Toyota beat GM in 2007

Bakemono

Bakemono

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http://www.autoblog.com/2008/01/24/hanging-chads-em-automotive-news-em-declares-toyota-beat-gm/
We'll soon need Florida's State Supreme Court to step in and decide this one, as Automotive News is reversing on its report yesterday that General Motors had outsold Toyota globally in 2007 to declare Toyota the winner today. To be fair, yesterday's report that GM had outsold Toyota was based on a Reuters source who claimed the Japanese automaker had sold 9.366 million vehicles in 2007 to GM's 9,369,524 vehicles. Toyota, however, is not scheduled to reveal the exact number of vehicles it sold worldwide in 2007 until later this month.

Regardless of the exact number of vehicles Toyota says it sold last year, Automotive News is declaring it the World's Largest Automaker in 2007 based on the fact that GM included some 516,435 sales from the Chinese Wuling brand. GM only owns 34 percent of Wuling, the majority of which is owned by SAIC. Normally automakers don't report sales for brands in which they don't own a majority interest (that's why Mazda sales are not reported by Ford), and in this case Automotive News is subtracting Wuling sales from GM's total, which drops it down to 8,885,599 units. Toyota's easily got that beat regardless of the exact figure it eventually reports.

From the cheap seats, we can't tell you how much either automaker really cares if it's crowned the World's Largest Automaker in 2007. Nor can we say whether GM including sales figures for a brand that it technically doesn't own is a deliberate play on their part or something completely innocuous and not worth reading into. We'll leave that up to you.
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Soooooooooo.......this is good ???

I am a bit confused.........is this supposed to be good news???

Seems to me as this country continues to outsource more stuff, especially in the manufacturing sector, this is not a headline that is cool. :o|

While I am a Ford guy, I sure am not fond of Toy becoming the no 1 auto maker & am sorry to see GM drop a notch.
 
Well, Toyota does have several factories here in the U.S. (11 of the models they sell here are made here), they use North American parts suppliers for many of the components their vehicles are made of, Toyota has a design studio in Michigan; so its not as if they dont contrubute to the American economy.
Look at it this way, Toyota is building more and more plants in the U.S., whereas Ford and GM are moving more and more of their operations to Mexico and are getting more and more of their components from China and Korea.
http://www.toyota.com/about/our_business/operations/manufacturing/
In 13 locations across North America, more than 30,000 team members are producing* over 1.5 million vehicles, more than 1.3 million engines, and nearly 400,000 automatic transmissions per year. In fact, 11 Toyota and Lexus models are built in North America with parts purchased from hundreds of North American supplier locations.

Our annual U.S. spending on parts, goods and services with suppliers totals more than $29 billion** and counting, as Toyota continues to grow and build more vehicles, engines and transmissions in North America.
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Toyota will never be an American company, but the do make a signifigant contrubution to our economy.
I personally have no love for the domestic automakers (and I drive a Ford F-150, BTW) and to be perfectly honest, Im very happy to see GM knocked out of the #1 spot. IMO, its long overdue.
 
Good for Toyota!

They build a quality product, and beat both the inventor of the car and the juggernaut of GM in 1 year.
 
toyota

I agree with all you people. i dont like to see a foreign company knock out any of our major manufacturers either. BUT!! they do employ alot more people in amereica than any other auto maker period! While we move all of our jobs out of the country. I am a GM man thru and thru, but i have to admit. the quality of any of our big three will never come close. and to me and alot of people , QUALITY is the most important thing. Everything costs too much any more. We cant afford to pay 30-40K for a vehicle and then have to worry about the high repair expense when its out of warranty at 36K miles. (which is about 2 years anymore) there is a reason we dont and CANT put these 100K warranties on our vehicles. The number one reason is not we CANT produce a quality vehicle, but more the fact that we cant survive if we DO. there is a term that all GM, Ford and Chrysler have for this type of engineering. It is called Obsolescent Engineering, and they perfected it in the early 90's. They design things to last a certain time and then fail. They survive off the PARTS business, not vehicle sales. with the cost of our union wages , they cant be price competetitive AND build a GREAT product and expect to survive. And YES, we will buy them regardless because we are patriotic. But sooner or later we all learn that we must do what we have to do or we cant pay our own bills. Sooner or later this will bite all of our automakers in the butt. Look at chrysler, this is the fouth time for them going under! and its all because of quality, not because they are not a nice looking vehicle. they build great looking vehicles.
AGAIN!!! i am a true gm man thru and thru, but we all have to ask ourself, DO i want american engineering built in Mexico or god knows where( with the quality levels that go with them facilities). Or do i want Japanese engineering built and backed by our fellow american people keeping the jobs here in america. NOt a real tough decsion to make here. The japs have proven their quality thru and thru. Not that we cant match it, we just wont because of the politics that entail.
I would buy an american vehicle in a heartbeat over a foreign one, but ONLy if they gave a bumper to bumper, no questions asked , 100K warranty. But sadly we all know, That will NEVER happen. We would be bankrupt if we did. Sorry to tell it how it is, but we have to wake up and demand better quality , or we are all just sealing our own fate. just one mans opinion here.
 
