http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=1945151

Toyota's profit in the January-March quarter jumped 39 percent as the world's No. 2 automaker marked its sixth straight record fiscal year of booming sales, the company said Wednesday.

Toyota Motor Corp. recorded a net profit of 404.1 billion yen ($3.6 billion) in the final quarter of fiscal 2005, up from 290.7 billion yen in the same quarter the previous year.

How long do you think they can keep this up?

 

My prediction is that eventually the quality and reliability image will go down the drain when high production numbers surpass quality as a goal.

 

everyone that i know that has a foreign car so far isnt really satified with it, they like the gas mileage, but the reliablity is not so good, mabe they are just unlucky or something but most of them traded for an american car agian. i myself have a 1990 toyota sr5 and the body is great on it and the motor just blew up at 235xxx.

 

Call me crazy, but I think that Honda and Toyota's quality peaked in the late 90's, and has gone down some (but not tons) since then due to increased vehicle complexity. No facts, but just a vibe I get.

 

WERM,
I think you're right. My cousin's 99 Camry you cannot move anything in the interior, on the dashboard, etc. The glovebox you push it as hard as you want and it's solid. My Corolla wiggles a bit.
Though it is still significantly higher quality than a comparable J-body, Focus or Protige/Mazda3.

 

You are going to see japanese cars reliability drop down to the lowest acceptable level sooner or later as they keep uping production and eventually the buying public will catch on(it may take 50 years). Business tends to be cyclical, it just takes longer in the auto industry.

 

Well domestics already have a bad reputation. I might ride the Toyota train until they slip. Though GM is coming back very strongly and they cannot afford to slip up and are dedicated as ever so I think I'll have to pick up a Caddy next.