"80 Knight" <nospam (AT) nospam (DOT) com> wrote

New World Order - Toyota overtakes GM No. 2 GM: Profit, not size, is the
goal
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...704250428/1148


DETROIT -- Just three months after Rick Wagoner vowed General Motors Corp.
would fight to remain the world's largest automaker, Toyota Motor Co. has
toppled it from the No. 1 spot for the first time in 76 years.

The historic reversal is largely symbolic and widely anticipated. But the
new reality, as well as the speed at which Toyota closed in, has
implications for both companies.

Toyota's new role is bound to have a deep psychological impact on one of the
last manufacturing sectors where America still leads.

Gone are GM's bragging rights in an industry dominated by image and
marketing might. Also dwindling is the automaker's ability to dominate price
wars and smaller players.

At the same time, Toyota will find itself grappling with pressures long
familiar to GM -- intense scrutiny from the outside and the threat of
complacency within.

"This wasn't news that we wanted to hear," GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson said.
"But it won't distract us from the business at hand: designing, building and
selling the best cars and trucks for customers around the world."

Industry analysts have maintained that, for GM, finding a competitive
business model in which it can shave costs and boost sales is far more
crucial than maintaining its role as sales leader.

GM and Toyota do battle in nearly every segment and every region in the
world, with Toyota drawing strength from its superior profitability.

On Tuesday, Toyota announced that it sold 2.35 million vehicles worldwide in
the January-March quarter, surpassing the 2.26 million vehicles that GM sold
in the same period. Toyota's totals include its Hino heavy truck and
Daihatsu small-car brands.

Toyota's sales marked an 8 percent increase over the previous year. It
expanded in most regions of the world but slipped 5 percent in its weak
domestic market.

Toyota's worldwide production rose 2.6 percent to 2.37 million vehicles in
the first quarter.

Toyota produced 1.04 million vehicles overseas, and exported nearly 700,000
from Japan. The Japanese automaker is rapidly expanding production
facilities abroad, and Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe attended the
groundbreaking last week of Toyota's eighth vehicle assembly plant in North
America, in Blue Springs, Miss.

GM aims to close plants

GM, meanwhile, is in the midst of massive downsizing in North America that
calls for closing 12 plants by 2012.

But while GM's North American sales were down about 6 percent -- largely
because of cutbacks in less profitable fleet sales -- the automaker's
worldwide sales rose 3 percent to a record high.

It's still not certain whether Toyota will end 2007 on top of GM, but many
analysts expect it will.

Jeff Schuster, an analyst with J.D. Power and Associates, forecasts that
Toyota will sell about 280,000 more cars than GM this year and about 850,000
more by 2009. "We don't see this as a one-quarter phenomenon," he said.
"They are both going to grow, but Toyota is growing faster."

GM marketing chief Mark LaNeve told Chevrolet dealers Tuesday in Las Vegas
that GM wasn't stressed about Toyota passing them and said he was surprised
it was making so much news, said one dealer who asked not to be named.

LaNeve told the dealers that the GM-Toyota race isn't over since Toyota is
traditionally strong in the first quarter of the year and GM is strong in
the second quarter.

Toyota has been gaining on GM for years, buoyed by billions in cash
reserves, soaring sales in the United States and an Earth-friendly image at
a time when global warming is emerging as one of the biggest issues.

All the while, GM is fighting a host of demons: image problems, soaring
health care costs, an oversized staff and too much reliance on gas-guzzling
trucks and SUVs.

"There's good big and there's bad big," said auto analyst John Casesa,
managing partner of Casesa Shapiro Group. "Good big is when you're efficient
and large. Bad big is when you're big but have an uncompetitive cost
structure. And that is what GM is moving away from."

Both companies on Tuesday played down the stake they have in being No. 1.
But it's clear that the shift is significant.

Wagoner, GM's CEO, predicted in 2005 that GM would stay on top for another
70 years. He backed off that statement, but as recently as January said GM
would fight to keep the "world's largest" title -- something GM mentions
every time it sends out a news release.

"It's not something where we would sit back and let somebody pass us by,"
Wagoner said in a January talk with reporters. "But the other side of it is
we're going to fight for every sale and do it in a way that's consistently
building the value of the enterprise from a shareholder perspective."

