Very true, when the richest and most efficient (in terms of car production, not cars) car maker is going this far, you know we're in for a fun couple years. Every day Fiat's man sounds more and more right with his six players in 24 months analysis.

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The song was fine until Toyota got a hold of it for their crappy commercial. I love The Fixx.

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It wont get out of my head. Now I cant sleep! curse you Toyota!

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OMG! Ever since I read the headline I can't get that song out of my head!!!

Damn you Autoblog!

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Is the sign that people realize they are the most unremarkable cars on the market, the fact that they are the #3 and #5 best selling vehicles of the year? Of course they are the best selling cars in their segment as well, with the Camry being the best selling car in America (trucks take up the #1 and #2 spots of overall vehicles sold).

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Uh, people probably just realized they're broke. I just had 3 classmates buy new Corollas within the last 4 months (there's about 100 people in my class). Considering how rarely broke medical students buy new cars, that pretty much gives Toyota a 75% market share on new cars in my class (the only exception was someone whose [obviously wealthy] parents bought them a luxury car). Not bad considering that they tend to keep the customers they get, and getting people who'll be making six-figure salaries in a few years now is pretty great for getting people into Lexuses.
The truth is that Toyota just lost market share because they weren't gutting their prices like crazy. 0% APR is nice, but not everyone qualifies for that kind of rate, and a lot of people don't really know how to figure out how much a 0% APR is actually worth. Have you taken a look at new car prices from the other manufacturers?! For example, a new Camry after heavy bargaining is around $18K (Base LE with Auto) but you can get a similar Ford Fusion for about $15K new or a new Kia Optima for about $12K. Even though I don't think the Optima is a great car I'd probably take a look if I was buying a car right now because damn, it's $6K cheaper.

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I believe the point that Dondonel was trying to make is the fact that there are cars on the market that are just as reliable if not better, have less bland styling, and are priced below the two models that you mention.

Ford Focus trumps the Corolla in every category. Of course sytling is subjective and you may prefer the mediocrity of the Toyota lineup.

Ford Fusion and Chevrolet Malibu are head and shoulders above the Camry on the quality front. And in March the best mid-size car in America will be the Fusion with a vast lead in fuel efficiency on both gas-only and hybrid models. And it will still sell at a discounted price to the Camry. Of course since Camry already had $2,500.00 on the hood in parts of the country in December it seems likely that Toyota's new agressive push into rebating will make that standard across the country.

Perhaps the headline to the story should have read "America is waking up! Toyota forced to realize they can no longer charge a premium for their mediocre lineup. With the exception of K. Rashleigh. He still has his head stuck in the sand and is willing to pay an unnecessary premium for Toyotas"

I hope none of the future Toyota salesman see your post. If they do Mr. Rashleigh they will raise prices on everything the minute you step in the door. You need to wake up with the rest of America.

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Jobu37 - Unfortunately for you, reality is not just the American market but the global community woke up to General Motors and Ford and relised much better motor vehicles can purchased elsewhere and that is exactly what they done ... started buying cars elsewhere

As for Toyota ... they arguably engineer amoung the highest quality, most reliable, dependable and troublefree motor vehicles available today and you can be assured they will remain highly competitive in the years to come and that is more i can say about GM who might not even make it out the dog house they made for themselves and deservidly so as they are undeniably amoung the most ignorant, arrogant and incompetantly managed automotive manufactuer of all.

Why does Toyota charge a premium ... because they can and the comfort they enjoy is that they have room to move not just with the pricing of thier vehicles to retain customers but the relative flexibility of adjusting thier fleet.

Unlike Ford and GM who have to literally invest billions upon billions of dollars to comprehensively restructure thier failed empires, Toyota only has to either drop some models or adjust production numbers to satisfy the ever changing market.

And while i am at it, in 2007 Toyota only marginally outsold GM to become the world's No.1 automotive manufactuer but last year (2008), they eclipsed GM by an impressive 1 million plus units and that is despite the economic downturn.

So who exactly have woken up to who may i ask because according to sales statistics, GM and Ford are not fairing to well at all ... are they - especially on a global level.

Don't get me wrong, each and every manufactuer wether they build trains, planes or automobiles have thier challenges to restrict operating losses especially in times like now but the differance is ... some are in much better condition then others.

And before i conclude, you can be assured Toyota will bounce back more quickly from the current slump then GM could ever hope and that's even if they not opearting under bankruptcy protection by then.

And Mr Jabu ... the reason why companies like GM continued to manufactuer such poor quality trash for so many years is because not only did people like yourself accepted it for whatever stupid reason but never knew any better. But haa ... i guess Ford, GM and fans alike finally woke up and smelled the coffee.

The differance is, most reputable Japanese and European car companies engineer high quality motor-vehicles because it is the DNA of thier culture whereas Ford and GM only decided to invest greater effort simply becuase they had no choice otherwise.

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Problem is that word "among". Reliable and low cost maintenance pretty much describes any new car. Toyota has nothing else to make them stand out from all the other cars though.

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"The differance is, most reputable Japanese and European car companies engineer high quality motor-vehicles because it is the DNA of thier culture whereas Ford and GM only decided to invest greater effort simply becuase they had no choice otherwise."

