Toyota has announced that its U.S. sales are set to outperform the market for the month of August. The news comes amid a downward-turning market due to increasing gas prices and an unstable housing market. Despite the market slump, Toyota officials are confident that the automaker will still meet its yearly sales goal.
According to Automotive News, Toyota saw its first sales decline in almost three years in July, falling 3.5%. However, the decline was better than the industry’s overall slip of 8.7%. “July was a bit weak due to various factors including subprime loan problems and high oil prices,” Toyota’s President, Katsuaki Watanabe, told reporters. Analysts expect another weak month for Toyota in August due to difficult comparisons from a big rise a year ago.
Auto sales in the U.S. were down 3.7% through the first seven months of the year.
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08/30, 8:17 AM
posted by:
350zfairlady
I hope toyota’s continue to decline.
08/30, 8:18 AM
posted by:
350zfairlady
*toyota’s sales continue to decline
08/30, 9:10 AM
posted by:
Hari
@350zfairlady
Any good reason for wanting their sales to decline?
08/30, 9:11 AM
posted by:
jdasch1
As the big three pull back from the fleet sales game, Toyota is jumping in with record #’s. Toyota will soon be just like GM. Too many bland vehicles that look alike, and you can rent them before you buy them.
08/30, 9:22 AM
posted by:
affliction
toyota’s selling cars strictly off of its reliability history….THAT is the difference between Toyota and the big three (well, the shrinking three)…The only US automaker I see some life in is GM. They’re making much better products these days. Still I see toyotas and hondas at auctions and you’d be amazed at how people flock at them b/c they’re bulletproof…especially camrys, siennas, corollas, accords, and civics. As far as the general public is considered every 2 people can own a toyota, so long as the roads aren’t filled with hazard lights and tow trucks.
08/30, 9:35 AM
posted by:
buenos
Much to the chagrin of many people on this site, Toyota is apparently making vehicles that the masses want, and that is no different from what the former Big Three USED to do. Are they bland? Yup. Do people seem to care? Nope. Have they had some quality issues of late? Yup, and those issues have been acknowledged by Toyota. They had made the engineering process so lean that quality gaps were appearing. They have now slowed down the development process (first implemented on the new Highlander) to ensure that quality levels stay high. Doing so still doesn’t make for exciting cars and trucks, but it does help to restore and retain Toyota’s reputation for building high quality vehicles.
08/30, 10:02 AM
posted by:
cwwilson
I just don’t get how Toyota itself is still selling so well. They basically told young buyers to **** off when they killed the MR2 and Celica. I guess that’s where Scion comes in but I was talking about actual Toyota. No Celica, no MR2, no Supra….It’s like they’ve forgotten about the sports car altogether.
08/30, 11:19 AM
posted by:
Deanster
Buenos, it’s not like GM is cranking out exciting products either. Besides the vette and the sky/solstice, everything else is ****ing boring.
08/30, 11:21 AM
posted by:
autonut
Probably Toyota (and Honda) not aware that they should introduce new speedometers instead of new engines and don’t rush to align themselves with Apple of Dell to build new cars. They do know their business.
My explanation to cwwilson on how and why Toyota is selling so well after killing MR2 & Celica. Perhaps Toyota suits realized that sales figures do not support manufacturing of different models based on Corolla . Toyota is luring young buyers with models from Cororolla and Matrix outfitted with the same engines Toyota is supplying to Lotus (well at least in 2006 they did offer those engines). Toyota is replying to market demands. Perhaps customers chasing MR2 are not that well off and high risk business to begin with.
08/30, 11:46 AM
posted by:
buenos
Deanster, that’s true, most mainstream vehicles have become pretty homogenous, especially in the North American market. De-badge a new Malibu, an Accord, a Camry, a Fusion, and, say a Mitsu Galant, and put them beside each other, and my guess would be that most people would be hard pressed to tell the difference.
08/30, 1:06 PM
posted by:
Madcapp
Common people buy common cars. Its not too hard to do the math.
08/30, 1:07 PM
posted by:
jackjimturkey
I’ve long considered toyota’s inferior crap
I drove the new Tundra not long ago, and was surprised by how well-built it seemed plenty of room, plenty of power. Of course, they gave me a ship-shape unit, and I didn’t do any “truck” stuff in it, but if the real trucks approach this level of quality …
08/30, 3:15 PM
posted by:
terminator
You have to look under the skin of the Tundra. It’s frame is very weak compared to the big threes trucks and the bolts used for the frame and body are about a 1/3 of the size that Ford uses in the F150. Plus the camshafts have a tendancy to crack making it so you have to replace the whole engine. Toyota has been playing off their reputation for years now. They don’t offer naything more spetacular than the next car company. There’s no such thing as a quality gap anymore and Toyotas quality is actually slipping.
08/30, 3:26 PM
posted by:
A4
because toyota sucks, thats why
08/30, 3:33 PM
posted by:
jackjimturkey
term: my pooint is, that the last Tundra was FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR below the Silverado and F150. This one is near the neighborhood.
09/02, 7:01 PM
posted by:
Commodore
I love the ultra positive title LLN gave this article, even though it talks about sales falling for everyone. Toyota’s sales falling are good news for the American economy though.