Although Toyota’s main U.S. competitors included General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, the Japanese automaker is actually rooting for the Big Three to pull out of the current downturn, as a failure could prove disastrous for Toyota.
Toyota’s VP of engineering and manufacturing, Steve St. Angelo, gave the typical corporate response that better competition is ultimately better for the consumer, but the vested interest in Detroit runs much deeper for Toyota.
Truth be told, Toyota shares many of its suppliers with the Big Three. If one of the Michigan automakers were to fail, it would ravage the industry’s supplier base, and would likely disrupt operations at Toyota’s North American plants. “We share many of the same suppliers, so if one of our suppliers has difficulty with either Chrysler, GM or Ford, there’s a good chance they are going to have difficulty for us,” St. Angelo told The Detroit News.
The U.S. economy also largely follows the auto industry, so any downturn has the potential to impact Toyota’s bottom line.
“We want everyone to succeed,” he added.
08/13, 12:58 PM
posted by:
crackerhemi
Nah, that’s not it. They need the small three so that they can compare their product with the lowest qaulity cars in the market. With Hyundai, MB, VW, and BMW making great strides, the only ones that haven’t improved are the laughably small three.
08/13, 1:00 PM
posted by:
jayjc08
It’s good for Toyota to try to create a level playing field. It’s too bad the U.S. government, and other conditions including buyers of their products with this five year old mentality can’t see past that. I’m sure the next few posts will be about how Toyota sucks and how Toyota really wants the Big Three to fail.
08/13, 1:14 PM
posted by:
anti-believer
Co-sign with da cracker
08/13, 1:21 PM
posted by:
ktulu
the big 3 have improved, but toyota has enuff @ 2 buy them all aoutright
08/13, 1:46 PM
posted by:
fuk-u-asshole
too right. the have enough money to wipe there ****in asses with
08/13, 1:53 PM
posted by:
stylerdeuce
Did anyone notice Mercury was #2 overall, behind Lexus, in J.D. Power?
08/13, 2:17 PM
posted by:
tripleonefive
Co-sign with da cracker
And did anyone notice that JD Powers doesnt mean ****!
08/13, 2:35 PM
posted by:
bcjohnso99
hey cracker boy,
guess you hadn’t heard that Ford tied with Toyota for initial quality recently and Chrysler has the same production efficiency as Toyota.
Maybe you also hadn’t heard that Toyota’s full size truck business is falling apart faster than the big 3.
Toyota isn’t that great either, unless you want a soulless appliance to look dorky in.
08/13, 2:49 PM
posted by:
HemiRoadRunner
Level playing field? I didn’t know the big 3 got the same tax breaks and U.S. gov’t backed funds that toyota, honda, nissan and every other foreigner that wants to come here gets. The big 3 have had to do buisiness on THEIR OWN for years while foreign countries get babied and welcomed into our country.
08/13, 2:54 PM
posted by:
johnnycanuck
Nice to see Toyota pulling something else for a change besides the public’s wiener.
08/13, 3:14 PM
posted by:
DrFill
Toyota would like some competition, besides Honda.
GM is at least tying, but may not recover from a couple of generations of not.
Hemi
Toyota doesn’t have 3-4000 dealers, or a 50-60 year head start, to squander either.
Blame the Big 3 for their troubles.
They didn’t plan to fail.
They failed to plan.
Arrogance, mismanagement, and competition killed the Big 3
DrFill
08/13, 3:30 PM
posted by:
fuk-u-asshole
+ **** cars
08/13, 3:32 PM
posted by:
C6Racer
Sweet
08/13, 3:52 PM
posted by:
SickofGarbageMotors
The Big 3 are no threat to Toyota and I doubt they’ll ever come within striking distance. Toyota is a juggernaut and the Big three are a bunch of sailboats trying to run it off course. I fully respect Toyota for their efforts over the years, it’s not dumb luck that they’ve managed to dominate the industry.
08/13, 5:47 PM
posted by:
400horseSS
Agreed with the Dr., Gm’s horrible management screwed us, did anybody watch Saving GM on CNBC, even Lutz said management could’ve cared less about cars until now.
08/13, 6:15 PM
posted by:
LS7
bcjohnso99 like to make up facts. nice.
08/13, 8:43 PM
posted by:
monte
Toyota won’t stay on top forever, history tends to repeat itself. All great things come to an end.
08/13, 9:49 PM
posted by:
DeansterTJ
Eventually diseconomies of scale will kick in and Toyota will slow down. Someone else will come along and dominate the auto world in 5-10 years. My bet is Hyundai/Kia.
08/15, 11:23 PM
posted by:
murderedout
Look at all these newbie foreign humpers talking ****. GM has been #1 for 76 years, IN A ROW! Until Toyota can do that, they have a lot of catching up to do.
08/18, 3:19 PM
posted by:
Dindel
Ravage the supplier base is nonsense. GM (Delphi) and Ford (Visteon) have allready done that, have allready shown themselves to be unreliable partners. The slide of the big three will go on, Chrysler is the first to close down, but changes in buying pattern (truck axle anyone?) are much more profound in the short term.
09/07, 10:46 AM
posted by:
speedemon
It’s they’re own fault where they are today.All these years being #1 and never once stop and realy think about the consumer.They got what they desrved,good riddance!