Toyota expected to solidify hold on No. 2 automaker spot

When General Motors Corp. warned this week that it will lose money in the first quarter of 2004, the No. 1 automaker cited reasons including disappointing sales in North America.

Another explanation, one not mentioned publicly: Japan's Toyota Motor Corp., a company on a roll, is helping to steal away GM's market share.

After overtaking Ford Motor Co. in 2003 as the world's No. 2 automaker in annual global vehicle sales, Toyota held that spot last year and is expected to solidify its position this year and in 2006. And it's quite conceivable that Toyota, which has set a goal of a 15 percent global market share sometime after 2010, might overtake GM as the world's top automaker.

GM controls about 15 percent of the global auto market. If Toyota, now at about 10 percent global market share, succeeds in reaching its 15 percent target, it will match GM, which is losing share to other Japanese automakers as well.

"Over the last several years, Toyota has been carrying out its strategy surely, rising one step at a time," said Nobuaki Yanachi, auto analyst at UFJ Tsubasa Securities Co. in Tokyo. "It's in a stage now when it's preparing for its next big jump."

In North America, Toyota will begin producing pickup trucks at a plant in Texas that will be up and running next year. It is considering still another plant in North America, the world's largest auto market, although it hasn't said where.

Toyota, which has consistently tried to produce cars wherever they are sold, has five other car plants in North America, including a joint venture with GM. The Japanese company is expanding in other growing markets, set to open a plant in the Czech Republic this year for the European market, as well as considering a plant in Russia.

Toyota is also making good headway in China, a market with tremendous potential that all the world's automakers have their eyes on. Toyota's fourth car-assembly plant in China is set to start production next year.

Good mileage, ecological features and reliability are key to Toyota's global reputation

Fumio Otsuka, a 54-year-old computer engineer in Japan, has always had Toyotas.

"It's not about looking cool. The Toyota car appeals to the regular person," he said.

But Toyota has also managed to keep a relatively fresh and innovative image. Its Scion brand, which targets younger buyers with its adventurous designs and marketing gimmicks, is one example.

Another is Toyota's push in the automotive ecological technology called hybrids. Hybrid cars, including the Prius sold in the United States, Japan, Europe and Australia, deliver the most efficient drive by switching back and forth between a gasoline engine and an electric motor, relying on the electric motor at slow speeds and then kicking in the engine as speed picks up.

Toyota has sold 343,000 hybrid cars around the world so far, still a tiny portion of its overall sales but more than any other automaker in the world. Toyota started selling its first hybrid in 1997.

Last year, Toyota sold 7.52 million vehicles around the world, including its truck subsidiary, Hino Motors Ltd., and Daihatsu Motor Co. Ltd., which makes minicars. GM, meanwhile, produced 9.1 million vehicles and Ford sold 6.80 million vehicles.

In 2003, Toyota's worldwide sales totaled 6.78 million vehicles, including Hino and Daihatsu, while GM produced 8.8 million and Ford's sales stood at 6.72 million.

According to most forecasts, U.S. automakers will likely continue to lose ground in North American sales to Toyota and other Asian brands.

The comparisons are discouraging for U.S. brands given the thousands of dollars more per vehicle they spend on consumer incentives vs. their foreign counterparts. The Toyota Camry has been the best-selling car in the United States seven times in the past eight years, including 2004.

Toyota's other offerings are getting snatched up by Americans, including the Corolla compact car, the Lexus luxury series, Tundra pickup truck and 4Runner sport-utility vehicle. Toyota's U.S. division sold more than 2 million vehicles last year for the first time in its 47 years of existence as its sales grew 10 percent for the year.

Toyota is also powerful in Japan, consistently controlling more than 40 percent of that market.

CSM analyst Joe Barker said Ford's focus on profits, rather than rankings, seems to make good business sense, but there are repercussions to losing market share.

"If Ford can be more profitable at No. 3 than at No. 2, then No. 3 is the right spot for them," Barker said. "The question is: Can they be more profitable at No. 3?