In many ways, however, losing the No. 1 spot will bring some relief to GM,
which for months now has been dogged by questions about that fateful
milestone. GM leaders have long maintained that their focus is on becoming
leaner and more profitable, even at the risk of losing market share. In that
case, Tuesday's signpost shows they're serious.

Analyst: Toyota has fears

Toyota has fought to grow sales, but at the same time fears what being No. 1
could mean, said Anand Sharma, manufacturing expert and co-founder of TBM
Consulting Group.

"They think the moment you are on top is the moment you are sliding down,"
Sharma said. "In a way they've dreaded it and feared that it may lead to
some complacency in their ranks."

And while Toyota has long maintained its focus is on quality and customers
rather than size, its climb has been relentless.

"Don't believe for a second Toyota's goal -- or Watanabe's goal -- isn't to
surpass GM," said Michelle Krebs, senior editor of Edmunds'
AutoObserver.com. "Toyota desperately wants to be No. 1. The automaker just
worries about what goes along with being No. 1."

It's a worldwide fight

The battle between GM and Toyota spans the globe, with competition intense
in fast-growing markets such as China, where GM last year sold more than 1
million vehicles.

Even with GM's success abroad, Toyota is growing faster in most parts of the
world and especially in North America.

Given the momentum, it is unlikely GM will be able to win back the top spot
that it won in 1931 when it overtook another automotive giant: Ford Motor
Co.

"It's devastating to me -- and it could have been prevented," said dealer
John Rogan of John Rogan Buick-Livonia. He said while GM has cut back on
unattractive fleet sales, it hasn't done enough to replenish its product
lines.

"We eat sleep and breathe the sales of automobiles, and this is just an
indication of the larger trend," Rogan said. "But the year is not up, so
watch out."

Of course I meant 90,000, the point is that is not even a half hour of
sales. GM does not compete in many of the market in which Toyotas does. GM
does not generally build the midget cars that Toyota sells in third world
counties for example. One quarters results do not necessarily equate
annual sales results. Toyota out sold GM in two different month in 2006 but
GM still out sold Toyota in annual sales world wide. More importantly GM
still out sells Toyota, in the largest markets in the world where their
products directly compete like the US and Europe, buy millions of vehicles
annually.


mike


"Jeff" <news (AT) googlemail (DOT) com> wrote

"Mike Hunter" <mikehunt2 (AT) mailcity (DOT) com> wrote

I don't know what you meant. You said 9,000. I took you at your word. Your
logic is too convoluted to guess at what you mean. If you say 9,000, I will
believe that you meant 9,000.

GM competes in the two biggest markets with Toyota, Europe and North
America. In addition, GM and Toyota and other car makers are competing in
the markets with the most people, China and India. GM is #1 in China:
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...ticleId=117775


But's not exactly true, either.

GM offers the Corsa, which is a small car, in England.

In China, GM offers cars that are similar to ones it offers the US buyers
here, as well as smaller cars:
http://www.gm.com/company/corp_info/...ific/chin.html

Wrong. A more accurate statement is that quarterly results do not equate
with annual sales results. Obviously, Toyota and GM are both opening new
plants in different parts of the world, have production problems from time
to time, etc. The markets are changing fast, and, one would expect that
sales change pretty rapidly, too.

Gee, I thought you said that they don't compete in many markets.

You're so funny.

Jeff

no.8078 (AT) trnddc02 (DOT) ..

You are free to believe whatever you choose. LOL

mike


"Jeff" <news (AT) googlemail (DOT) com> wrote

Rich B wrote:
1987 Dodge Aries (of all things). Still runs great (for 86
horsepower)! I see others like hers of that vintage every couple of
weeks tooling about town. I hardly see *any* "toys" of that vintage though.

On Apr 26, 12:01 am, jcr <nos... (AT) nospam (DOT) com> wrote:
So you live in Havana.
I heard that is relatively new car there.

Better do a bit more research on the Cuban revolution if that is what you
believe LOL

mike


"Gosi" <gosinn (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

Mike Hunter wrote:
In Havana, you'll see almost exclusively 1950's US-branded vehicles there.

They obviously love their cars and have good repair kits

jcr wrote:

Gosi wrote:
They have to have a lot of machinist talent in Cuba to keep those old
cars running.