Toyota Beat GM in Worldwide Sales in the First Half of the Year

[Stuart G]

Source: Yahoo News. AP

DETROIT - Toyota beat General Motors in worldwide sales in the first half of the year.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080723/ap_on_bi_ge/gm_toyo...



Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it sold 4.8 million vehicles between January and June, up 2 percent from the same period a year ago. General Motors Corp. says it sold 4.5 million vehicles in the same period, or about 300,000 less than Toyota.

GM says its total sales fell 3 percent in the first half of the year due to economic pressures and labor disruptions in the U.S. market. But the automaker says it posted record-breaking sales in other regions, including Latin America, Asia and Europe.
GM narrowly beat Toyota in total sales last year to retain the title of the world's largest automaker by sales


Here is another link from the New York Times...basically a similar story..a little different take on this issue.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/business/worldbusines...

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080723/ap_on_bi_ge/gm_toyo...

[Juneboarder]

1. There's a Chevy Dealer By My House...

and I don't think I have EVER seen someone even perusing their cars on the lot let along driving off in a new car. It's amazing these dealers can remain open for business.

[michreject]

2. All those dedicated non union workers

doing all that work to make the company all that money.

I don't wanna hear about how great their product is. I've never owned a foreign vehicle and NEVER will.

[hogwyld]

12. You will when GM, Ford, and Chrysler

go down the shitter due to poor management and quality.

[michreject]

14. Never nt

[Nihil]

17. He probably means a "100% foreign vehicle" so he'll be OK ...

... as even with the outsourcing to Mexico, Canada, Korea or wherever,
I'm sure the badge (and the price tag) will still be manufactured in
the US.

(He probably owns a partially foreign vehicle already but let's not
upset him by reminding him ...)

[Stuart G]

18. It is the quality that has changed the industry.. I know because..

I owned a 91 Ford Taurus. The transmission and the air conditioning broke down at about the same time--after 6 years, 70 -80,000 miles.
I talked to some other Taurus/Sable owners, and they also had their transmission go at about that length of use. And under the same conditions I might add. The conditions were driving in the mountains. It happened to me in Yellowstone Park. The transmission started to go in the mountains and I was stranded for 3 days at a place in Wyoming --Lander Wy. (it totally gave way after I left the park, and was returning home).. A Ford dealer in Lander fixed the trans in what would be in today's money about $3800...Well, he cheated me. So what am I going to do? Buy another Ford? sure..
..I own a Toyota.

Why? Well, I believe that the transmission was designed to break down like that. It wasn't the union that put it together, or the type of steel that it was made from, but the design was such that it would not withstand that kind of pressure after that much use. Who designed it? Ford.. better ideas from Ford..

[Ian David]

22. That's not going to happen. Toyota will simply buy General Motors. n/t

[hogwyld]

24. I don't think Toyota would risk

getting infected with GM's disease.

[The Croquist]

15. Good for you

By not buying from Toyota you will help keep the price down when I buy mine!

[fujiyama]

16. You can keep your ears shut

but denying the fact that GM's problem ( as well as those of Ford and Chrysler) of making a bad bet on perpetual cheap gas and building huge gas guzzlers doesn't help anyone.

By the way, I drive a Saturn and while it has driven alright, I know the next time I go out to look for a car, it likely won't be a GM. While domestic vehicles' quality have improved (with the exception of Chrysler which still makes garbage), their fit and finish still leaves a lot to be desired (at least in many lesser expensive models) and regardless they are still playing catch up in
making quality fuel efficient vehicles.

[Ian David]

23. I used to have a Saturn. Be SURE you sell it before it hits 100,000 miles.

General Motors / Saturn has a policy that they will NOT buy or trade-in a used Saturn with more than 100,000 miles on it.

Which, coincidentally, is when it started having SERIOUS problems.

When I drove it onto the Toyota lot to buy my Prius, it wouldn't leave second gear or go in reverse, with about 110,000 miles on it.

[WriteDown]

3. Yay!!!

American union workers and an American company are falliing by the wayside! Where are we having the celebration? Tell me again how GM makes no quality vehicles.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Auggie]

4. Is anyone really surprised?

It was inevitable that GM would be knocked from the top one day.