There's that mention of DNA again. So Japanese and Europeans are just bred better than Americans. I suppose Hitler was right and we should be breeding a master race. What a load of horsesh!t.

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Derek - so what exactly has Ford and GM got to stand out from others then !!

At the end of the day, Toyota arguably has the most consistant and competitive fleet of all and i guess the very simple fact that they are currently the worlds No.1 manufactuer suggest many disagree with your statement.

Happy Penguin - historically the American population has developed the best space craft, aircraft and military equipment yet amoung the worst and most horrid automotive vehicles to have been released especially common joe-blow cars.

At the end of the day, my statement stands true and although you probably know it, you just don't want to accept it and it has been the denial attitude over the years that ended Ford and GM in the sh*t ... literally !!

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Well, Rashleigh, your sense of history must be pretty short because before the 70s and 80's American cars were among the best in the world, certainly better than ANYTHING Japan had to offer and a far sight better than most of what Europe had to offer in given price segments. Fast forward to today and American cars are as good as most of the competition. So we had a bad couple of decades. Hell, most cars weren't all that great in the 70s and 80s regardless of where they came from.

You make this sound as though it goes back to the Revolutionary War. Again, a load of horsesh!t.

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Mr. Rashleigh,

Have you ever even looked at the competition, other than Honda? A better question is have you ever looked at the numerous quality studies done year in and year out? The reason I ask the second question is because you lumped the Europeans in with the Japanese as having high quality scores. Which has not been the case for many years. Your preachy attitude is unfortunately like too many Americans today. Instead of investigating and considering numerous options you and many like you just take it for granted that there isn't anything out there other than Toyota. When you have a customer that has allowed himself to become that captive it allows the dealer to charge a premium for it's product. Fortunately for you it appears that you are a Toyotaphile. The ones who have been really brainwashed are the Hondaphiles. Those guys pay a premium even above what you pay at your local Toyota dealer.

I challenge you to drive your precious Corolla over to a Ford dealer and test drive a Focus. You will come away thinking where the hell have I been after experiencing the sportier handling, quitest interior in the class, more torque at the low end of the spectrum where it is needed, and equivalent if not better fuel mileage. And if you are a technophile and with a surname such as yours I suspect you are (stereotyping) you may just be blown away by SYNC like everyone else who has tried it.

Most importantly for your sake, make sure you don't tell them your name. Due to your posting on this public forum your reputaion may proceed you. You might hear the salesman say "Johnny, it's Rashleigh from Autoblog! Hurry jack the prices up on everything by $2,000. This idiot likes to pay too much for his cars. I think it makes him feel superior"

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Jabu37 - lets get something straight here, over the years it has been the typical Ford, GM and Chrysler loyalist that have been 'philes towards thier beloved brands while everything else wasn't worth sneezing on according to people like yourself.

But haa ... that is OK but as soon as others start defending anything else then all of a sudden they are branded 'philes or in this case Toyotaphiles.

Lets face the hard facts here fella, people like yourself hate companies like Toyota because over the years they have grown so successful they now screw your beloved American brands up the backside with a size 20 steel capped boot but if the boot was on the other foot then it be perfectly fine otherwise.

Well guess what mate ... it's not and just face the raw truth of it all - your beloved Detriot manufactuers have screwed up bigtime and it has been no-ones fault but thier own so stop blaming everybody else but them and soley them.

As for my defence of Toyota, that is because people like you attempt to spill nothing but pure rot over the internet all because Toyota have become successful for very good reasons while Ford, GM and Chrysler pay the penalty for years of corruption, ignorance, arrogance and just down right incompetance.

As for you believing people just automatically buy a Toyota without looking at the competition ... what a load of more rot. Have you ever stopped for a minute (probably not) to consider many Toyota sales have come about because customers have done thier research. Fact is buddy despite how painful it may be ... some people simply don't like Ford, GM or Chrsyler and probably for good reasons of thier own.

People say Toyota styling is boring, well it is obvious that many see it differently. Lets not forget that millions upon millions of customers have endured negative ownership experiances in past from the American trio (wouldn't have been hard) and after making the switch have enjoyed better motoring ownership so no matter how hard Ford and GM work to improve themselves, because of thier questionable past they may never get many of thier once would-be customers back regardless of thier new found propaganda.

You say GM and Ford now make good products, well guess what dude ... not only does Toyota continue to make a good product today but have been for a lot longer then many examples that have come out of the factories from either of the Big 3,

Better still ... maybe you should take your Ford / GM rosed coloured glasses of yourself and actually take a stroll down to Toyota, Honda, Mazda etc and take one of thier cars for a drive.

Last but not least - Quality / Customer Satisfaction Surveys ... once again, incase you haven't noticed and probably not but Toyota / Lexus have undeniably been the most consistant and amoung the highest performing in each and every survey that has been released over the years and not just in the US but pretty much all over the world.

The thing is with Toyota, they have offered greater consistancy then any of the American 3 unlike some others who appear to do well in some surveys then drop of dramatically in others, Toyota on the otherhand has arguably performed consistantly towards the top in each and every survey no matter wether it be in the US, UK, Canada, Australia or anywhere for that matter.

As far as i am concerned fella, i just tell it the way it is and if you find that hard to accept (nodoubt you will) then it just is tough luck.

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