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GM Vows to Defend Title Against Toyota

Maybe Mike can read....

BUSINESS

Toyota takes 3rd place in 2006 U.S. auto sales

Thursday, January 4, 2007 at 11:31 EST

NEW YORK ? Toyota Motor Corp took third place in the U.S. automobile market in terms of sales volume in 2006, making it the first time for the Japanese automaker to reach the top three on an annual sales basis, according to data released Wednesday.

Japan's No. 1 automaker topped the sales of the North American division of DaimlerChrysler AG to take the No. 3 spot for the year. General Motors Corp remained at the top and Ford Motor Co retained second place, the figures showed.

Toyota had its best year ever in 2006, with sales up 12.9% for the year at more than 2.5 million vehicles.

GM insisted that its recovery was on track despite seeing its annual U.S. sales fall 8.7% from 2005 to just over 4.124 million last year.

Like its smaller Detroit rival Ford, GM is laying off thousands of workers and shuttering plants as it seeks to shore up its business.

Toyota looks on course to surpass GM as the world's leading automaker, in global production terms, this year.

"2006 was a respectable year for the industry if you consider the strain of erratic fuel prices and a housing bubble on an industry weaning itself from incentives," Toyota Motor Sales USA executive vice president Jim Lentz said.

Last year, the Camry was the best-selling car in America for the fifth consecutive year, while Toyota's Lexus brand was the best-selling luxury badge for the seventh year running, according to Toyota.

Land Rover was the Ford group's only brand to post higher sales in

2006. The Mercury, Lincoln and Volvo badges all lost ground, while sales at the premium Jaguar marque dived 32% in the year.

Jesse Toprak, executive industry analyst at auto website Edmunds.com, said GM's market share last year fell to 24.9% from 26.4% in 2005, Ford's went down to 17.2% (from 18.3%) and Toyota's rose to 15.4% (13.4%).

"The number one reason is the production cuts from the domestics. If you don't produce cars, you can't sell them," he said.

"The other reason is Toyota's diverse product mix. If you go to a Toyota dealership, you'll find pretty much any vehicle in the price and model range you want," Toprak said.

"The same is true of GM, but Toyota has a much better brand image for reliability, performance and resale value."

Maybe Mike will figure this out when he sells his piece of GM crap and he has no trade in value.. O Well its his money...let him work for it.

Reply to
04camryse
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That was Programmable, and was probably in the manual...

Reply to
Hachiroku

Art's obviously too stupid to know that many cars are like that, including his 2 new Hondas.

Reply to
High Tech Misfit

Who knows what will happen in the future? The same pundits, not too many years age, were predicting that Ford would overtake GM, as well. Toyota may well overtake GM globally, since GM does not make midget cars and trucks that are sold in the growing third world market. However whether you like it or not in the worlds largest market, the US, as of the end of 2006 GM and Ford outsold any import by over two million vehicles. In Canada GM Ford and Chrysler also outsold Toyota. ;)

mike

Reply to
Mike Hunter

You are correct, one can spend their money wherever they wish. Good for Toyota, some of the stuff they make is pretty good, even though in my opinion, based on the dozen or so Toyotas and Lexus' I have owned, they are overpriced and underpowered. Currently I own 2006 and a 2007 vehicle, neither one of which is a GM vehicle. The fact remains, whether you happen to agree or not, most Americans still prefer domestics over imports. A lot of Americans must like what the domestics have for sale since nearly 10 million of the 16.5 million sold in 2006 were domestics ;)

Total sale figures for 2006, from the US Department of Commerce.

GM 4.5 million Ford 3 million Toyota 2.5 million Chrysler 2.4 million Honda 2 million Nissan 1 million The remainder were below 1 million

mike

"04camryse" wrote in message

Reply to
Mike Hunter

Ignoring the high-growth markets is not ordinarily considered good business. Perhaps GM has moved beyond the confines of traditional marketing, finance and business management to some alternate hyperdimensional business universe, where negative cash flow and shrinking market share can be transformed into big profits.

Maybe I should have paid closer attention to the concept of "imaginary numbers" in high school; then I could take a job as Executive Vice President at GM and cash in on this alternate universe of marketing and finance.

Or, maybe not.

Hachi nailed it. GM, Ford and Chrysler have gone from sneering at Toyota and Honda to envying their income statements.

Reply to
DH

Who died and left you as the arbiter of automotive power requirements? Of the 400,000 or so Camrys that got sold into this market this year, 75% or so were sold with I4 engines. I know several of these people. They are perfectly happy with the performance. I know several people with I4 Hondas who tested both the V6 and the I4 and decided the I4 was plenty good enough. Clearly, many people disagree with you. They don't think the I4 Camry is underpowered but, rather, that Detroit builds gas hogs fit only for conspicuous consumption and that's an expense they don't need.

The "underpowered" V6 Avalon will beat the Northstar V8-powered Lucerne at the strip. And get better fuel economy.

And yesterday, in my "pathetically underpowered" I4 Rav4, I merged ahead of a very surprised woman in a late-model Trailblazer who was absolutely determined to cut me off. She tailgated me for a while before blowing by and giving me the finger. She'll pay for that bit of intemperate acceleration at the pump.

Reply to
DH

Get real, who would settle for a 4 cy Camry in mountain parts of the country that must run in lower gears all day? Surely you don't believe one gets great mileage running in lower gears?. The Toyota dealers in mountainous areas carry more V6 Camrys then fours. THEY seem to know the four is underpowered.. But like you say many will 'settle' for a four. Have you ever taken the time to compare prices of the 4 cy Camry with the V6s offered by other brands, like Honda. Even CR points to the reason so may Camrys are sold with fours is the premium prices that Toyota charges for a Camry with a V6. ;)

mike

Reply to
Mike Hunter

Half of the time spent on hills will be spent going DOWN hill. Advantage - I4.

What percentage of the country lives in mountains or visits them often enough to care?

The judgement of most of the Camry purchasers is that the I4 Camry has enough power. Or they wouldn't buy it.

Maybe they're all well-adjusted mentally and get plenty of sex, so they don't need to compensate for their shortcomings with a big engine and a big fuel bill.

THEY seem to know that people who live in mountains can be persuaded to buy a bigger engine, yielding them more profit on the sale, not that the I4 is necessarily underpowered.

Going by the Camry LE and the Honda EX-L, the premium for a Honda V6 is $3150 and the premium for a Camry V6 is $3615.

What does the V6 premium actually get you?

The Honda EX-L Automatic has a 166hp engine and a 5-speed auto. The Honda EX-L V6 Automatic has a 244hp engine and a 5-speed auto. So, for your $3150, you get 78hp.

The Camry LE Automatic has a 158hp engine and a 5-speed auto. The Camry LE V6 Automatic has a 268hp engine and a 6-speed auto. So, for your $3615, you get 110hp AND an extra gear.

So, yes, the Camry V6 costs more but you get more. What's wrong with that?

I'm still waiting for your take on the underpowered Buick Lucerne and I'd still like to know who died and left you as arbiter of automotive power requirements.

Reply to
DH

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