[8 track mind]

5. GM has a lot of problems right now...

with the exception of the Corvette and the new Camaro, one of the biggest problems is that the GM line up is BUTT FREAKING UGLY. Dude, the new Pick-Up Truck looks like a gigantic ass on wheels!!!! Everybody was excited when the Malibu and the Impala were returning to the line-up and GM fans were PISSED when they were ill handling front wheel drive slugs.

The management bozo's banked on cheap gas and poured all of their resources into SUV's, much like the Hummer, the Caddy Escalade, ect.

Dumb Dumb Dumb.

So now it comes out in the wash the GM has been selling a fuel efficient car for some time and they think it might be a good idea to kinda sorta bring it to the USA. Maybe. If we have too.

Hell no wonder they are up shit creek with out a paddle. It's just one dumb decision after another. But of course it will all be blamed on those pesky scum union workers. Yeah thats the ticket!

Don't get me started on the low quality parts they use, like the leak prone A/C compressors, the shitty pistons in the LS-1 v-8, the 4L60E transmission,........

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[8 track mind]

10. Wow!

Hey chill out will ya? I'm operating on 3 hours of sleep, I live in a shithole conservative dump (Texas), and i'm pissed off that we (the USA that is) can't make a decent car anymore.

Hell i would love to run GM if i had the chance. Man that would be great! Why i would make sure that every employee had full healthcare benefits even after retirement and make sure their pension was fully funded! I would have the engineering department design a quality car that was dead reliable, affordable, and got great gas mileage. Slap a 15 year no BS warranty on it and watch the money come in.

ah, what do i know.......I'm just a dumbf that can't write...........

[Xenotime]

20. Ha You are right. Texas is a shithole.

[TommyO]

25. Which is why the current Malibu was named

North American Car of the Year, while a year previously it's older sibling the Saturn Aura received the same kudos.

GM can build good cars, and some of the models coming out are spectacular - just look at the new Opel Insignia which will become the next Saturn Aura.

[CRF450]

26. The LS1 pistons arent that big of a deal,

Even though they made a bit of piston slap noise, that problem doesn't seem to hinder its reliability, GM did fix that problem in the later year model corvettes/f-bodies I believe. My 01 Trans Am doesn't make any piston slap noise atleast. And the 4L60E tranny is a very reliable transmission, so long as you long as dont give alot more power from stock due to mods. Just ask my brother, he had a 95 Z28 with the 4L60E tranny, he put up to 230,000 miles on the orinial tranny and engine. The LT1 engine blew though, at 230k miles and it was pretty much factory stock.

[iamthebandfanman]

6. expect more of this

since toyota and honda both continued to research future technology while GM and FORD decided theyd try to make all their money off of current technology.
they shoulda never dropped outa the alternative fuel car race like they did.

[Stuart G]

19. Remember in the 90s, GM had the electric car....

It could have proceeded with research and development of that car, and would clearly be the leader today, but what did they do?
If I recall, they destroyed them all. Stopped producing them, and as was just said, returned to current technology.

[Politicub]

9. I see more and more Priui on the roads here in ATL each day

Those things must be selling like crazy.

[8 track mind]

11. My wife

bought a Honda Fit. It's been absolutely reliable and it gets fantastic mileage.

[Auggie]

13. Priui is the plural of Prius???

I love it

[MadHound]

21. Live by the capitalist sword, die by the capitalist sword

If your corporation isn't perceptive, quick and nimble on its feet, it will be beaten to the punch by other corporations who build quality products that people want. This is what is happening with domestic auto makers. They got stuck in a rut of building large, gas guzzling vehicles and didn't have the foresight to know that change was on the wind years ago. Thus, rather than starting to build economical, fuel efficient cars, they continued to emphasize large behemoths. For instance(one of many) take the Geo Metro. Just a few years ago, it was a fine, economical, fuel efficient three cylinder car. But rather than sticking with this, GM had to make it larger, less fuel efficient, less economical. The Big Three have done this time and again, killing the fuel efficiency of cars, or just killing a model period(like that all electric Volt, among others)

Now GM and the others are paying the price, and if it gets too steep, they're going to expect that the American public will bail them out, again. Sorry, but I think that in this capitalistic society, if you can't make it, you should fail and go out of business. I'm tired of privatized profits and socialized risk for corporations. Yes, many, many jobs will be lost. But perhaps other corporations will learn their lesson and go back to the roots of capitalism, making a quality product that people want at a low price.