Are sales down because of the economy or because of the economy and other reasons…. I say it’s not just the economy. Scion and Lexus are pretty well defined brands, I don’t think that they always stealing sales from Toyota or that they are pulling the company down.

A lot of this is only opinion, I just feel that Toyota took their eye off the ball regarding quality in some areas/models… they can and will fix that and recover and when they do I will consider them again.

I think if the economy gets back on track, Toyota might take interest in that again, but it seems they don’t htink now is the time for making sporty cars, when people are all hyped up on the economy.

They are at least partially right…

If GM came out with a verifiably reliable car, would you buy it? If Toyota sold a car as stirring as the Camaro would you buy it?

For what ? What did Toyota (and Honda) do other than sell better cars than D3 ?
The bias I have is towards the more reliable product with the higher resale. Toyota and Honda have D3 beat no matter how you look at it

I’m not saying the U.S. car industry isn’t worth saving, but I read this article and thought, “eh.” No biggie here. When you are manned up to sell millions of units and the economy turns, and part of the market walks away, you are going to take a hit, pure and simple. If things don’t get better, Toyota will do what any for-profit business would do in the same situation: (1) make something more people want to buy; (2) reduce the costs of producing what you have; or (3) both.

By this same token, I’m hopeful for the U.S. car industry, because there are some exciting possibilities down the road (albeit with some casualties along the way). Still, this isn’t the great Toyota fall that so many of you want, this is a bump in the road, and Toyota is best situated, probably out of all car makers on the planet, to ride out the bumps for the smooth pavement ahead.

“Toyota’s China sales in the first quarter of 2009 fell 17% from a year earlier to 125,743 vehicles, even as the total Chinese market, fueled by rising demand for small cars, grew 4% to 2.7 million vehicles. GM’s sales gained 17% to 363,317 vehicles, “

However, their isn’t a single car in their current lineup that a car guy could love (with the possible exception of the Lexus IS). Ya think that 40 years from now collectors will be clamoring for Avalon’s and ES350’s?

“To cut costs, Toyota has been slashing managerial pay and offering buyouts to thousands of American workers. It has reduced the number of temporary workers in Japan from 9,200 last year to 3,000.”

Sold off a few in interest of the core brand. I will debate you soon enough on the demise of Scion or Mercury. My money is on Scion to go first the parallel to Saturn is uncanny. Toyota’s fat is unsustainable and the day supply is exceeding both Ford and Chevrolet. Won ‘t be long before this “model” of industry swallows hard and returns to its core.

“Oh what a feeling….Toyogasm”

Your turn….

Fanboys…. flame away, doesn’t bother me in the least. I’ve given Toyota over $150,000 in business over the last 27 years…. saying they have let me down, think I’ve earned that…. that’s just the way it goes.

L.

I know I have seen his posts… but I think our family had a great run with Toyotas, had a few issues here and there but nothing like I had encountered with the big three.

I think your experience at any dealership varies greatly from one to the next. But I have to say I have never had to have a dash pulled out of a car twice and I sure have not had to return three times to have a program update applied to a Toyota before, although it is only my second drive by wire car.

I’m not an overly fussy person but that car has been in 8 times for various issues that range from annoyances to mechanical breakdowns. That’s more than any other Toyota I have ever owned and I have only had it three years.

L.