"As your piece of the pie gets smaller, there's always a ripple effect. It affects your customers, your dealers, your workers -- every facet of your business."

Shinya Oda, a 69-year-old machinery-maker employee who is in a driving club with Otsuka and other Toyota owners, said he has never thought about buying an American car because he believes they are lemons. He also stays away from European imports because they cost too much to maintain.

Oda, who said he's owned some 17 Toyotas in his life, summed up his feelings: "I trust my Toyota."

AP Auto Writer John Porretto in Detroit contributed to this report.

It's achievable as long as Toyota doesn't get arrogant or complacent and continues to excel at customer satisfaction.

I read an interesting article while traveling, that noted the Scion brand was exceeding their expectations, and the xB was the top seller to their surprise.

Toyota should bring the Scion brand to Canada. It would do very well up here. Canadians have a penchant for buying fuel efficient 4 bangers. In fact 3/4's of all new vehiecles sold up here are of the fuel efficient 4 banger variety. Daimler-Chrysler brought the Smart Car up here last year. The entire years stock for Canada sold in 6 weeks and half of the '05 stock is already sold. If you want a smart car they put you on a 6 month waiting list.

I agree with you. The Cavalier and Civic, if I recall, went back and forth as the top-selling vehicle in Canada for a few years. Seems like a natural move for Toyota to offer something cheaper and more option-packed than the competition.

Seems like Toyota is having some struggles meeting the production needs of the Scion line. Maybe once they get things up to demand, they'll offer it north of the border.

The civic has retained top spot as best selling vehicle up here for the last few years. Currently in year to date date the Mazda 3 sedan sits in second. The cavalier and sunfire are now middle of the pack.

you guys got the cobalt i take it right?

god i finally drove a cavalier a couple months ago...i swear it had to be the biggest POS ever...2 year old car and half the stuff on it already didnt work

So far the Cobalt has taken off for GM as well as they would've liked it too.

ive driven both a cavalier and a sunfire in highschool drivers ed, and the only thing i have to say about that is nissans are built solid! American economy cars have got to be the most poorly made cars ever.

I've driven both sunfire and cavalier (crapalier) as rentals. Neither has enough power to merge into the highway even with the gas pedal stuck to the floor. Somone told me a cavalier/sunfire are good first cars or good final cars. That's about it.

well....someone is an idiot

Not I says me.

Anyway, Cavaliers do suck. I had a 92 Z24. I loved the styling, and at the time, the power was okay. But a 140 hp v6 aint nothing now-a-days. And it just aint a good quality vehicle. Everything breaks. POS.

Anyway, I loved my truck with a passion, 97 Tacoma, ext cab, v6, 4x4. Their vehicles are a little pricey, but you get quality, that GM products never gave me (owned 4 GM's).

ANyway, Nissan needs to get it's a** in gear and get up to the top of the heap.!!!

JESTER wrote:Not I says me.

ANyway, Nissan needs to get it's a** in gear and get up to the top of the heap.!!!

Nissans test well, but they need to work on reliability. Particularly on the Sentra and Quest. I've been happy with my Nissans, but I'll even admit Nissan could have done a better job, especially on the interior materials.

I drove a 5-speed Cavalier that a friend swapped a 3.1 V6 into. Good god did that thing haul a**. It was a complete pile of stinking s***, but it could move. It had possibly the worst shifter I've ever used. Felt like pushing a metal rod through a bowl of broken glass.

There are two different Sunbirds (the last model before it became the Sunfire--I actually rather like that body style) at my apartment complex. One of them has decent wheels. I got looking at it...it's got FIVE lugs! Was that a factory thing? It doesn't seem like the kind of car/owner that would have a conversion done...

If bloody GM can make subcompacts with 5 lugs, why can't nissan? It'd open a whole new world of wheels and brake mods.

