Toyota tops GM in 1Q Sales

[Redleader34]

Toyota: All your cars are belong to consumers

TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp. became the world's top auto seller in the first three months of the year, passing rival General Motors Corp. for the first time, the Japanese automaker said Tuesday.

Toyota sold 2.35 million vehicles worldwide in the January-March quarter, the company said, surpassing the 2.26 million vehicles that GM said it sold during the same period. The results mark the first time Toyota has beat GM in global sales on a quarterly basis.

Toyota's reputation for quality and fuel efficiency has lifted sales of the popular Camry, Corolla and Prius gas-and-electric hybrid while GM has cut production as high fuel prices turned people away from its light trucks and sports utility vehicles.

While the figures represent only quarterly sales results, they foreshadow a tough challenge for GM as it fights to hold onto it title as world's top automaker _ a claim usually staked on annual production figures.

Toyota has been gaining steadily on GM in recent years, and analysts have been saying it is only a matter of time before it eclipses its Detroit-based rival, which has seen its market share shrink in the United States even as it leads sales in China.

"Everybody on the road expects Toyota to overtake GM in 2007," said Koji Endo, an analyst with Credit Suisse in Tokyo. "I won't say the trend is impossible to reverse, but it's extremely difficult."

Toyota is ahead of GM in several ways, he said, including producing fuel-efficient models, developing new technology, boosting global brand image, cutting costs and having high morale and unity among its ranks.

"Toyota has been a success in almost all the regions, and is opening new plants," Endo said. "The only region GM continues to be strong is China, and it has failed almost everywhere else."

In 2006, Toyota's global production surged 10 percent to 9.018 million vehicles, while GM and its group automakers produced 9.18 million vehicles worldwide _ a gap of about 162,000. In the first quarter, Toyota made 2.37 million vehicles worldwide, while GM had expected to produce 2.34 million.

But Endo also warned that increased size also brings other problems like trying to ensure quality and manage a sprawling network of manufacturing and sales.

"As your volume gets bigger and bigger, in many cases efficiency tends to drop," he said. "There might be a risk of being over-stretched."

Toyota says topping GM isn't a key priority for the company.

"Our goal has never been to sell the most cars in the world," said Paul Nolasco, a spokesman for the Japanese company. "We simply want to be the best in quality. After that, sales will take care of themselves."

Ayako Uchida, a GM spokeswoman in Japan, declined to comment on the figures but said her company's sales results were preliminary and not yet final.

In the vital American market, Toyota's sales rose 12.9 percent last year, catapulting it past DaimlerChrysler AG as the No. 3 seller of autos in the U.S. Toyota's share of the U.S. market climbed to 16 percent in March, behind GM's 22 percent and Ford Motor Co.'s 17 percent.

GM hasn't released a forecast for this year, but Toyota is shooting for global output of 9.42 million vehicles and sales of 9.34 million units.

While Toyota appears on course to supplant General Motors this year, GM's moves to boost overseas production could keep it in the running. The company's sales in China jumped 32 percent last year to 876,747 units, and it is also building a new factory in India, another market with tremendous potential.

GM launched a major restructuring in November 2005 that called for closing 12 plants by 2008, slashing its work force, reducing capacity and cutting costs.

But as Toyota rolls on, its executives are growing concerned about a possible political backlash in the U.S., even though American consumers continue to flock to Toyota dealerships. U.S. lawmakers from manufacturing states charge that the Japanese government has kept the yen artificially low, giving Japanese automakers an advantage.

"We are certainly concerned," Toyota Senior Adviser Hiroshi Okuda said earlier this year, adding that Toyota needed to "significantly" increase the number of foreigners on its board.

At that time, there were no foreigners in top positions at Toyota. But earlier this month, Toyota promoted American James Press, president of the automaker's North American division, to the inner circle.

Toyota's shares closed down 0.54 percent to 7,370 yen ($62.46) on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

GM is being assualted on all sides

[Xisiqomelir]

Well, that about wraps it up for Rick Wagoner.