I will sya this If Amricans don't build anything what will we sell? Even if Americans are building Toyota's where does the money go when a Car is Sold? To Japan.

I ride a Yamaha sled so I'm a hypocrite on this but If I lived in a town that was supported by Polaris or Cat I'd ride one. Period!!!
 
jtssrx said:
I ride a Yamaha sled so I'm a hypocrite on this but If I lived in a town that was supported by Polaris or Cat I'd ride one. Period!!!
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You and I maybe hypocrite's, BUT the snowmobile market does not affect our(US) economy no where near as much as the Big 3 does. Nore employ the amount of people that the Big 3 do. The big reason why all the Big 3 work is going over seas is mainly cause of the Union and its high pay rates for line workers. There is no reason why a regular line worker should be making over $20 an hour for what they do and thats a big reason why their ALL in such bad shape. Say the AVERAGE line worker makes $25/hour and works NO OVERTIME throughout the year, that that right there is $48,000/yr with no OT. Note that $25/hr is actually on the low side on a line worker. When all the strike's were going on and they finally agreed to keep most of the work here(USA) which is happening BUT the buyouts is whats slowly eliminating the high pay line workers and are bring in people at a much lower pay rate($14-$18 an hour). Which IMO is good cause you still can live off of that pay as long as your not dumb with your money. This isnt just my opinion either, my dad(35yr RET. Ford eng.) and alot of his Ford eng. buddys all share the same opinion about the pay amount for line workers.

But thats all I have to say on that cause all this thread is going to do is annoy me, which is what happens on about 90% of what BakePOSER posts.
 
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Its about time someone gave our domestic automakers a good swift kik in the butt.Maybe after a good beating they will shape up and get on the quality bandwagon not quantity.
 
jtssrx said:
I will sya this If Amricans don't build anything what will we sell? Even if Americans are building Toyota's where does the money go when a Car is Sold? To Japan.
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Actually, a lot of the money stays here. Toyota invests a lot of money in the communities where their vehicles are built. The vehicles that Toyota sells here are designed here for the most part. The tastes of American consumers are vastly different than the tastes of Japanese consumers and that is why Toyota has a design studio in Michigan. They also use a lot of American parts suppliers.
Look at the Camry and the Tundra. They are just as American as any Ford, GM or Chrysler product.
Look at it this way too, are the CEOs of GM, Ford or Chrysler going to pay your bills for you if you lose you job?
So, whats the difference if you are making Ameirican CEOs rich or Japanese CEOs rich?
I buy what I feel is the best product. For me, thats always been Toyota. I actually drive a Ford truck right now, but the only reason I do is because I couldnt afford a Toyota (and because they gave me a smokin' deal on my F-150). In the next couple years, Im looking at getting a new truck and I will buy another Toyota. IMO, the domestics are getting better, but they still lag behind the Japanese in quality, durability, comfort and fuel economy.
 
Bakemono said:
Actually, a lot of the money stays here. Toyota invests a lot of money in the communities where their vehicles are built. The vehicles that Toyota sells here are designed here for the most part. The tastes of American consumers are vastly different than the tastes of Japanese consumers and that is why Toyota has a design studio in Michigan. They also use a lot of American parts suppliers.
Look at the Camry and the Tundra. They are just as American as any Ford, GM or Chrysler product.
Look at it this way too, are the CEOs of GM, Ford or Chrysler going to pay your bills for you if you lose you job?
So, whats the difference if you are making Ameirican CEOs rich or Japanese CEOs rich?
I buy what I feel is the best product. For me, thats always been Toyota. I actually drive a Ford truck right now, but the only reason I do is because I couldnt afford a Toyota (and because they gave me a smokin' deal on my F-150). In the next couple years, Im looking at getting a new truck and I will buy another Toyota. IMO, the domestics are getting better, but they still lag behind the Japanese in quality, durability, comfort and fuel economy.
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Sounds like you read alot, without actually owning the product! :postwhore
 
stein700sx said:
Its about time someone gave our domestic automakers a good swift kik in the butt.Maybe after a good beating they will shape up and get on the quality bandwagon not quantity.
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Go read a JD Power ratings on cars and trucks. The American Cars are just as good or better. The idea that the Japaneses cars are better is bull these days.
 
