Toyota No. 1 car producer

[FarCenter]

Source: The Yomiuri Shimbun

Toyota Motor Corp. overtook General Motors Corp. of the United States to become the world's biggest automaker in terms of units produced after GM announced its production figures for 2007 on Friday.

Toyota manufactured 9,497,754 units across the world in 2007--the figure includes vehicles made by subsidiaries such as Daihatsu Motor Co. and Hino Motors Ltd.--up 5.3 percent on the previous year.

In its announcement, which came early Saturday Japan time, GM said it produced 9,285,000 units last year--up 1.1 percent on 2006.


Read more: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/business/20080203TDY01303.htm

[derby378]

1. Daihatsu? They're still around?

I have to admit that I always thought their Charade coupe was rather cute. Too small for my needs, but good on Daihatsu for trying.

So now they're part of the Toyota family along with Lexus and Scion. Cool.

[Fenris]

2. Daihatsu has been a cooperative partner since the 1980s.

Toyota obtained a controlling interest in 1999. Daihatsu-branded vehicles are sold in certain markets - fewer since Toyota's takeover - but they sell a lot of engine and transmission assemblies to smaller manufacturers.

[psychopomp]

11. Yes, they are

I had a Daihatsu Charade when I lived in California. It was ideal for finding parking and I found it amusing to drive such a "tiny" car. I put tiny in quotes because it wasn't until I lived in Japan for awhile that I realized that the Charade is actually a family car here and is relatively roomy.

[Xithras]

28. Daihatsu stopped importing to U.S. years ago

They still sell a lot of cars elsewhere in the world, but they never really gained any traction in the U.S. If I remember correctly, they stopped importing to the U.S. in the mid-90's. My sister bought a Charade when they came out (less than $8,000 and a very good car) and had tons of trouble getting it serviced after they shut down the dealerships.

[derby378]

32. That's kinda what I figured...

I've not heard much negative press about the Charade. Sometimes it's just the breaks that sink a business venture.

[thunder rising]

3. My Corolla is CHEAP TO KEEP!!! and a great car to drive. To bad Detriot just don't get it!

[emilyg]

4. And till they do I'll keep buying Toyota.

[pipoman]

5. and will likely run forever with few if any breakdowns. A great model for decades

[kurth]

12. There is a reason it's the best selling car in the world

[kelvinyany]

31. 1990 Tercel still running great

Turned the key once and it starts right up like the day I bought it. Never any engine or major problem in it's entire 18 years. I will never buy any Detroit car.

[east texas lib]

6. Well...

It's not as if GM hasn't had plenty of time or chances to get their act together.

[tabasco]

7. Love my Echo.

Solid, cheaper than dirt, and you can't hardly beat the mpg.

[postulater]

8. Prius and Camry here. Ooops Saab for daughter

We'd buy American if they made them better.

They really screwed up by pushing the SUVs.

[pipoman]

15. Unless the Camry is reallllly old it was made in KY, it is more American

than the majority of the "big 3's" models...I'm not sure where Prius is made, anyone know? IIRC if the VIN# begins with a number it was made in a US facility, if it begins with a J it is a Japanese import

[postulater]

17. The Saab is the only one made abroad probably

It is also the last model year made in Sweden.

The service guy says it is the last model he would buy.

[Maat]

18. I'll go take a look; my Prius is downstairs ...

and we're about to buy a hybrid Camry.

Dang it - my Prius WAS imported. The Camry may be made here, though.

[Juneboarder]

37. We Just Got Rid of Our Prius

and it was made in Japan. Why did we get rid of it? Everything costs way too much. $3-400 for a new car key if you lose it; $600 to change a headlight. Wife processes warranties for a toyota dealership and sees the bills that go through service... unbelievable. We just traded it in for a Camry and will not be buying a hybrid again anytime soon.

[susanna]

44. The Prius is made in Japan. n/t

[bbinacan]

9. And my next vehicle will be a Sequoia.

I was thinking Chevy Tahoe, but the good ole boys here in Texas (believe it or not) say go with Toyota.

[tabasco]

14. A lot of Tacomas here in my area.

I'll be looking for a used one next summer.

Need a good work truck.

[CRF450]

29. I thought of getting a Tocoma, but got a Dodge Dakota instead.

And surprisingly, Dakotas are made here in the US.