This will continue until Detroit stops churning out fuel-guzzling behemoths and starts making cars people want to buy.

[Admiral Valdemar]

The Big 3's mission statement is simple: Stop making shit cars.

Whether they actually take a hint, or continue moaning about emission restrictions and mandatory fuel economy rises is up to them.

On the plus side, Ford's quality, in the US at least, has gone up a bit according to a recent survey.

[Spice Runner]

"Our goal has never been to sell the most cars in the world," said Paul Nolasco, a spokesman for the Japanese company. "We simply want to be the best in quality. After that, sales will take care of themselves."

This is what I like about Toyota and why my next car will be Toyota as well.
My parents used to drive Ford and were considering buying a new Ford a few years back but decided not to as they had enough of the craptastic quality.

[tim31]

Toyota has been edging out Holden(Australia's GM branch) in the last five years.

Between my immediate family, they've owned six Toyotas from new, and almost no complaints(Landcruiser had a transmission problem fixed under warranty). I defected to Nissan when I bought my Skyline, but my partner owns a Corolla and with the imminent arrival of our second child, we'll be trading up to a Camry.

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Dave and I are likely to be loyal Nissan fans from here on out. Our Frontier has never given us any trouble that wasn't easily traced to an incident of user error (diesel in the gas tank!) or sour gasoline (high sulfur content). Both incidents were easily fixed.

The truck gets good mileage for what it is; 30 highway, 25 city. I'm interested in refitting the engine with devices to boost efficiency further, however.

[Alferd Packer]

Dave and I are likely to be loyal Nissan fans from here on out. Our Frontier has never given us any trouble that wasn't easily traced to an incident of user error (diesel in the gas tank!) or sour gasoline (high sulfur content). Both incidents were easily fixed.

The truck gets good mileage for what it is; 30 highway, 25 city. I'm interested in refitting the engine with devices to boost efficiency further, however.

Sweet, another Nissan fan! I myself own your truck's predecessor, a '97 Hardbody. Rock-solid little truck, though since I live in a snowier climate and thus have 4WD, the fuel economy is pretty shitty(17/19). Happily, I don't drive but once or twice a week.

As to the OP, I'm not surprised by this. If you look at the fleet fuel economies, it makes so much more sense to shop Toyota. I mean, this whole "Buy American" thing can only go so far, especially because several Toyotas are built in American by Americans nowadays, anyway (same thing for Nissan, Honda, and Hyundai, AFAIK).

[Arrow]

When I bought my Ford Escape last year, I was also looking at the Toyota Highlander. The local Ford dealer made me an offer I couldn't refuse, however (discounts and 0% financing for the term of the loan - sold!). While I know Ford isn't the best quality brand, it's served my family well. My mom's Explorer is going on eleven years old and still going strong, and my step dad's used beater Range has 200k miles on it, with a cheap do-it-yourself transmission repair (with the help of a couple of friends that work on transmissions to fix a broke reverse). And my Escape is a year old now, with no problems.

[jegs2]

My car is a Hyundai Sonata - truly an outstanding purchase. When I'm not on my Harley, I'm driving my Korean car.

[TrailerParkJawa]

My car is a Hyundai Sonata - truly an outstanding purchase. When I'm not on my Harley, I'm driving my Korean car.

You must perplex pro-military neocons who believe in buying American. Here you are an Army officer with an American icon motorcycle driving around in one of them dang, darn, oriental mobiles.

Seriously though, I got a chance to drive a Sonata last weekend. My friend purchased a new Santa Fe and the dealer gave her a Sonata as a loaner while they install some options into the Santa Fe. I found the Sonata to be a very reasonable sedan given its price range. Nice ride, nice stereo, nice rims, decent pickup and so forth. Hyundai has come a long way from its crappy days of the Hyundai Excel. 3-4 years after they came out you didnt see on the roads anymore. Hyundais are definately worth a look.

[Ma Deuce]

The Big 3's mission statement is simple: Stop making shit cars.

