Toyota - gunning for number one in the U.S.
There's a convergence of interesting news about the U.S. auto market today.
First, Reuters
reports that Toyota market share surged in the first half of November. Here are the top five's numbers: GM market
share 18.8 percent, Toyota 17.9 percent, Ford 15.3 percent, DaimlerChrysler 13.6 percent, Honda 12.2 percent. More
telling are the trends year-over-year: GM down 24 percent, Ford down 30 percent, Toyota up 16 percent.
Second, Wall Street guru Jim Cramer (co-founder of TheStreet.com) titled his Friday syndicated newspaper column
"Toyota flies; GM crashes." His thesis? The market is pricing in Toyota's success and GM's failure (see the Toyota NYSE
chart above, data current at 12:30 ET). Cramer's take is that the market believes no matter what happens, GM will have
to scale back its operations in a big way, either through bankruptcy
(not in the cards, according to GM CEO Rick Wagoner) or
radical restructuring. Either way, it will come out a smaller player. In my mind, Ford is in the same boat. Who's there
to pick up the pieces? Toyota.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2Suave 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
It's all quite simple: Toyota builds better high volume cars for the money than most other manufacturers. Honda is successful for the same reason.
Other car manufacturers that build cars that aren't as good will eventually lose sales to the companies that produce quality products at affordable prices.
There is nothing complicated about this and the winners and losers in the auto business are getting what they deserve.
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Ramsport47 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
What's so affordable about a $30,000 Camry? Gimme a $30,000 Chrysler 300 or Dodge Charger/Magnum instead!!
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Disgruntled Car Salesman 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
It is a combination of a couple of different things. As 2Suave posted, product quality, innovation, and product desirability have a big play in market share. More importantly though is that GM is trying to be too many different companies and trying to produce too many different cars for too many different demographics. Essentially, they are spread way to thin. A brand, or two, need to be cut from the line. In addition, GM (the big three in general on this one) have adhered to an incentive based selling program. In other words, customers aren't buying the car, they are buying a deal. With all these factors coming into play, Toyota will capture #1 in the market inside of 6 months.
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Ophrey 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
#2
Quality, Reliability and a proven nameplate,
nuff said
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Rastus 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
Don't you worry there Ricky, boy....I'll have my "business associate" Jesse Jackson sicked on Toyota, heah?
Why those low-down, dirty, slant-eyed DEVILS!!! Who says they sould be Allowed to build cars people want?!?! I'll have Jesse break a knee-cap or two and bust 'em UP!!!
Punk-ass fools!!!!
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Geotpf 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
Ramsport47-Um, the Camry starts at $18,445 (MSRP, so it can be found real-world for less). Hell, even the top of the line XLE V6 is only $25,805 (before options).
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2Suave 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
Ramsport47
"What's so affordable about a $30,000 Camry? Gimme a $30,000 Chrysler 300 or Dodge Charger/Magnum instead!!"
You can buy a Honda Accord LX that has plenty of standard equipment including side curtain airbags for about $20K or maybe a bit less (before tax + license fees). In today's world this is "affordable" and show me a GM, Ford, or DCX car that has the Accord's reputation for quality along with overall performance and high resale value.
When I was shopping for a car 2.5 years ago, I would have been happy to buy a GM or DCX car, but they didn't make anything that even began to compare with the Accord and they still don't IMO.
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