[pipoman]

33. I wonder

for how much longer they are made in the US.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=3159750

All UAW-represented Chrysler LLC workers at Metro Detroit plants are expected to be offered buyouts and early retirement as the automaker works to eliminate the announced 8,500 to 10,000 hourly jobs.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=3164615

Chrysler LLC plans to lay off 119 salaried UAW design workers today at the technology center in Auburn Hills and at the Plymouth Road Office Complex in Detroit.

[CRF450]

41. That worries me alot, cause it is a great truck.

Quality wise, GM's quality has improved ALOT, you should see the new Malibu's interior, great overall car it is. There importing the Holden Commodore as a Pontiac G8 from Australia, and Holden is well known for high quality vehicles over their. My 01 Trans Am was built in Canada, the interior is cheap and shitty and theirs a few other cosmetic things that are known for breaking, but overall the car is very reliable. Crystler is in very bad shape, and its only going to get worse for them. The new Challenger is an awsome car, but it in no way is going to help them.

[FarCenter]

42. Initial quality is up, but will GM cars last?

JD Powers and the like keep publishing reports about either initial defect quality or reliability/quality over a relatively short time period -- three years or less.

But the real question is whether GM quality will hold up over 15 years and 200,000 miles?

See story above regarding a '90 Tercel to get a feel for what real quality and owner satisfaction is over the long haul. I have a '91 Civic that has been a terrific car.

The most recent GM product I've had was a '94 Saturn, which started to consume oil at around 70,000 miles. The prior Astro and Century were also disappointments.

We'll know around 2020 whether current GM models actually have any quality.

[CRF450]

47. Most of the time, a car is only as good as the owner takes care of it.

My brother's 95 z28 Camaro went up to 232,000 miles before the engine threw a rod. It was all orininal too, never been rebuilt, neither was the transmission and it still drove great, never burn a drop of oil either. He only had little small problems which are expected of a high milage car. That car was highway driven 6 days a week, 60 miles a day in total just going to and from work.

[bbinacan]

30. A guy I work with has

an 06 Tundra and loves it.

[Xenotime]

10. We can't even make our products right is when we lost.

[Sherman A1]

13. Just bought a Yaris this week

I would have looked at an American design, but nothing came close in the cost v benefit (mpg).

[goforit]

16. Don't ya just love articles that state the OBVIOUS!!!!

[nebula]

19. Don't blame it on the engineers

GM has some of the best engineers in the world, but there's only so much they can do when their hands are tied by the bean counters who run the show. Short-term profit trumps everything else, at the expense of quality and innovation. The management style at US car companies is a hopeless dinosaur, a relic of the distant past.

[harmonicon]

21. tell me about it

I have a cousin who used to work at ford as an engineer (her husband still does). She quit the job, because any innovative ideas she brought to the table were rejected. They made it very clear that they did not want new ideas or innovation - just keep making the same old crap. She couldn't take dealing with that shit, and having her skills be wasted. She's not in the industry any more.

[nebula]

26. Tesla Motors should be hiring soon

your sister might be interested.


all-electric production vehicles planned.

Tesla Motors, Inc. is a Silicon Valley automobile startup company focusing on the production of high performance, consumer-oriented electric vehicles. The firm was started in the summer of 2003 by engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning in San Carlos, and has since grown to include several team members with extensive computer, electrical, and automotive engineering backgrounds from around the world. Tesla Motors is named after Serbian inventor, electrical engineer and scientist Nikola Tesla...

...Sports sedan

Tesla is also currently working on an announced but unrevealed sedan, codenamed "WhiteStar", which may be introduced in 2009 as a 2010 model. It is being designed as an alternative to cars such as the BMW 5 Series and the Audi A6, with an estimated price of $50,000-70,000.<6> WhiteStar is to be built in a new plant in New Mexico.

Future models

Future plans include a more affordable third model. The development and production of this future model, codenamed "BlueStar", will be funded by profits from the WhiteStar sedan. According to Tesla, if everything goes according to plan, BlueStar will be released in 2012 and cost around $30,000.


more
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Motors
http://www.teslamotors.com/

[harmonicon]

27. great company - I hope it happens

I remember when the roadster first came out, and it was news - I don't know how many they've made or sold at this point. What I do like about the company is that, while they have foreign production, they use outsourcing so they can make the best possible product, cost be damned. I wish every other US company that has things assembled abroad could say the same. I would like to see this take off.

[nebula]

36. I just hope they don't get bought out

I hope Tesla doesn't end up selling out to one of the Big 3 auto companies. If they do the new technology will never see the light of day (at least not in a mass-produced form or until Toyota comes out with it). Too many promising new technologies get killed off that way.

