Toyota's Jim Press named Auto Industry Exec of the Year
Jim Press, the president of Toyota Motor North America (TMA), has been announced as the recipient of this year's 2007 Automotive Industry Executive of the Year award, which surprisingly marks the first time (though probably not the last) that a Toyota exec has earned the honor. You may remember last year's recipient was Bill Ford, Jr., who technically no longer holds the position as Ford Motor Company's reigning auto exec. Press, however, is at the reigns of Toyota's North American division, which finished up last year with double-digit sales growth. Many analysts are placing their bets that 2007 will be the year that Toyota sells more vehicles in the
[Source: PR Newswire]
UPDATE: This post has been correctly attributed to John Neff, who wrote the post near the end of a long day. The errors that were present have been corrected.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
XJ 5:19PM (1/23/2007)
"Many analysts are placing their bets that 2007 will be the year that Toyota sells more vehicles in the U.S. than General Motors"
This statement can't be correct. Toyota Motor Corp sold only 2.54 mil in the U.S. last year while GM sold 4.12 mil. I think you need to replace "U.S." with "world".
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Chris 5:21PM (1/23/2007)
You won't find another more approachable, friendly auto exec than Jim Press.
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mike 5:31PM (1/23/2007)
Ugly Truck!!!
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David 5:33PM (1/23/2007)
Be American
Buy American (Pt Cruiser, Fusion, Crown Vic...)
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uncle john 5:41PM (1/23/2007)
You'll never catch me in a Toymotor. Nevertheless, congrats to Mr. Press on his award
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Chris 5:54PM (1/23/2007)
There is absolutely no reason why any American should buy a Toyota over superior vehicles from domestic automakers. Toyotas have always enjoyed unwarranted good press from the mainstream media. Jim Press is a traitor to America for helping an avowed enemy sell their inferior goods at the cost of American jobs and lives. Cracking ball joints, sludging engines, underhanded service "bulletins", are not the dreams that appliances are made of. Even Toyota's reputation for reliability is in question, which should give pause for even the most ardent of Toyota apologists to arrive at their rescue. If anything, Toyota is being revealed for what it always was: a fraud that was never anything of value. Who do you trust to have your best interests at heart? Not some unrepentant Japanese zaibatsu that committed war crimes. Give domestic automakers their long overdue chance -- you owe it to yourself and to your country.
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Alec 6:03PM (1/23/2007)
I gave the domestic a chance.
bought a 1999 ford focus. had 17 recalls when i owend it, so i got rid of it in 2001. Got sick of all the recalls. The damn media is so biased. car and driver kept saying its 10 best, when it was number 1 in recalls for 1999,2000, and 2001.
But being american i wanted to give my country another chance.
Bought a 2004 Ford freestar with the largest engine in the minivan world, the 3.9
It was gutless. had five recalls because ford had bored out the 3.8 to make 3.9 and the sealing was not right. It smoked all the time.
sold it.
Bought focus for 14000 sold for 5000 in 2 years
bought freestar for 29000 sold for 14000 in 2 years
Now I drive Honda Odyssey. screw the domestics.
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Fortmyers8 6:07PM (1/23/2007)
I also wanted to be patriotic but it got me nowhere. Bought crap that in the end cost me a ton of money. who the hell did i help? It certainly wasn't me.
1996 Taurus. Brand new design they said. Nothing but junk.
1999 F150 with 210hp 4.6 engine. 6 recalls and the transmission blew by 2001.
bought a Chevy silverado in 2001. The tailgate fell off on me and nearly amputated my thumb. Then i realized GM deliberatly ignored the problem on their tailgates until the government put a gun to their heads.
None of my domestics kept atleast 50% of their value after 2 years.
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J.Crew 6:17PM (1/23/2007)
Rick Wagoner should win this hands down! He has had to face way more pressure and challenges all year with great results! Health care issues, Captain Kirk on his back, Carlos/Nissan/Renault, UAW downsizing, and sellng GMAC. He also is leading a great product turnaround that has made them profitable again (before one time charges). Jim Press had it on cruise control all year. Ok, a new plant to make a big truck is nice. The Camry sells itself. I mean c'mon... who earned their salary this year.
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Tool 6:18PM (1/23/2007)
Congratulations Jim.
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David 6:32PM (1/23/2007)
All I know is with out the Imports, Our Big 3 would still be making crap. They have finally woken up. after 20 years of market shrinkage only in the last 3 years have they been getting serious about producing decent product.
I need to wait about 10 years before I trust domestics with my hard earned money again.
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St?ane Dumas 6:38PM (1/23/2007)
#9 I'm agree with you J.Crew, Wagonner handled the situation very well and the Saturn Aura won the NAIAS COTY award. And in Australia, the Holden Commodore won Wheels magazine COTY award in front of the Toyota Aurion.
And for the resale value, wait until the day then Toyota and Honda begins to sold a couple of vehicules to Avis and Hertz,.... then also for those who keep it 10 or even in some rare cases 15 years, the resale value there won't have a lot of importance.