No, it's not that simple. The so-called Big Three have enormous union, pension, and health care related legacy costs, which give them a $1500-2000 per vehicle price handicap compared to Toyota, Honda etc, who's US workers are not unionized and are not yet generating any significant pension drain. This is the reason Detroit can rarely build a decent economy car at competitive prices, and if you have any simple way to overcome this cost penalty short of Chapter 11 bankruptcy then I'm all ears. This is why they build SUVs and larger cars: those are about the only vehicles they can actually make money on in North America. As an example, I find it interesting to note that Ford's best selling and top rated sedan in North America (the Fusion; not the same car as the European Ford mini-wagon bearing the same name) is hecho en Mexico, where their workers are not unionized and paid much lower wages.

But anyway, my GM car has returned 5 years of almost trouble free service, and what minor problems did develop (all were electrical) were fixed under warranty in less than 24 hours. So when it comes time to replace my current vehicle, I'm going back to GM: Hopefully they can turn the Chevy Volt concept into a realty and make it work as advertised, because I'd defiantly buy one if I had the money at the time.

Well, that about wraps it up for Rick Wagoner.

No, actually it doesn't: GM may not be #1 anymore, but they're actually making money again for the first time in two years. I'm sure GM's shareholders would rather GM be profitable at #2 than losing money at #1.

I'm interested in refitting the engine with devices to boost efficiency further, however.

AFAIK, there are no aftermarket devices that actually increase fuel economy: All the ones ones that claim to do so that I'm aware of are in fact, bullshit. All I can suggest is, keep your tires at the proper pressure, change the air and fuel filters at recommended intervals, as well as of course, the oil: On that note you might want to try using synthetic oil, as that can increase fuel economy by as much as 5%. For the air filter, I recommend one of those K&N reusable cotton filters; They are pricey, but since they only need to be cleaned and oiled when an ordinary filter would normally be replaced, they'll pay for themselves over time. they also allow better airflow, boosting performance slightly. Some users report slightly better fuel economy, though K&N makes no claims of such.

[Ma Deuce]

No, actually it doesn't: GM may not be #1 anymore, but they're actually making money again for the first time in two years. I'm sure GM's shareholders would rather GM be profitable at #2 than losing money at #1.

On that note, here's a piece from CNN that puts a slightly different spin on this than the OP:

GM at No. 2: Not such a bad thing

Just because GM has given up its long-held title of world's No. 1 automaker doesn't mean its fortunes have gotten worse.

By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer
April 24 2007: 4:11 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- If the first quarter marked the end of General Motors' reign as king of the world's automakers, it was a good way for it to go out.

Sales figures for the first three months of the year show Toyota Motor (Charts) had global sales of 2.35 million cars and light trucks, while GM (Charts, Fortune 500) had sales of 2.25 million. It marked the first time that GM had fallen behind a competitor in global sales since 1930.

The irony is that GM's sales were actually pretty good in the quarter. Total sales rose 3 percent worldwide to the highest ever for GM.

And most of the decline in U.S. sales were vehicles it's just as happy to be rid of - sales to rental car companies. Those sales aren't just less profitable (or even money-losing) for GM, they also drive down the value of other GM cars by flooding the market with low-mileage late-model used cars.

GM's retail sales in the United States were essentially flat, edging up 0.5 to 677,274. But its fleet sales dropped by 57,000, or nearly 20 percent, leaving its overall North American sales down 6 percent in the quarter.

Cutting back or closing plants that GM was keeping open just to make unprofitable vehicles has been one of the keys to GM shaving its losses, so that its North American auto business nearly broke even by the end of last year.

But the troubled, shrinking automaker that is still GM at home is a contrast to the growing, successful GM overseas.

North America was the only region where it did not see a gain in sales in the period. And for the quarter, GM's overseas sales topped those in North America in total units, which was not the case a year ago.

GM sales in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East jumped nearly 17 percent, and GM actually picked up market share in the region which quietly put up the biggest sales growth across the industry in the quarter.