jtssrx said:
Go read a JD Power ratings on cars and trucks. The American Cars are just as good or better. The idea that the Japaneses cars are better is bull these days.
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I have to say that is becoming true. The Japanese cars sure aren't light years ahead in quality and durability anymore, especially with Toyota's decline in that area in recent years.
 
SXRYAN said:
Sounds like you read alot, without actually owning the product! :postwhore
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Wrong. Ive owned Toyotas in the past and I work part time at a Toyota dealership. Also, I spend a fair amount of time on Toyota forums, so Im very much up to date and in the know about these vehicles.
 
yamaholic22 said:
I have to say that is becoming true. The Japanese cars sure aren't light years ahead in quality and durability anymore, especially with Toyota's decline in that area in recent years.
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Toyota has actually improved in recent years. The "decline" that everyone speaks about ended in '05.
http://www.examiner.com/a-1164484~Auto_Recalls_Increase_in_2007.html
Toyota, which has vowed to crack down on quality problems, has seen its number of recalls drop for the second straight year to about 583,191 after it recalled a company record of 2.3 million in 2005.
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BTW, Ford sold fewer cars than did Toyota last year, but recalled over twice as many. Ford recalled 5.5 million vehicles last year.
 
I was a die hard ford guy, but yota has won me over.


Sure, I like my German and some american cars as well, but sometimes it is about what a vehicle has to offer- a subjective thing, rather than durability, or any other objective reasonings.

heck, I love me jeep as well as the 4runner, mainly because the jeep has solid front and rear axles, and I can geat the snot out of it off road and not feel bad. It has dealt with that treatment for quite a few years, and at close to 16yrs old, and 160k on it, it takes it with little complaining.

speaking of durability, has anyone seen that webisode (or episode) of 5th gear where they truly beat the hell out of a yota hilux? ( that was the old yota compact PU before they were called tacomas) Man, like a timex, that thing took a licking and kept on ticking. I would not try that with any ranger or s10 or dakota.
 
Ooops, Is Japan in Detroit??

Bakemono said:
You do realize that your Viper was made in Japan, right?

I guess when you are so busy defending the Toy camp & get enthused about the Asians building the cars here in the US, you maybe got confused as to where Japan is vs Detroit???

The Vipers are built at the following facility:
Conner Avenue Assembly Plant
20000 Conner Avenue , , Detroit , Michigan , United States

Floor Space: 392,000 Square Feet

Acreage: 27 Acres

Products: Dodge Viper SRT10 Coupe & Roadster and V-10 Engine

Employment: 115 Employees

Training Hours: 10,400 Hours (2006)

Union Local: U.A.W. (United Auto Workers) Local #212

Plant History: Plant was built in 1966, purchased by Chrysler in 1995. Dodge Viper production began in May 1992 at the New Mack Assembly Plant and was moved to Conner Avenue in October 1995. Prowler production began in May 1997 and ended in February 2002. Viper V-10 Engine production transferred from Mound Road Engine to Conner Assembly in May 2001.


(Updated: July 2007)
From:http://cgcomm.daimlerchrysler.com

Now there is talk of shutting this facility but, the Vipers are built in Detroit at this time.

Oh yeah, the 1st model year Vipers were also hand built in Detroit, MI.
Yep, they had many parts from the Mistubishi side while MoPar was working with them but, the car was still done in Detroit.

Hey not here to start an argument, but when one claims to talk as they "know it all", I wish they would have all of their facts together.

Do a little research as I just did before you throw the stuff out there.
You back up all the Toy stuff with "reports". I have seen other reports that contradict your reports so, there ya go. ;)!

I still would agree with the Toy quality issues of recent years. A good friend of mine is a Toy mechanic & he says the quality has dropped a bunch in the last few years, more warranty work etc. Hmmmmmmmm??? Might be a bit better than some domestics, but the spread is getting smaller every year.
 
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