Autoblog

Further proof that no automaker is immune to effects of the sales downturn in the U.S. comes as Toyota has just announced 0% financing on 11 of its models, including the hugely popular Camry and Corolla and a slew of SUVs and trucks. Last month, incentive-averse Toyota posted a drop in sales of over 30% compared to a year ago and the rest of the year isn't expected to look much better. General Motors, which still posted a decline in sales, fared better than most of its rivals, including Toyota, thanks to aggressive incentives including its employee pricing for everyone.

Toyota itself is calling the move to offer 0% financing "unprecedented," and indeed it is. Historically, the Japanese automaker has not needed to offer such sweeping deals to move its metal. It apparently has the cars, the means to finance them and just needs buyers. If you want in on the deal, it's available until November 3. See the full press release from Toyota for more details after the break.

[Source: Toyota]

Last September we told you of Volkswagen's plan to overtake Toyota in global sales by 2015. Some Autoblog staffers giggled at the prospect. That was before Toyota reported a 39% drop in profit and began writing down leases, and long before today's news of the Japanese automaker reducing its sales goal for 2009 by almost 7%. Instead of the 10.4 million vehicle sales it predicted for 2009, Toyota says it now may only sell 9.7 million.

While 7% may not sound like a big reduction, consider that Toyota has seen steady growth since its founding in 1934, and any drop is a big deal. Last month, Toyota reported an 18% drop in sales from last July, while VW posted a 4% drop. If those sales rates continue, VW's goal of total domination should be much easier to attain.

[Source: Reuters]

Toyota is not used to seeing its profit margins drop, as the Japanese auto giant has enjoyed increased profit for nine straight years. Expect that run to end this year, though, as Toyota is discovering that it is not immune to the downturn of the American auto market. For the year, Toyota has revised its sales forecast from 9.06 million units to an estimated 8.74 million. For the first quarter of the year that ended in June, Toyota has also announced that its operating profit took a 39% plunge from lower sales in both the United States and Europe, the increased value of the Yen and higher cost of raw materials. Oh, and then there's the pesky problems of leases. Still, Toyota sales remain fairly strong in this sinking market and a profit is a profit. We'd imagine that this is a problem any one of the Detroit 3 would love to have on its hands.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

Toyota posted a 10% sales decline for its bread-and-butter brand of over the month of June, with numbers that are even worse -- an 11.5% drop -- when the Scion and Lexus brands are added into the equation. In response to these very un-Toyota-like sales declines, the automaker is now revamping its vehicle production in the States. Though it has already introduced measures to slow the production of full-size Tundra trucks and Sequoia SUVs, reports indicate the further cuts will be made at the San Antonio truck plant. The Indiana plant, which also produces Tundras, will see workers transferred to other lines where more popular vehicles are assembled. Even plants in Japan that export vehicles to the U.S. could be affected. Toyota is hardly used to seeing double-digit drops in sales in the U.S., so it will be interesting to see how the giant Japanese automaker responds in the months to come.

[Source: MarketWatch]

Toyota's bet that it could sell more vehicles in 2008 than in 2007 may not have been a wise one. Though Toyota's hybrid models and small cars are selling very well in the U.S., sales of pickups and SUVs have truly tanked, and Toyota had been counting on those sales just as much as its competitors. Of course, the giant automaker from Japan couldn't have known that far in advance just how high gasoline prices would go or the impact that it would have on auto sales and the economy in the United States in general. Booming markets like China have apparently not been able to make up for the shrinking pot in the States.

Even with the acknowledgment that meeting its target of selling more than the 2.62 million vehicles the company sold last year in the U.S. would be "difficult," Toyota's place in the automotive landscape is surely envied by the Detroit 3. After all, even with its sales revised downward, Toyota remains profitable, something which cannot be said of the U.S. automakers.