It also picked up ground in the high-profile, fast growing Asia-Pacific region, where China has the focus of just about every automaker's future expansion plans. And it posted gains in Europe as well.

GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner has said that hanging onto the No. 1 sales ranking isn't a priority, but that it's also a distinction GM won't give up without a fight. Monday GM spokesman John McDonald repeated those beliefs.

"There's a focus on competition with all the global manufacturers, not just Toyota," he said. "There's room for more than one successful automaker in the world. The rivalry with our competitors is a good one. Ultimately the customer wins. But we're not going to let that rivalry distract us from what we need to do globally, and that is offer the best cars and trucks to our customers, no matter where they live."

Toyota does not break down its sales on a regional basis, at least at this point. And a spokeswoman for the Japanese automaker also tried to downplay the idea of it grabbing the No. 1 automaker title as being important.

"Ultimately our customers determine our success and rankings aren't important to our customers," Toyota Motor USA spokeswoman Sona Iliffe-Moon said.

Still, it certainly appears that Toyota is unlikely to relinquish this new lead any time soon.

Its 9 percent sales growth globally in the first three months of 2007 came about the right way. Not by chasing sales in order to keep factories running at capacity, but by adding new high-profit product to new markets. The quarter saw its first full-size pickup offering, the new Tundra, debut in the United States. The truck is built in a new plant in San Antonio.

Toyota's fuel-efficient vehicles are well positioned if rising oil prices continues to push U.S. buyers from light trucks into cars. Its hybrid sales, while still a fraction of its total, give the company a great edge in the minds of those looking for environmentally friendly, fuel-efficient offerings, even if they end up buying a traditional non-hybrid vehicle.

And Toyota and its Japanese rival Honda Motor (Charts) still have a real cost advantage over GM, Ford (Charts, Fortune 500) and DaimlerChrysler's (Charts) troubled Chrysler Group unit, which has been put up for sale after $1.5 billion in losses. That advantage can only help Toyota by emabling it to charge less for its vehicle and to plow more money back into product development.

But the view of GM as a struggling, shrinking giant, which the loss of its long held No. 1 ranking suggests, isn't being mirrored overseas.

[Aaron]

I traded in my 99 Grand Am and bought a Honda and I'm never going back to a US vehicle again. When I buy my hobby farm I'm buying a beater truck but it'll probably be a Toyota.

[Admiral Valdemar]

No, it's not that simple. The so-called Big Three have enormous union, pension, and health care related legacy costs, which give them a $1500-2000 per vehicle price handicap compared to Toyota, Honda etc, who's US workers are not unionized and are not yet generating any significant pension drain. This is the reason Detroit can rarely build a decent economy car at competitive prices, and if you have any simple way to overcome this cost penalty short of Chapter 11 bankruptcy then I'm all ears. This is why they build SUVs and larger cars: those are about the only vehicles they can actually make money on in North America. As an example, I find it interesting to note that Ford's best selling and top rated sedan in North America (the Fusion; not the same car as the European Ford mini-wagon bearing the same name) is hecho en Mexico, where their workers are not unionized and paid much lower wages.

But anyway, my GM car has returned 5 years of almost trouble free service, and what minor problems did develop (all were electrical) were fixed under warranty in less than 24 hours. So when it comes time to replace my current vehicle, I'm going back to GM: Hopefully they can turn the Chevy Volt concept into a realty and make it work as advertised, because I'd defiantly buy one if I had the money at the time.

The financial issue is their own doing, so I have no sympathy for them accepting such ridiculous terms. They still are making the wrong cars for a global market and even the American market is crumbling now. We've reached the peak of SUV sales, for instance, which was in 2004/5 IIRC. I hear loads of people going on about the likes of Chrysler wanting to try and break the Chinese market, for instance, but having no small car designs because, well, they've never needed to make such sub-compacts a major force before, and so are teaming up with Chery.

If they don't sort out their workforce issues, then they're dead anyway, but even if they do, they need to drastically rethink their business model and shut the hell up about louder voices urging fuel economy and alternative technologies over more horsepower and overly large storage space.