[Baron Harkonen]

20. GM: Der, uhhh, lets build 5000lb+ SUV's

so our customers get a tax credit. And the radio is tuned to Rush. Go figure, Ive seen these people or whatever they're called.

[Psephos]

22. Awesome!!! Cuz Toyota pays way more than GM to American workers...not

Way less, actually, especially when you add in the costs of benefits to retirees and workers' families.

But wait, you mean there's a downside to progressive sneering at GM cars? Who would have ever thought there was a connection between the middle class life GM has made possible for generations of workers, and the continued purchase of GM products by other Americans?

Too too too bad, UAW chumps. We're all for you, really, but don't umm ask us to actually buy what you make. Don't worry, maybe the ignorant pugs and redstaters will fill in.

Bottom line: this board has a lot of automotive chickenhawks.

[jkg4peace]

23. You mean GM that shut down the factories

and shipped the jobs to Mexico GM?

Progressives have the perfect solution: vote for Kucinich and get national health care, no more subsidies for big oil, no more WTO and NAFTA, bring back the E1 and GM blows Toyota out of the water, and their workers will be raking in the big bucks, clean air, free college for the kids and -- Oh yeah, we didn't want that. Oh, well.

[pipoman]

24. GM has no loyalty to American workers

Their business plan is what has sunk domestic sales not their cost of production. Their business plan for decades has included(s) huge amounts of revenue off of parts sales on parts intentionally designed to fail or not redesigned when failure was determined. The total quality issue has nothing to do with American workers, it has everything to do with parts engineering. Even when their market share was being encroached upon by Honda and Toyota they refused to change their market strategy. Now they are beginning to improve quality and exporting the jobs to keep their pocketbooks fat. If you have a beef it is with domestic corporate repugs not us peons who can't afford to buy cars and fix them constantly just to feed Detroit suits and blue collar workers who have higher incomes than the consumers you want to blame.

I will buy cars made in the US before I will buy cars made in third world economies regardless of the name plate. These cars being built in Mexico are not domestic cars..name plates are meaningless.

[Skittles]

25. please

half the computer monitoring of GM systems is in Brazil

[primavera]

43. Even if that were the whole story...

... which as other posters have pointed out it's not, it still wouldn't justify uncritical support for a company which engages in irrresponsible practices. Are you going to say that we shouldn't be critical of companies which dump toxic waste products because they employ workers to dump the waste? GM continues to focus its efforts on producing vehicles which get unacceptably poor gas mileage, produce unacceptably excessive emissions, and pose an unacceptable hazard to other motorists. Whether they employ US workers or not is of secondary importance, their actions remain unacceptable and cannot be supported. When they develop a concience, I will be more than happy to buy one of their vehicles. Until then, I will continue to give my business to companies which produce responsible vehicles like my Prius.

[tabasco]

45. So it's the customer's fault when a business goes tits up?

Interesting. I always thought it was bad management.

[susanna]

46. Hiya, Psephos - do you ever find...

...that we always end up in these same threads? ;-)

For the record, after reading this thread, I am an absolute dinosaur since I work for the domestic automakers; my client companies' products are crap (unless you're reading the latest quality surveys, that is). And this board just loves to bash us, even though the UAW (American workers with good jobs and benefits) fund a ton of Democratic political initiatives. What a crazy world we live in, huh?

[Earth_First]

34. USA! USA! USA! US...A U...S...

...A?

[sakabatou]

38. There are Toyota plants in the US, you know...

[Javaman]

35. What is interesting to ponder is...

Imagine if you will, Back in the late 90's and early ot's, if GM actually stood behind the EV-1 and went on to build other electric cars, they would still be #1, but alas, greed and stupidity and short sightedness lead them down this road.

but not selling the EV-1 and by actively campaigning and "bribing" officials to over turn California's zero emissions law, they not only shot themselves in the foot, but blew off the whole leg.

Weeeee!!!!

:banghead:

[nebula]

40. The EV-1

was a radical new technology for GM. The problem from GMs point of view is producing such a radically new vehicle, on a mass scale, would require tremendous amounts of capital investment in new factories and new assembly lines that would be capable of producing it. Given the huge start-up costs, even with high demand, the profits wouldn't be seen for years if not decades. And of course a company like GM can't be bothered with anything if it doesn't produce big profits overnight. Stupid and shortsighted as their thinking may seem (and is).

[ReformedChris]

39. Great Products made Toyota#1, only cars like the Chevy Volt can save Detroit from the freefall nt