Why Toyota Is Afraid Of Being Number One

[ThatOneGuy]

Originally Posted by Orange Crush

also from money-cnn:

Toyota is under pressure to boost production in the region to avoid potential political fallout from a jump in the number of vehicles shipped from Japan to the United States. Last year, just half of the vehicles it sold in the United States were built in North America, compared with a rate of more than 70 percent for both Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co.

Wow, I didn't know that. Approximately what percentage of domestic brand vehicles are produced over seas?

[Orange Crush]

Originally Posted by ThatOneGuy

Wow, I didn't know that. Approximately what percentage of domestic brand vehicles are produced over seas?

Don't know, although last time I checked Mexico & Canada weren't overseas.

Although I should have doubted those percentages quoted in the article for Honda & Nissan. For Nissan per the Dec sales numbers looks like roughly 80% were North American produced (incl Mexico & Canada). Honda doesn't break it out but I would guess they are not that much different.

[UWSkier]

Not much has brought me more joy in the past couple weeks than being able to stick it to the Union Bubba NASCAR fans around here about Toyota. All you have to do is mention Toyota at a bar and about 5 of them pipe up *****ing about Toyota in NASCAR. Their favorite line is "NORTH AMERICAN stock car..." My response is always "where is the Camry built?" Their predictable response is always "yeah, but all the money goes to Japan." "Well, how do you feel about Dodge? By your argument, which ignores the thousands of American workers who are happily employed by Toyota to build the Camry, all the money goes to Germany, an ally of Japan in WWII just over 60 years ago." That usually illicits the 'wul, wul, it just ain't right' response. Hilarious. Racist redneck hillbilly clowns.

I have actually been surprised how little flack I've gotten over driving a Titan. There was one guy who got in my face about how I should be ashamed to be driving a foreign vehicle. He didn't like it when I told him he should be ashamed of trying to put thousands of Americans in Mississippi out of work and that his Canadian-built F150 wasn't helping the economy nearly as much as my Titan.

People these days...

[chunko]

Autoworkers Union is too strong in the US. They hold much of the blame for the fall of domestic car builders. It is simply too expensive to build a car in the US with a unionized work force. The union workers are paid more, and do less than their non-union counterparts at Nissan and Yota. If the unions are smart, they will make concessions. If they are not, they will send the companies into bankruptcy and they all will lose BIG.

One way or other, the unions will need to take a hit.

[latenate]

I just can't move past ADAVIS avatar, I'm gonna be here awhile....

[xlranger]

Info from the latest copy of a known consumer magazine - don't want to get into copyright infringement here -

Made in USA:
Acura TL
BMW X5
Honda Accord, Civic, CR-V, Odyssey
Hyundai Sonata
Infiniti QX56
Mazda 6, Tribute
Mercedes M-Class, R-Class
Mitsubishi Galant
Nissan Altima, Maxima, Pathfinder, Titan
Saab 9-7X
Subaru Legacy
Toyota Camry, Sienna, Tundra

Made in Canada:
Buick LaCrosse
Chevrolet Impala, Monte Carlo, Silverado
Chrysler 300, Minivans
Dodge Charger
Ford Crown Victoria
GMC Sierra
Pontiac Grand Prix
Acura MDX
Honda Civic, Pilot, Ridgeline
Lexus RX350
Toyota Matric, Corolla

Made in Mexico:
Buick Redezvous
Cadillac Escalde ESV, EXT
Chevrolet Avalanche, HHR, Silverado, Suburban
Chrysler PT Cruiser
Dodge Ram
Ford F-Series, Fusion
GMC Yukon
Lincoln MKZ
Mercury Milan
Honda Accord
Nissan Sentra, Versa
Toyota Tacoma
Volkswagen Jetta, Beetle

Made in South Korea:
Chevrolet Aveo

And Nissan is controlled by Renault.

[TitanTough1]

Saw the Tundra up close yesterday. Wow it is impressive. Just did a walk around. Was worried that a test drive would make the wife want one. We also checked out the new Jeep and the Nitro. Both seemed very nice. I read that the Nitro is basically built on the Liberty which Jeep has had much success. It actually comes off the same line. I looked at the FJ and the new 4 door Jeep Wrangler. I will always be partial to the exterior of the Wrangler. Wonder why they did not build the FJ with 4 doors??

[Orange Crush]

Originally Posted by xlranger

Info from the latest copy of a known consumer magazine -
Made in USA:
Toyota Camry, Sienna, Tundra

New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. is an automobile manufacturing plant in Fremont, California. The factory was an old General Motors plant and is now a joint venture between GM and Toyota. When it reopened for production in 1984, it was the first automotive joint venture plant in the United States. GM saw this joint venture as an opportunity to learn about Lean Manufacturing from the Japanese company, while Toyota gained its first manufacturing base in North America and a chance to implement its production system in an American labour environment.

NUMMI is now an award-winning facility which ranks with other Toyota plants among the most productive manufacturing operations in North America. GM places around 12 managers each year at the plant to learn lean techniques and has improved quality enough across the rest of its operations for it to show through on J.D. Power quality rankings. Whilst the plant has been successful in adopting Lean, GM's success is far more limited. Kochan, Lansbury & MacDuffie in "After Lean Production" state that "the NUMMI story is well known, so it will suffice to say that GM did a terrible job of learning from that experience."

Currently, the NUMMI plant produces the Toyota Corolla compact car, Toyota Tacoma pickup truck and the Pontiac Vibe station wagon. In the past, it has also produced the Geo Prizm, the later Chevrolet Prizm, and the Chevrolet Nova from 1984-1988; as well as the Toyota Voltz, the Japanese right-hand drive version of the Pontiac Vibe - both are based on the Toyota Matrix, which is manufactured in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. Employment is nearly 5,500 workers. NUMMI is a union organization represented by The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) Local 2244. NUMMI sells 60% of their parts to Toyota and 40% to General Motors. NUMMI has 160 robots to build the three cars they do today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NUMMI

[Cobalt]

Originally Posted by BRACEYOSELF777

Even though the money goes back to Japan....that money circulates back into America. The money we pay the workers stays in America and creates more jobs for more Americans...unlike the Big Three which are laying people off and shutting down factories to what? Save money. To make a budget. This is how I see it, the money the Big Three makes does go back to America but towards white collard workers. Little trickles back down to the common blue collar workers and it doesn't make any more jobs for them.

Are you kidding me? Most of the assembly line workers in Big 3 US factories have nothing more than a high school diploma and make upwards of 50K+ per year. The UAW has GM stuck with a mandatory OT program where GM has to schedule OT even if they don't need it. They have one guy putting a bumper and then he takes a break while the other guy puts the next bumper on. These employees are getting 8 hrs of OT for 4hrs of work. That's just one example of MANY. The big 3 will end up pushing the unions out and then bringing things back in country. The Unions IMO have become what they were formed to prevent. They extort the employer vs. the employer treating the employees like crap.

[chunko]

Originally Posted by Cobalt

Are you kidding me? Most of the assembly line workers in Big 3 US factories have nothing more than a high school diploma and make upwards of 50K+ per year. The UAW has GM stuck with a mandatory OT program where GM has to schedule OT even if they don't need it. They have one guy putting a bumper and then he takes a break while the other guy puts the next bumper on. These employees are getting 8 hrs of OT for 4hrs of work. That's just one example of MANY. The big 3 will end up pushing the unions out and then bringing things back in country. The Unions IMO have become what they were formed to prevent. They extort the employer vs. the employer treating the employees like crap.

I agree.