Toyota Deals the Final Blow to GM and Ford with New Engine...

Cut engine cost by $1000?

I doubt that! Unless they've found a way to start with seeds.

I have not researched this new proclamation, but it doesn't meet the initial BS test. I don't think there's $1,000 in machining cost there to be saved.

Slave labor?

and

I'm still a sceptic...

Engineering excellence at work. Now if GM could only get off their ass..... . Read the links and weep.

Care to cite a reference? Could it be

You might want to look at this old Wall Street Journal Story from 1996 -

You need to watch Toyota, they cut corners in subtle ways that end up cost the Customer many extra dollars down the road. As incredible as it seems, many Toyota engines don't use hydraulic valve lifters and require very expensive routine valve clearance adjustments. This probably saves Toyota $50 when they build the engine and costs the Customer hundreds when they have the valve clearances inspected and adjusted (if they have it checked at all).

Ed

We will have to waitand see what shaving $1000 off the cost of the engine has in store for the customer 40,000 miles down the road. GM shaaved some cost & weight off the 3800 by installing a plastic intake manifold's and the results were not well received by car owners.

Time Will Tell.

Harryface

Do you read the links you post? This is certainly apples and oranges. That was the engine for a "dirt-cheap" car to be introduced in Asia. Not very likely to be the same thing as the motor for a Camry.

The proof's in the pudding. Toyota is selling a very nice car at prices competitive with GM and Ford offerings and MAKING MONEY doing it.

So the current Camry engine cost FOUR times as much as a 1994 four cylinder? It is inconceivable that that the third rate Camry V-6 costs $2000 to build. This whole "saving $1000" claim is some sort of silly Toyota PR campaigned designed to polish the Toyota image. What they should have reported is something along the lines of "Toyota finally get a grip on excessive engine costs." It reminds me of managers who inflate their departmental budgets and then, when pushed, announce significant cost savings so that they can look like heros.

If you think third rate designs are "very nice vehicles" then I Toyota is your brand. Toyota charges thousands more for comparable vehicles while paying far less in salray and benefits to their workforce. As far as I can tell the whole Toyota sucess story is based on convincing people that they should pay more for less.

Ed

Better engineering and better designs, on the whole, than GM can manage. Toyota is making money and selling a lot of vehicles and keeps gaining market share while GM keeps on its downhill slide because of ongoing poor decisions and engineering. It did not have to be that way but GM took the cheap and greedy short term grab road.

Doesn't really say what this new "technique" is. Aluminum blocks are not new.Neither is magnesium, ever been to a VW block burning party at the Bonneville salt flats???:-) IMO the "new" technique _could_ be the same GM has used for the last several years on their new in-lines, namely lost foam investment casting.............

just out of curiousity, how hard is it to get them to flame up?

Yeh Americans are stupid and will buy anything especially if its somebody elses stuff just because other people have colder ice.

a standard cigarette lighter (an old BIC) will turn a roll of magnesium into a really bright fire...

Yes it's amazing how many still buy crap vehicles, consuming too much fuel and which they think are American, yet many are imported. See GM's bottom end junk cars imported from Korea.

Perhaps but Toyota is still is in a distant forth place in sales in the US, the world largest market. ;)

mike hunt

Try a respectable second.

nate

Mike Hunter wrote: