Toyota Raising Prices 2-3%

[Noloc]

Just saw this on CNN:

"Toyota Motor Corp. is preparing to raise prices of its new cars in the United States by an average 2 percent to 3 percent in October out of consideration for its struggling U.S. rivals, the Asahi daily said Friday."

For those of you thinking about getting a 4Runner... get them before the prices go up.

-Noloc

 

[sharp4runr]

hehe, already got mine :

 

[PROZAC]

You know, I read the convoluted report.

It is such a shame that GM will be letting go of 25 THOUSAND US employees and closing down a few production plants in the US.

FORD, although not suffering the same dilemma as GM, it too is suffering in sales.

So, Toyota's response, we will raise our prices slightly in efforts to sway potential buyers who are on the fence concerning comparable products (Toyota vs. GM, Ford products) to in fact, purchase GM or Ford products.

Toyota is seriously worried about the US restricting the importation of Japanese manufactured vehicles and WHY... because American's know that FOR THE MOST PART, US Vehicle Manufacturers have inferior products!

 

[Derek]

whoa, I didn't think it would actually come to this. They shouldn't have to raise their prices because GM and Ford are doing so poorly. This should be interesting... guess I'm glad I just bought mine before any price increase went into effect.

 

[Fortyounces]

PROZAC wrote: "Toyota is seriously worried about the US restricting the importation of Japanese manufactured vehicles and WHY... because American's know that FOR THE MOST PART, US Vehicle Manufacturers have inferior products!"


What he fails to realize is that most Toyotas in the U.S. are assembled here in the U.S.(big production plants in Ohio and Kentucky) So I very much doubt Toyota is too concerned about the Government restricting Japanese manufactured vehicles. They are a BIG part of the US economy in employing thousands of people in all assembly locations. Meanwhile U.S. manufacturers are laying off employees left and right.



I wouldn't be to concerned about this short term price increase if you are in the market for a Toyota. We're talking 2 to 3 percent here. So on a $30,000 vehicle, you're making a fuss over $600-900. You can knock at least that much off the sticker with some good hard-ball negotiating.

 

[Bluto]

All Japanese manufactures would have to raise prices 15% or more before I'd consider the Big 3.

Too many people have been disappointed by the Big 3. It will take more the $$ to win them back.

 

[PROZAC]

Let

 

[DaveS]

I really don't think GM or Ford will benefit from this - only Toyota - its a clever way of using the situation however. If Toyota really wants to sway people to buy American they need to work much harder on reducing their quality to that of the American brands. Perhaps randomly introducing faulty parts into their production run or something..

 

[Kanab]

I really don't think GM or Ford will benefit from this - only Toyota - its a clever way of using the situation however. If Toyota really wants to sway people to buy American they need to work much harder on reducing their quality to that of the American brands. Perhaps randomly introducing faulty parts into their production run or something..

Dave I agree, more about the money that Toyota will make off the 2-3% increase. Toyota makes more money and then acts like they are trying to help out GM and Ford.

 

[PROZAC]

Well, if they did share technology - do you think Toyota would absorb the cost, pass the cost onto Toyota buyers, or charge Ford & GM for the cost.

 

[olliebear]

What a concept!

Think about it. People will still buy Toyota products....and will do so in the face of low rebates from Toyota becuase they would rather pay more for a better product.....

so Toyota raises their prices and people will still buy Toyota....so they just got the public to eat another 3% = 3% more profit without any work on new products or market share.....and Toyota did it out of their magnanimous hearts to help GM and Ford....how slick can you get........

 

[jharris2]

Well, if they did share technology - do you think Toyota would absorb the cost, pass the cost onto Toyota buyers, or charge Ford & GM for the cost.

Probably a licensing agreement where Ford or GM would pay for the right to use it. That's a pretty standard practice.

 

[TeryT]

Whatever the rationale is, it is a remarkable car company.

In reading "The Toyota Way," it seems that they are the most boring & most exciting of companies at the same time. Why? Because they are so stable & don't do things in a haphazzar or knee-jerk way. They are very deliberate & quite slow in management areas when compared to Detroit - very boring.

Exciting because once all the deliberations are made, they can move very quickly. And they do things that seem counter to Detoit's conventional wisdom.

 

[TeryT]

The rest of the story is

That they don't want a big US backlash in the form of tarrifs. They much rather boil the frog slowly.

 

[Larry]

Toyota is doing things all wrong. While the 'domestic' manufacturers are moving off-shore, even going to China and closing plants, Toyota is moving in. They are even moving into Texas to build big trucks. They are going to attack the last big game in the auto industry, the big truck cash cow. The common wisdom in Detroit is that Toyota can't crack the big truck market, and we all know how smart those guys are.

And proof of Toyota's problem is that they have over $50 billion in cash, right now, in their hands and are looking around. I'll bet you that if GM appears on eBay that Toyota would be a buyer. I think they would rather buy Ford because there would be less bills to clean up. But if Toyota keeps growing, they could buy both, then they could raise prices any time they wanted, I'm mean, you buy a DC product?

Like I said, Toyota has it all wrong. They should be out their blaming everything on healthcare, wages, parts suppliers and government regulations. Instead Toyota invented this 'Toyota Way' stuff and make way too much money. Who wants to buy a car that is screwed together well, does just about everything right and lasts too long. Naw...give we a great big rebate, leather, a rear end that steers and an idiot knob to run a computer that does things I never asked for and a sound system that can blow the windows out and I'm happy, just like the advertising says I should be. And besides, I like visiting the dealer and talking to services writers that tell me such big woppers with a straight face.

 

[TeryT]

HAHAHA

but I thought they "only" had about $19B in cash.

 

[Larry]

...that was for just this year. They have a passbook account where they kep the rest.

 

[DaveS]

I don't think Toyota would want to buy Ford or GM - the only thing worth paying a premium for in the industry is some sort of intellectual property - and its Toyota that has all that in fact. If I had that kind of money most of it would be going on R&D to keep my products ahead of the competition (the one area where they can keep ahead of the emerging competition from China etc). I would not spend money on outdated products and manufacturing plants which have a lot of embedded problems to fix - Toyota has experience in building new plants and educating a new workforce - I am not so sure their expertise is in turning around a failing business with an existing workforce and business processes.

 

[Larry]

Dave, you are right, except for the fact that there might be a fire sale comming up soon. The smoke is already rising.

 

[TeryT]

Would Toyota really want either Ford or GM? As big as these companies are, it would take a long, long time to truly affect their culture & turn them around. I mean a long, loooong time!