[Source: AP]

The current economic environment in the United States is hurting all auto makers these days, even mighty Toyota, which was once considered immune to so-called market realities. Though its overall performance last year would be considered a stellar achievement for any other automaker, Toyota's 28% profit plunge in the fourth quarter of 2007 points to an expected 27% drop in annual profits in 2008. If Toyota's revised forecast proves accurate, 2008 would break a nine-year stretch of profit growth. In addition to the slowing U.S. market, Toyota also cites high material prices, the worldwide credit crunch and a strong yen as contributing factors in its mild downturn.

Toyota's expected profit drop is certainly newsworthy, but we just have to wonder how the money-losing American car companies will cope in the U.S. market with the same issues. While sales of cars are gaining strength, the SUV and truck markets are sinking with what could be Titanic-like implications for the truck-heavy lines from Ford, Chrysler and GM.

[Source: Toyota]

With Toyota reporting its daily average sales rate fell 6.6 percent last month, it might be easy to think the retirement of nine U.S. executives is a sign that the company is getting ready for a new start. But at least one analyst thinks something else might be happening. Head hunting.

Toyota's February sales drop was nearly as bad as some other automakers, and these nine retirees could be more defectors lured away by other carmakers desperate to salvage their businesses. At least two of the retiring employees have more than 30 years experience with one of the world's most successful companies. Their talents and knowledge would be quite attractive. Hey, it's happened before.

So keep an eye out for these guys to possibly pop up again soon as new hires, like Dave Illingworth, Toyota Motor Sales' senior vice president and chief administrator. He had been with the company for 30 years. Also leaving are 37-year-employee Alan DeCarr, group V.P. and general manager of Toyota Logistics Services; and, after 21 years with Toyota, Jim Aust, VP for motorsports and president of Toyota Racing Development is out, as well.

[Source: AP via AOL Money]

If it were poker, Toyota would have looked at GM, pushed all its chips into the pot and said, "You know what that means." The other marque in the battle for worldwide supremacy has raised its projection for 2008 sales by 5-percent over this year, expecting to sell 9.85 million cars around the world on production of 9.95 million cars. This year, 2007, GM is estimated to have sold 9.3 million cars, compared to Toyota's estimated sales of 9.36 million.

Even with quite a few analysts and outlets predicting fewer vehicle sales in the US next year, Toyota is predicting a 1-percent increase in sales to 2.64 million units. The bulk of the sales growth will, as with every other global player, comes largely from emerging markets: China, Russia, India, and South America. This, of course, means Toyota will be leaning on its smaller models and hybrids to lead the way.

There's no way GM has given up the fight, having held the #1 spot for 76 years, and still holding the record for most cars sold: 9.55 million in 1978. You can be sure they don't want to give up both top slots in one year. To do so, they'll need to deliver on the design, the efficiency, the reliability and promises they've been making to the public for a while. As Big John McCarthy says at the beginning of an Ultimate Fighting match, "Let's get it on!"

[Source: Detroit News]

Toyota is on track to meet its target of 9.34 million vehicle sales this year despite fears of plant closures, flagging sales in the Japanese domestic market and lost production from this past week's earthquake. The Japanese juggernaut has already eclipsed closest rival GM in global sales for the first half of the year and is still seeing sales in key U.S. markets where most American manufacturers are actually losing sales.

The U.S. is not the only region where Toyota is experiencing growth. In fact, Toyota is enjoying rising demand in most markets around the globe. Despite this, President Katsuaki Watanabe has revealed that the current sales target of 9.34 million vehicles won't be revised up, down or any which way.

Toyota is yet to topple GM in actual vehicle production but this too is expected to go Toyota's way by the end of the year. However, GM isn't out of the race yet. Its sales for the second quarter were better than Toyota's, and it's yet to reveal any forecast for this year's tally. We know the title of "World's Biggest Automaker" is just so many words strung together, but that hasn't stopped us from starting up the betting pool in anticipation of this year's final numbers.

[Source: Detroit News]