King Toyota

Wall Street Journal - May 10, 2007

TOKYO -- Toyota Motor Corp.'s modest earnings increase for the January- March quarter shows how the challenges inherent with rapid growth have begun to weigh on the auto maker's bottom line.

Toyota, which surpassed Detroit competitor General Motors Corp. as the world's biggest auto maker by sales volume for the quarter, said higher raw-material costs and sluggish demand in the U.S. were among factors that led to 8.9% growth in the fiscal fourth quarter. The car maker also had to invest heavily in quality control, as more manufacturing capacity led to more recalls in the U.S. Meanwhile, research spending rose amid new environmental demands and a faster product cycle.

Group net profit rose to 440.1 billion yen ($3.7 billion). Operating profit fell 2.8%. Toyota projected a 0.4% rise in group net profit for the current fiscal year ending March 2008.

Japan's biggest auto maker remains strong in the vital North American market, where high gasoline prices have lured consumers to fuel- efficient models such as the RAV4

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- a small sport-utility vehicle that can average 25 miles per gallon, and the Prius gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle
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- Toyota sold 714,000 vehicles in North America in the fiscal fourth quarter, a 6.9% increase from a year earlier. But not all models have been selling briskly. Sales of the redesigned Tundra pickup truck
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- an important model for Toyota as it provides higher margins than compacts such as the Corolla, have been slow despite large discounts. Analysts say Toyota might not meet its relatively modest goal of selling 200,000 Tundras in the U.S. this year. The company cites a slow U.S. market and fierce competition in the pickup-truck sector for the weak sales. Critics also say Toyota is sacrificing some of its vaunted quality in its rush to bring new products to market. In the past year, Toyota has recalled hundreds of thousands of vehicles. The company has also decided to delay introductions of some models in the U.S. by as many as six months so engineers can conduct more quality checks.

At a news conference yesterday, President Katsuaki Watanabe said the car maker would continue to incur expenses in order to "fully improve our quality."

Toyota, the world's most profitable auto maker, could also face bigger challenges as the demand for cars shifts away from the U.S. -- where Toyota has about 17% of the market -- to emerging markets such as China and India. Rivals such as GM and Volkswagen AG have already established themselves in these nations, and Chinese auto makers are fiercely competing. Toyota says it plans to boost sales in China by 30% to more than 400,000 vehicles this calendar year.

Net sales at Toyota increased 10% for the fourth quarter to 6.33 trillion yen. Toyota reports earnings based on U.S. accounting standards...

Reply to
George Orwell
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How sad it is for Toyota. Stronach gambles to get into Russia

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Reply to
Just Facts

That's an interesting take from an article that said something a bit different. Demand has dropped off, quality has dropped off and recalls have increased due to the suffering quality.

Reply to
Mike Marlow

I find it a bit strange that so many American will post in other NGs to shout with glee that they are foolish enough to hand over their hard earned money, to buy an over priced car that is not better on average than other brands, from a Japanese corporation that pays no US federal corporate taxes, yet bitch an moan and ask the government to step in when American oil companies earns a SMALLER profit on which they pay millions of dollars in US federal corporate taxes ;)

mike

Reply to
Mike Hunter

Many of our Toyota buyer friends would like us to forget that Toyota was the number one company in recalls in 2006 ;)

mike

Reply to
Mike Hunter

It probably has something to do with the idea that when you send tax money to the Federal Government they spend it on blowing up things in Iraq, and when you limit oil company gouging, it reduces gas prices wich sends the money to the pockets of the people in the country who use it to pay for things like eating.

Don't worry, after the next election and the idiot in the WH is removed, and the money pit that is Iraq gets plugged up, I think you will see less call for silly schemes to try to divert money around the cash-sink that is the federal government.

Ted

Reply to
Ted Mittelstaedt

Another Lilly livered coward Dim comes out of the closet!

pssssssssssssssst

George W. Bush (the greatest president ever)...isn't running!

You coward libs want to retreat from the war on terrorists?

I only hope you are one of the first targets for them when they arrive in America or whatever rock you live under.

by the way the terrorists want to KILL you....

Reply to
Scott in Florida

I guess we should have figured sooner that you were one of the lefty kooks that think the President is our enemy not the radical Islamic terrorist that want to kill all Americans LOL

mike

Reply to
Mike Hunter

You. Are. Insane.

Reply to
80 Knight

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