Cars! Cars! Cars!

What? Does Toyota Suck Now?

CNN reports: Ford lures Lexus chief away. Another person leaving Toyota for a U.S. company? What gives? Here are the people who have left Toyota recently:

Jimmy Farley: VP of Lexus --> Ford's marketing division
Deb Meyer: Head of marketing at Lexus --> Chrysler's marketing division
Jimmy Press: Head of Toyota's North American operations --> Chrysler co-head honcho.

OK, these are all wins for U.S. companies, but how about getting some of them fancy engineering folks from Toyota over here? We don't need more marketing in front of us, we just need better cars. In fact, if Detroit can prove to consumers that their cars are as good as the leaders (Honda, Toyota), folks will buy them purely because they are American -- no marketing needed.

How can Detroit prove that their cars are as good as, or better than, the others? Do they need an independent company to help (like a Consumer Reports)? What's the basis? Reliability over five years? Anyone have a CR to see how Detroit is doing compared to the others? Is it time to buy yet?

Toyota Offers Up Land Crusier With Godzilla-Like Pricing

AutoWeek reports: 2008 Toyota Land Cruiser Pricing Announced". Holy crow!

Price: $64,000
Engine: 5.7l, V-8
Power: 381hp
Fuel economy: Shh....

$64k for a Toyota? That's a ton of dukets. As in, you'll need an SUV to carry the cash to the dealer. See, GM? If you make good products, you can charge up the wazoo. We mentioned that in a very odd rant some time ago (hell if we can find it now, though). When we see GM and the rest of Detroit starting to raise prices then maybe we'll think they really believe they are making a better product (the longer warranties are just to get folks back into the showroom).

Cars! Cars! Cars! Bought By Chrysler

They're snatching* everyone else the hell up, why not us, too? Please?

CNN reports: Cerberus' Chrysler bombshell.

CNN reports: GM China executive departing for Chrysler.

We're so very glad to see Cerberus making these big moves to get a kick-ass leadership team into place to kick-ass. Because kick-ass products don't just happen, you need to kick-ass.

Is this going to really hurt Toyota and GM's China division? We don't think so -- at least not just these two dudes moving. As far as Toyota is concerned, the level of its engineering prowess and the rock-solid build quality of (most) its vehicles to do not fall onto the plate of just one man, regardless of how influencial he is.

It's going to take a long time for Chrysler to redo its product line and to rebuild its reputation as a quality builder, but stealing away these guys is a good start and we are hoping to see even more (in terms of dude-stealing, new/better products** and general kicking ass).

*Heh, heh. Snatch.
**First move should be to kill the Avenger. What a yawn-maker.

Holy Hybrids!

No, not holy as in THE LORD, but in sales. Edmunds reports: Hybrids continue to gain favor at Toyota. Check out these stats:

Prius sales in 2007: 52,738, up 73%
Mustang sales in 2007: 47,082, down 16%

That's serious car sales action! It makes sense with fuel prices up so much, but we were really taken by surprise that a Prius was selling this well (and the Mustang this poorly). The article mentions "Toyota's lineup of hybrids, Prius, Camry and Highlander, outsells the entire VW brand." Ha! That's insane! It's also funny that VW and the like seem to have v little interest in creating hybrids.

Softer, Rounder, Prettier

AutoWeek reports: 2008 Scion xB. Whoa, the ol' square dealie just got a helpin' of refinement.

As far as the physical thing goes, this sure seems to be a better one than the previous version, but we have to wonder if this is what everyone wanted. In essence, did Toyota just engineer out the coolness of the xB?

We'll tell you one thing they added: $1,600 to the sticker. Can we uncheck that option?

Terlit Time

CNN reports: Detroit's darkest hour. Alex Taylor eye eye eye explains why things ain't-a lookin' so good for Detroit

So the sales data reported May 1 that pickup trucks have hit the skids is seriously bad news - much worse even than you might think. Without these reliable profit generators, the business model for domestic auto producers in North American doesn't work. Passenger cars, under ferocious foreign assault, are a breakeven proposition at best and sales of formerly lucrative SUVs are falling faster than Spider-Man without his web.

Much worse? Gah! No Spider-Man web? Gah! Alison Krauss has released the hounds? Gah!

