New Toyota US president sees bright future for auto industry, Ford and GM
Jim Press, the new president of Toyota Motor Corp. North American, foresees a bright future for the U.S. auto industry. While speaking at the women's business group Inforum in Detroit last week, he pointed out that:- The Baby Boom generation that continues to purchase new vehicles won't reach its peak until 2009.
- Generation Xers are buying larger vehicles to accommodate their new families.
- Generation Y members are now reaching driving age.
- The number of immigrants in the U.S. is increasing.
"All this together adds up to a golden opportunity in the years ahead for auto makers, suppliers and all those who support the industry," said Press, who included Ford and General Motors in his presentation. He believes the troubled automakers' current strategies will eventually result in both rebounding and stronger than before. Their recovery, he emphasized, is important to the auto industry, Detroit, and the economy. Further, Press feels that in the end, consumers will be the ultimate winners, as competition improves the breed.
Industry spin or genuine concern? Read the full details at the link and type out your comments.
[Source: Marketwatch]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Meek 8:24AM (5/15/2006)
The new President of Toyota US speaking to the women's business group Inforum. I wonder if he mentioned how he got the job - why the last President of Toyota US resigned. They could have had a few translators speak on that topic.
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Julius 9:33AM (5/15/2006)
"Generation Y members are now reaching driving age." C'mon Jim...the last year of Generation Y births was 1984. They've been driving for 6 years, let alone the Gen Yers that were born at the start of Gen Y, in 1976. Those people have been driving for nearly 12-14 years (assuming they were driving at 16-18)
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matt 10:16AM (5/15/2006)
Aging population = more camry and avalon buyers
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Tool 11:30AM (5/15/2006)
This is Jim's stump speech, so it is really nothing new.
In fact, Rick Wagoner (Chairman/CEO of GM) was the first to talk about this . . . Jim Press took that speech as his own and has been talking up the 'Golden Era' quite a bit.
I think it is good that Toyota is talking about the new era that is coming in automotive, instead of all the doom and gloom that we read in the paper every day.
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Razib Ahmed 12:07PM (5/15/2006)
"All this together adds up to a golden opportunity in the years ahead for auto makers, suppliers and all those who support the industry," said Press, who included Ford and General Motors in his presentation. "
Very nice but I just wonder that if Toyota going to bring cars made in its Chinese factory to USA more. Right now, Toyota plants in China have an annual production capacity of 360,000 cars and by 2010, company wants to have annual production capacity of 900,000 in China (http://asianbiz.blogspot.com/2006/05/toyota-taking-chinese-market-very.html). Is there any possibility that Toyota is going to increase importing cars made in the Asian market to USA? What has Jim Press to say about it?
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sp 12:12PM (5/15/2006)
lol, actually Toyota's Chinese factories are producing cars for Chinese market alone, because there are heavy limitation in China on how many cars you can import.
So far, it is US makers that are using a lot of chinese produced content in their vehicles...
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barberoux 12:25PM (5/15/2006)
It is amazing how American Toyota is becoming. They have an over reliance on SUVs that they make bigger each year. Their new RAV4 is automatic only, no manual transmission, with a joke of a third seat, but it has the marketing obligatory third row seating. What?s the difference between the RAV4 and Highlander? Spelling? They are treating their cars as after thoughts, the new Avalon is plagued with quality problems. They don?t have a decent performance car in their whole company. You can?t take a boring car and slap a ?S? designation on it and pretend it is sporty. They are making boring cars that are less reliable and their Scion line, supposedly for ?younger? buyers are selling to ?older? buyers. They are out of touch with their customers. Toyota is focused on growing and becoming the largest car company but they have lost their focus on building quality cars. I would guess their executive staff is becoming bean counter heavy instead of engineer heavy. I own two Toyotas and they have been the best cars I have ever owned. I?m in the market for a new vehicle and Honda and Mazda are my top picks. Toyota doesn?t have anything I want to buy.
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John 1:43PM (5/15/2006)
#5,
Pontiacs are made in China. Chevrolets are made in China and Korea.
All these large car companies are global companies, with operations all over the world, and sell to people all over the world.
It is complete nonsense to say that whatever is made in one country, must be sold in that one country.
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pat c 6:04PM (5/15/2006)
Is it me, or does he not look like a cross between George Bush and Jay Leno?
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John 6:20PM (5/15/2006)
He has George Bush's presidency, and Jay Leno's intelligence and charisma.
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Sanfam 6:26PM (5/15/2006)
#7/barberoux mentioned how toyota is out of touch with their customer base. Specifically, how scion is selling to older customers.
This isn't a new problem. The youth market has always been hard to crack, because *nobody* has been able to consistently predict how a new model will react within it. On top of that, the older buyers often find the immense practicality designed into these youth-market rides to be a major benefit. Combine that with the fact that almost all of these cars are designed to sell at the lowest possible cost, and you get a market appealing to 40 and 50-somethings as much as it does 16-28's. At the very least, Scion went on the right track with the tC.
And overall, Toyota really hasn't had too many misses with its redesigns. The Avalon is an anomaly, and it is indeed suffering from major growing pains, especially in the new production line.
Now, none of Toyota's cars appeal to me at all, but this doesn't make them bad. I'm a type of guy who would buy a Mazda6 Wagon or Hatch (or any CD3 car)...not a Camry or a Corolla. But they're still good at what they do. The Camry intends to go for people who want a car to get them from point a to point b, no additional thought required, and in decent comfort. It's no luxury car, but it doesn't intend to be. Nor is it sporty. And its image will always be less radical than any other model in the lineup. The same goes for most of the rest of their products. the FJ Cruiser and Avalon are outliers, spanning into the sporty youth and full-size luxury markets, respectively.
Now, what was I talking about, anyway? Oh, yes. Toyota still sells many, many cars. Clearly, they're still in touch with their markets.
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whofan 10:20PM (5/15/2006)
Vanillia appeals to most people. Toyota plays it safe.
Even the loyal see this. Toyota = Buick, the old like Camrys. Makes sense with aging Baby Boomers.
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Paul 9:53PM (5/16/2006)
nobody really believes that gm and ford will survive. he is under orders from the corp HQ in Japan to say this to make the dopes who defend american companies feel good about the stupid products they buy. make no mistake about it america needs the japanese for jobs. american companies are not smart enough to deal with a free market. american workers are not smart enough and need the superior japanese managers to perform to world standards.
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