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Big Rocket 7:10PM (1/23/2007)
#6 (Chris): "There is absolutely no reason why any American should buy a Toyota over superior vehicles from domestic automakers... an avowed enemy sell their inferior goods... Cracking ball joints, sludging engines, underhanded service 'bulletins'... Even Toyota's reputation for reliability is in question..."
Once again, a domestic apologist comes to criticize Toyota's recall rate, and turns a blind eye to facts that have been well documented by Autoblog and elsewhere. Here are the facts on reliability for 2006:
Honda: 1.5 million US sales, 1.4 thousand US recalls (excludes owner's manual typo), 0.093% recall rate
Toyota: 2.5 million US sales, 0.81 million US recalls, 32% recall rate
GM: 4.1 million US sales, 1.4 million US recalls, 34% recall rate
Ford: 2.9 million US sales, 1.7 million US recalls, 58% recall rate
DaimlerChrysler: 2.4 million US sales, 2.3 million US recalls, 96% recall rate
Nissan: 1.0 million US sales, 1.3 million US recalls, 130% recall rate
It is easy to see that GM (domestic company with best record) and Toyota had virtually identical recall rates. If you claim Toyota has poor reliability, just what does it say about GM and the other domestics?
#6 (Chris): "Who do you trust to have your best interests at heart? Not some unrepentant Japanese zaibatsu that committed war crimes."
And not some overpaid American CEO who pissed away company money on personal trips on the corporate jet, until exposed by the mainstream media. Nor the UAW, which leeches away American competitiveness at the tune of $67 an hour for each union member.
#6 (Chris): "Give domestic automakers their long overdue chance -- you owe it to yourself and to your country."
We owe nothing to nobody to *give* domestic automakers a chance. The domestic automakers owe it to us to *earn* that chance from us. GM has done that with a recall rate that rivals Toyota's. Now it is up to Ford to step up.
Sources:
http://www.autoblog.com/2007/01/19/surprise-recalls-fall-in-2006/1#c3182630
http://www.autoblog.com/2007/01/19/surprise-recalls-fall-in-2006/1#c3183241
http://faq.autoblog.com/2007/01/18/fields-gives-up-his-flying-perks/
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/23/business/23auto.html?ex=1300770000&en=57ea081b0a798618&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
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MikeW 7:22PM (1/23/2007)
Ford had the 4.2 in the '04 freestar (as an option)
but torque isn't power, and 4 speed automatics don't help.
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Aki 8:16PM (1/23/2007)
"Be American
Buy American (Pt Cruiser, Fusion, Crown Vic...)"
I was looking for the sarcasm there, but apparently you're serious.
PT Cruiser is made in Mexico. whoops.
Fusion is a Mazda6 platform. whoops again.
So much for blind patriotism.
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Bonita 8:36PM (1/23/2007)
F the american domestics up, go in for the kill. Ugly trucks is what a truck should be, this ain't no sissy boy auto for the same sex couples.
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Waldo 10:02PM (1/23/2007)
#15, #4 also left out that the Japanese-designed and engineered Fusion is built in Mexico. How very American.
Come on people, there's many good facts to be made supporting your arguments but saying idiotic things makes you sound, well, idiotic.
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Carl 1:28AM (1/24/2007)
The Crown Vic is made in Canada.
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rrr 1:55AM (1/24/2007)
#13 GREAT POST
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Educated in NY 9:21AM (1/24/2007)
So our only criteria of buying a car is where it is assembled now eh?
Toyota's US production was 1.5m units out of 8.5m units worldwide. Wow, that must make all you ex-patriots very happy. GM after cuts will still have a US production of 5m units out of 9m worldwide. Oh gosh there goes that argument about who is making vehicles here in the US.
Now let's look at parts - oh golly this isn't going to be good. Even with large moves to outside the US facilities GM and Ford are still 76% domestic sourced parts vs 47% for Toyota. Which if you count the far fewer workers needed to ASSEMBLE these parts, the parts fabrication employs more Americans. Basically a 3:1 ratio.
Lets not forget the high paying design and engineering jobs...seems there are 20 times the R&D facilities owned and operated by the big 2.5 than all the foreign makers combined. The Big 2.5 invested more than $16B in R&D and engineering salaries last year like most years before. Big 2.5 employees 65,000 in R&D, Japanese 3600. Aw sucks!
Toyota comes here for tax breaks and cheap labor and to get around US tariffs (Japanese tariffs are still in place and very hard to get around) not to bring to take good jobs away from home. Toyota is saying to you, the buyer, "We think you are smart enough to ASSEMBLE our cars as long as the robots do most of the important work, but you aren't smarter than Japanese engineers!" Wow!
Now let's add in the money factor, the Yen. Yes the good old Yen, propped up by the Japanese Government for decades is why the Japanese automakers can make such big profits. If the Yen was at 90-100/dollar, as most economists say it should be rather than 120/dollar then the Japanese automakers profits on US vehicles to nearly nothing, more than likely a loss.
There it is, ignore it if you must but these are commonly held facts. It makes Japan look a lot more like 1940's war propaganda than Hello Kitty.
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