese YEN?
I really need someone to explain this to me. See, I thought that AMERICAN products , made in AMERICA, by AMERICANS should be reported-on in DOLLARS.

I didn't offer to pay for my Toyota in Yen?
I don't send my payments to Japan?
So how is it that my money/support for American Toyotas is being reported out of Tokyo, and the units are in Japanese currency?

Somebody better try REAL hard to convinnce me that the money I spend on a Toyota STAYS in America.

Another good article on Toyota...
Toyota Falls on Dividend Cut, Second Loss Forecast
"May 11 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp., Japan’s biggest carmaker, fell the most in almost four months in Tokyo trading after cutting its annual dividend for the first time and predicting a loss for a second year in a row.

Toyota dropped 190 yen, or 4.8 percent, to close at 3,790 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The shares have gained 33 percent this year.

The automaker’s loss may widen to 550 billion yen ($5.6 billion) for the year ending March 2010, from a loss of 436.9 billion yen a year earlier. Incoming President Akio Toyoda has been tapped to revive sales and cut costs as rising unemployment and falling wages in the U.S., Europe and Japan sap car sales. "

NOW FOR MY PARTING SALVO...
This is a PREDICTION... If Toyota does not begin drastically cutting their workforce and closing plants immediately, they will suffer a far worse ultimate fall than Ford or GM has. WHY MY COMMENT? Please follow...
1) Toyota is huge on giving people jobs for life. They invest heavily into their training and education in the TPS, and don't want it to "walk away" (especially into the hands of another company). Hence, they are reluctant to cut people.
1A) Toyota is prime Asian culture material. They see downturns as opportunities to prepare for growth and expansion. That is contracdictory to what Wall Street and the Nikkei think a depression/recession is all about.
2) Toyota has not known anything but "growth" for decades. Their management is in uncharted territory, and they have no proven track record of knowing how to deal with a severe downward trend, much less a total drop-off in production.
3) They have a huge head of steam - like a heavy ship at sea. Their momentum is going to carry them way past the point where they shut off the power, and I personally don't think they have shut it off yet (at least not enough). You are about to see lots full of Toyotas with rebates on the windows and low/no interest like you have never seen before.
4) Growing Pains... PERIOD. We are seeing quality issues like never before. Recalls like never before. The spin-masters are going to have a harder time keeping bad news under wraps as the volumes continue to increase. Throw in the cost-cutting measures being required by today's economy, and we are heading for some ugly problems in the next few years due to cost-cutting today.

In short, GM, Ford, and Chrysler have known they were in trouble for a while now and have been changing things to get "better". Toyota is plowing forward grabbing market share like crazy, not thinking they had a problem at all - it was the "American car companies and their dependence on trucks and SUVs that got them into trouble". Toyota has not really even begun to change anything yet to adjust their positions in the market... they are "behind" in making market adjustments IMO, and they will be behind in the recovery because of it.

Bottom line - every empire in history has crumbled. That's the down-side to being on the top... nowhere to go but down. My hunch is, their trip down may be faster than many believe at this time. So there it is... my words, written in black and white. Let's sit back and see what happens.

 

It matters not which currency is used to report earnings. Toyota USA reports their earnings to the U.S. Government and pays taxes in U.S. dollars. The parent company is headquartered in Japan so the publicly traded Toyota reports their earnings in Japanese Yen. Pretty simple.

As for where does the money go, again the answer is quite simple. It goes to the stockholders. If you want to buy shares of Toyota, you certainly may do so and you thusly share in the profits.

As I have pointed out before, the notion of an "American" car company or a "foreign" car company is merely a quaint vestige of the past and truly has no real meaning within the context of a global company.

Lastly, regarding the demise of Toyota, their cash position as well as cash flow as differentiated from profit, will keep them in good stead long after I take my last breath on this planet.

 

Toyota makes cars in the U.S. and other locations in the world. It's world headquarters are in Japan and under accounting rules, when Toyota reports its financial results it reports in yen.

GM makes cars in the U.S. and other locations in the world. It's world headquarters are in the U.S. and under accounting rules, when GM reports its financial results it reports in U.S. dollars.

So what?

The cars made by both companies in the U.S. are made in the U.S. and those that are not; are not.

On a related topic, Automotive News is now reporting that GM plans to start importing cars made in China to sell in the U.S.

LINK: http://www.autonews.com/article/2009...905119971/1131

I'm not sure I'd throw too many stones at Toyota and as I said in an earlier post in this thread; this is not a time to be rejoicing over any car company's losses.