What we find even more interesting is that Toyota has now entered the full-size pickup truck market. Toyota has dropped nearly a billion ducats in that Texas plant (recent money) so we wonder how they are feeling now. Man, it's all about timing. See, we know how Toyota feels because this most recent trend of health awareness has totally scuttled our plans for Trans Fat! Trans Fat! Trans Fat! and its sister site Tobacco Health! Tobacco Health! Tobacco Health!

Customers Takin' Toyota To School

On the habits of truck buyers, that is. It's neat to see Toyota face problems already solved by the big 2 and 3/8. AutoWeek reports: It's All In The Mix.

Folks aren't buyin' into the whole Toyota big-ass truck thing until they can get exactly what they want -- heck, makes sense to us.

Buyers of Toyota's redesigned full-sized pickup are acting like buyers of domestic trucks. They demand specific features, colors and trim levels, says Jim Farley, Toyota Division's former group vice president of marketing. Late last week, Farley became general manager of Lexus Division.

It's a switch for a company whose customers typically accept whatever is available from lean inventories of the Camry and other popular models, Farley concedes.

Tundra customers "say, 'I want the off-road package with the black leather interior,' " Farley told Automotive News. "They have a build-to-order mentality that we are not used to at Toyota."

It's nice to see folks insisting on waiting for what they want rather than what the manufacturer has for sale.

The light-duty pickup market seems to be at its most competition right now with very refined products like the Silverado and Tundra going head-to-head. If we were in the market for a truck, those two would be the only ones on our list. Oh, wither the F-150 and Ram.

More

The Detroit News reports: Toyota passes GM for first time in global sales. As in Toyota over GM in terms of car sales action time. That's right, Toyota has, for the first time, sold more vehicles last quarter than GM did. Not in the U.S., but on the whole planet and parts of the moon.

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 2.348 million vehicles worldwide in the January-March quarter, company official Satoshi Yamaguchi said, surpassing the 2.260 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, he said.

OK, OK, let's not all get silly, it's a quarter dealie, not a whole year. But, still, it's a first and, if we had to bet, it'll happen again. Soon.

Think this is the start of the inevitable?

East Bound And Down

The New York Times reports: Toyota to Increase Imports to Meet Demand for Prius.

Even so, Toyota’s imports as a percentage of its American sales have risen in the last three years, figures criticized by some supporters of Detroit’s carmakers.

In 2006, 46 percent of Toyota’s vehicles were imported from Japan compared with 38.4 percent in 2005 and 37 percent in 2004.

East bound and down, loaded up and shippin',
Toyota's gonna do what they say can't be done.
They've got more sales acomin' and a short inventory here now.
They're east bound, just watch ol' Katsuaki Watanabe run.

Keep your foot hard on the pedal. Son, never mind them brakes.
Let it all hang out 'cause we got a record to break.
The boys are thirsty in Atlanta and there's sales in Texarcana.
And we'll bring it back no matter what it takes.

More Priuseseses headed our way. Good thing, too, since gasoline at the fillin' station is gonna be pushing $4/gallon soon.

More Power to Warp Drive, Mr. Scott!

Fancy boys, Automotive News reports: Toyota races to match model mix of Tundra to the market.

Three months into the launch of its redesigned Tundra, Toyota is scrambling to revamp its model mix and make a series of other fixes on the run.

Toyota executives admit they have made missteps in their first venture into the full-sized pickup fray.

We were pretty sure Toyota wasn't going to have a smooth ride of this. While they've proven they can build the truck America wants, they themselves aren't totally buying it. How do we know?

"The 5.7 has been 70 to 80 percent of our mix, and we thought it would be 50 or 60 percent," Farley said. "The 4.7 (V-8) and V-6 are not as popular."

Big, big, big. Power, power, power. That's America's truck buyer. Now Toyota might have been sitting back saying, "We know most Americans don't haul and/or tow as much as they think, so we'll offer the truck that will fill their needs rather than their wants." Wrong. You crazy hippies, Americans want big.

On the flip side, the basic two-door model has missed its sales goals, even though it was expected to account for only 10 percent of the mix. Typical basic-truck buyers don't want a lot of extras, even when extras are rolled into the basic sticker price.

Americans are often cheap, too. So, it's either big and bad to the bone or basic shite that makes you go, "Who wants this piece of shite?" We wonder if the regular cab/V-6 will be deliciously priced soon. Maybe a great end of year buy?

For the record, Automotive News is having a free trial week. Check it out, you lugnut!