Wow, sounds familiar to the old tune GM was singing a while back (hey, we thought we were going to lose $5 Billion, but we only lost $2 Billion…isn’t that good news?).

The new President of Toyota ( the scion of Toyoda family) was working in US for a while. He already dispensed 40% (!) of high level managers. I am sure those payroll changes attributed to drop in losses. I wonder when Government Motors will dispense 40% of managers? Furthermore, he brought in new blood and replaced 80% of remaining high level managers (Toyota does not hire much from outside – he promoted people he thought were capable of moving forward). The guy is cleaning house fast. Compare that to Bill Ford’s masturbation at the helm few years back and it is clear that he new Toyota president deserves an “A” for effort. And he wasn’t voted in by family, he came up through the ranks (well, lets be real, none of us could come up THAT fast), but he worked int he company for 30 years before taking control.

They shouldn’t start celebrating now, because even something small like their quartely losses takes time to restructure, but this extremely small good news is pretty good for them.

Borat-that’s pretty true. Bill Ford did suck, but look at Alan. He has managed to turn around Ford quite fast, and now, sales are on the rise.

-iluvamcars

Maybe its time for the Toyota dealer lots to be cleared of $44k 4Runners, $46k Hylanders, $26k Matix etc..and return to offering a value for the money lineup rather than gouge the consumer because of a ‘we can’ attitude.

i wouldn’t say that a 40 million loss is a “far cry” from a 70 mil profit, compared to a 1.8 billion dollar loss in the previous quarter…the 1.76 billion dollar gap between -1.8B and -40M is much greater than the difference between -40M and +70M…i realize a loss is a loss, but the most dramatic difference here is the reduction in loss…1.8B to 40M is huge…

The whole triplefive one thing is getting retarded. We all know its GMasaurus, yet no one is bashing him. If it was me, i would be getting crap out of my ass.

Lefty, did you score job on the Hill or something? There is world recession/depression and in 2007 Toyota was competing with GM for #1-2 spot (not to be confused with bathroom #1, #2) in the world in sales. In 2007 they made 10 billions and I believe in 2008 they made money overall (recession started in third quarter and they were profitable part of the year).. GM is in bankruptcy, Ford amassed 150 billion debt and Toyota lost 1.8 billions last quarter and and 40 millions this. It took GM how many years to start shutting off plants and firing line workers when nobody was purchasing their trucks and they were running near capacity without a shade of realization that world is screwed up.

iluvamcars, Mullaly is a proof that amateur in US auto industry is as good as monkey in stock picking: both can whoop “professionals”.. Mullaly comes from outside of industry and does reasonably well in restoring financials (or stops bleeding). Except for Taurus/500 no new models came from his management and we have to see if he can resurrect Ford. I mentioned Bill Ford, because like Toyoda he is family scion. Unlike Toyoda, he gives impression of something going wrong when to much inbreeding is exercised.

Bill Ford may not know how to run a company, but give the guy props – HE picked Alan knowing he couldn’t do the job. Bill is also very very good speaker and he’s got a clear message whenever he’s on an interview or whatever. He’s not some hillbilly redneck inbred, he’s a classy guy who is smart. For a spokesman of Ford I’d say I would give him an A, for management a C-. Ford’s always had good spokespeople, IMO, (besides Toby Keith) with Phil Mickelson and the guy who’s on those dirty job shows, Mike Rowe as well as Dennis Leary voiceovers.

iluvamcars, it is better to get crap OUT your ass than to leave it in there.

As for the loss change, we’d have to dive into the financials to understand it. My guess is that in prior quarters there were significant reserves booked to reflect the anticipated reductions in equipment value due to planned factory shutdowns and reduced production schedules. Depending on the cost accounting method used, they’d perhaps need to restate depreciation or something.

Anyway, those hits are better to take all at once from a market standpoint.

so we praise Toyota for having worse results than Ford even though Toyota’s overall business is far healthier than Ford’s? Makes no sense. Talking about NA losses is pointless. Overall the company still lost $800M in the quarter which is a lot of money. There isnt much to celebrate about a predicted $4B loss for the fiscal year. GM and Ford tried to cost cut their way to profits many times, it never works. It helps but at the end of the day you need more sales and more revenue per sale. Besides, Toyota has done the basics of cost cutting so far, but nothing major. They still have not closed any plants or reduced their permanent workforce. Most of this improvement seems to be a result of reducing production. Those saying “look how fast they are acting compared to GM or Ford” need to get a grip on reality. Toyota has temporary workers in Japan and the US that have been let go. There are no such workers at GM and Ford because of the unions. In addition, executive shuffles and production reduction have been going on for years in Detroit. This is hardly anything radical.

Now, now ILUV. Come on now. No harm, no foul. They don’t bash me because I’m entertaining. Not that you’re not, but people see that….for the most part. Just food for thought. I have tried to refrain, but if there is a chance at fun, I’m takin’ it! I will make a concerted effort to remain under one ID though.

Right

i am with you sj79

but let us see another thing toyota trying to make it earlier

they ‘ll build what people want sporty car from the small mainstream to the hight performance luxury one

toyota new president which as Borat said above

have passion to reestablish the old basis that toyota stands for in specially in 80th

when toyota had a reliable dependable cars that enthusiast love it

and another thing even toyota president Mr.watanabe changed from the first sign of loses

they also a main player in eco cars

from high performance , eco hybrid and the pioneer of the fuelcell electric vehicle

the FCHV make around 466 miles or (560KM) without refueling

what i wanna say you are right that toyota is not good now we all people and toyota not gods

but they already make a good ground in the past ‘ll make ‘em make profits in near time

without dropping to bailout or bankruptcy or looming as the big 3

As long as we glorifying unions in US, lets not forget that they do own 2 companies out of 3 (not investors who lost everything, including other unions). If things go the way they are, there is no reason to believe that UAW will own Ford in some future time as well. Unless White House, Senate, and Congress change colors (which is also unlikely).

good for toyota

At least I’ll give President Toyoda props for pointing out that their current line-up of cars suck, and that they need to add some pizazz to it. And I’ll also give him props for downsizing their fiscal loss of $1.8 billion to just $40 million, which is quite impressive.

Too bad Honda seems to miss the point of what the word “excitement” means in a car. At least they can make good, small engines.

Great news!
Toyota led ALL makers in sales last month, beating Ford by about 10%
And they can’t build Prius fast enough, a nice shot in the arm
Plus the CARS program is helping, as people see Toyota as THE most efficient company
Sales of Corolla, Prius and Camry are high in the CARS program

Toyota WILL profit next quarter
Guaranteed!
Write it down, take a picture of it, it’s done
DrFill

I just can’t wait to root for a foreign automaker. Yea! Go Toyota! Go Honda! Isn’t that kind of like rooting for the visitng team? Oh well, hopefully in time it’ll change now that GM and Ford have competitive products.