They should give up the ethanol bullshit too, because it ain't happening, no matter what Shrub says. The US is not Brazil.

[Netko]

No talk of Toyota reliability is complete without a clip of Top Gear doing their best at killing a Toyota and failing (final segment linked here).

Thats just sick.

[Sea Skimmer]

AFAIK, there are no aftermarket devices that actually increase fuel economy: All the ones ones that claim to do so that I'm aware of are in fact, bullshit.

Certainly anything remotely cheap that claims to do so is bullshit. All those devices you’re supposed to put into the air intake to ‘mix’ the air are especially bullshit, if they do anything they’ll make mileage worse. Replacing the entire exhaust and intake pipe work might give you slightly increase fuel efficiency, at the cost of a couple hundred bucks, but it might also create emissions problems if you live in an area which mandates tailpipe tests.

If you happen to have a car making 200-300hp then you might actually get better fuel economy by driving faster. Some of those engines don’t reach peak fuel economy until you hit around 80mph. Getting as much weight as possibul out of a car also helps.

All I can suggest is, keep your tires at the proper pressure, change the air and fuel filters at recommended intervals, as well as of course, the oil: On that note you might want to try using synthetic oil, as that can increase fuel economy by as much as 5%.

That they can. But this is ASSUMING that the switch is done early enough that your engine's life doesn’t then developed oil leaks and start burning the stuff like mad as a result. Buying quarters of oil all the time, plus the inherent increased cost of synthetic oil will quickly eat into fuel savings.

All the really good ways of making gas engines more economical have already been used up with the latest computerized engine controls.

[Darth Mortis]

You know, I just love this, go Toyota (/sarcasm)

I am going out on a limb and assuming that General Motors has done more for this country (like putting kids through school with insurance until age 25 or graduation, pensions for their employee's, etc) than Toyota and their 12 dollar an hour jobs will ever do.

However, they do make a damn fine car.

[The Grim Squeaker]

You know, I just love this, go Toyota (/sarcasm)

I am going out on a limb and assuming that General Motors has done more for this country (like putting kids through school with insurance until age 25 or graduation, pensions for their employee's, etc) than Toyota and their 12 dollar an hour jobs will ever do.

However, they do make a damn fine car.

They make a cheaper car that poorer people can afford and that saves them large amounts of cash on fuel & repair. It also brings wealth to their countries and helps prevent poverty.

Remember, the jobs might be cheaper at times, but the produce that you the consumer will be able to purchase are much, muc cheaper and more affordable (And yes, thats with inflation included).
[/Evil Jewish Capital spiel]

[Darth Mortis]

I have to admit, I'm a bit partial, GM put me through college and post grad, so I probably should not be allowed to participate in the debate. No doubt my bias would show through.

[The Grim Squeaker]

I have to admit, I'm a bit partial, GM put me through college and post grad, so I probably should not be allowed to participate in the debate. No doubt my bias would show through.

Eh, not really your argument is a "rinse and repeat" for just about any company that ends up being beaten by a (usually cheaper or foreign) competitor.

I am going out on a limb and assuming that American/Western company has done more for this country (like putting kids through school with insurance until age 25 or graduation, pensions for their employee's, etc) than Foreign company and their low paying factory jobs will ever do.

See my point?

[Ma Deuce]

The financial issue is their own doing, so I have no sympathy for them accepting such ridiculous terms.

That still doesn't change the fact that "build better cars" isn't such a simple task, and getting out of those contracts will be very difficult short of Chapter 11 (some have argued that Chapter 11 might actually be better for GM in the long run, as it would rid them of their union and pension contracts, but I'm not necessarily convinced).

We've reached the peak of SUV sales, for instance, which was in 2004/5 IIRC.

That really depends on what type of SUVs: Sales traditional fullsized truck-based SUVs are falling, and the mid-sized truck SUV segment (Ford Explorer, Chevy TrailBlazer, Toyota 4Runner) has practically collapsed, but people are not necessarily trading in their SUVs for compact cars (though that segment is still benefiting, even among domestic compact models), but often are going into car-based, so-called "crossover" SUVs, a segment which is still growing very rapidly. The Japanese practically invented this segment, but the domestics have wasted no time capitalizing on it.

I hear loads of people going on about the likes of Chrysler wanting to try and break the Chinese market, for instance, but having no small car designs because, well, they've never needed to make such sub-compacts a major force before, and so are teaming up with Chery.

Well, that's a problem unique to Chrysler who sold off their overseas divisions years ago during Lee Iacocca's tenure. GM and Ford, of course still operate worldwide, and sell cars overseas that are often smaller and more fuel-efficient than what they sell in North America. One solution around the UAW-related costs might be importing their smaller cars. GM is already doing this, importing a subcompact from their Korean Daewoo division, and selling it here as a Chevrolet. They will also import the Opel Astra later this year and sell it as a Saturn. However importing from Europe may not solve the cost problem due to the current exchange rate.

They should give up the ethanol bullshit too, because it ain't happening, no matter what Shrub says. The US is not Brazil.

Building E85 engines is really no more expensive than regular engines, and they don't run differently on regular gas than conventional engines, so why not? The main reason for them going to ethanol is that it provides fuel-economy "credits" under the CAFE system (which I think should be scrapped and replaced with fuel taxes), which is why Toyota will be jumping on the E85 bandwagon within a year (unsurprisingly, their first E85 model will be the gas-guzzling Tundra pickup truck). We can argue about the actual merits of ethanol all day long, but as long as the US government encourages ethanol use, automakers will take advantage of the incentives offered to do so (in fact, there's even talk that Congress will mandate that all new gasoline vehicles be E85-compatible by the 2012 model year)

They make a cheaper car that poorer people can afford and that saves them large amounts of cash on fuel & repair. It also brings wealth to their countries and helps prevent poverty.

Toyotas aren't necessarily cheaper to run, and they certainly aren't cheaper to buy these days. Some models do get somewhat better fuel economy and better reliability (generally only in the smallest two segments though), but this is often offset by their more expensive parts: OEM Toyota parts have gotten cheaper in recent years, but are still sometimes 40% more expensive than say, GM parts. Some parts (like filters and brakes) have to be replaced periodically no matter what make or model. And when something does fail on a Toyota, it's usually something major.

[aerius]

They make a cheaper car that poorer people can afford and that saves them large amounts of cash on fuel & repair. It also brings wealth to their countries and helps prevent poverty.

Toyotas aren't necessarily cheaper to run, and they certainly aren't cheaper to buy these days. Some models do get somewhat better fuel economy and better reliability (generally only in the smallest two segments though), but this is often offset by their more expensive parts: OEM Toyota parts have gotten cheaper in recent years, but are still sometimes 40% more expensive than say, GM parts.

And don't forget the big killer, insurance. Most of my friends drive Hondas & Toyotas, I drive a Chevy. Their Civics, Accords, and Camarys cost $2200-3000 a year to insure, my Chevy Malibu, about $730. Every year I'm pocketing $1500 to $2300 on them, hell, my gas & insurance costs put together is still less than what they pay for insurance alone. I could blow an intake manifold gasket every year and still come out even.

[Aaron]

My Honda costs no more to insure than my Grand Am did.

[Ma Deuce]

My Honda costs no more to insure than my Grand Am did.

The insurance differences depends on individual model and segment, and there are some exceptions to that rule. A good example of the trend though is the Honda Civic, which for instance is notoriously expensive to insure (much more than domestic compacts), given it's popularity with car thieves. In fact, in some areas it's as expensive to insure as a Hummer H3!

[Sea Skimmer]

My Honda costs no more to insure than my Grand Am did.

But how old is it? The imports tend to hold value for longer and cost more to fix, making them inherently more expensive to insure early on, but after a point the value drops down to squat as well. At that point any two cars of about the same horsepower and weight will cost the same to insure