Jesda wrote:I drove a 5-speed Cavalier that a friend swapped a 3.1 V6 into. Good god did that thing haul a**. It was a complete pile of stinking s***, but it could move. It had possibly the worst shifter I've ever used. Felt like pushing a metal rod through a bowl of broken glass.

How much did your buddy spend on that swap? The 3.1l you talk about, is the engine in my gf's Lumina, 160hp and a slow pos. I really hope he didnt spend much

The Cavalier was free. The engine was $50.

Strange things went wrong on that car. The headliner came out, the door fell off, the paint faded and cracked -- all the typical traits of a Roger Smith GM.

We spent hours cleaning and polishing it and would you believe... the damn thing sold for $800!

You know what's sad, all though forums dedicated to the Sunfire/Cavalier. These people sincerely think this is the best car ever made. I feel so sad for them. They haven't ever driven a real car.

Speaking of which, my jbody.org account isnt working anymore. Oh well. Most J-car drivers are renters, kids, and people bottom fishing for transportation. The enthusiast crowd is.. perplexing.

Jesda wrote:It had possibly the worst shifter I've ever used. Felt like pushing a metal rod through a bowl of broken glass.

I drove my friend's ex-gf's 5spd cav and i got the same feeling. bad bad bad. I'ts the same feeling i get driving my mom's montero sport(holds the personal record for worst shifting transmission - even worse than my friend's escort zx2). the official slowest car(and possibly ugliest) i've ever driven was a auto dodge neon sxt that we rented in salt lake city. the US just cant make economy cars that match the sentra/corolla/civic in terms of quality and reliability. they still make damn good V8 powerhouses though

I think the Montero has the Neon on ugliness. By a MASSIVE margine. The Neon may be cute, but the Montero looks like seperate people designed the front and back, and then just stuck them together. Plus...what the hell is with the fin/flange/curvee things on the top of the front fenders? UGLY!

I can't seem to figure out why there's so much demand for j bodys in Ricedom. I've known TONS of people with them (especially while I delivered pizza. More than half the emloyees there had them)--everyone from grease monkeys to a stupid blonde girl who can't tell a center high mounted stop light from a stick shift, and every single one of them hated the hell out of them. All I heard was how noisy, rough riding, gutless, floaty, unresponsive, and inefficient (fuel wise) they were. I've never met someone with a cav or Sunfire who did not completely and utterly hate the hell out of their car.

92 cavlier rs here. Automatic. It was a good first car, has ABS, low insurance, etc.. Bought it from my ex-gf when her mom died. Got it with 62,000 on the clock, now has 120k. Its my winter rat now and I try not to spend any more money on it.

I drive around with the headliner sagging(annoying), suspension is now nonexistant, car vibrates, falling apart.

Got my 240sx with 186,000 miles on it and it was in MUCH nicer condition and still drove like a dream. Front supsension going bad but I was replacing it anyways.

I dont think I ever ONCE considered my car as sporty or ever being synonymous with "performance". Easy to blend in and doesn't stick out in a crowd is more like it. Which probably helped me out of getting a couple speeding tickets I might've got driving a flashier car.

I really laugh at the new Cobalt platform, trying to ride the tails of the Neon Srt-4. Huge nonfunctional wing, 18 inch wheels, crap styling. Its still a cavalier. But you know kids will buy them and think they're great.

Go Nissan!

The Cobalt is sort of a shock. All the reviews are pretty good, and the price is right. Surprisingly good interior for its class. If I was in the market for an econobox, I'd take a Cobalt over a Sentra (which eagerly needs to be refreshed/replaced).

The marketing majors hosted a "dealer-come-show-off-cobalt" event-thing at my campus about a week ago. I didnt get to see that ricey whale-tail monstrosity, but they did have the coupe and sedan. not to my surprise, beahed-out fake tan-clad 18-20yr old girls were thrilled over the "cuteness" and the "oh my god there's an 'amp' in the trunk." sat in the car played with the gadgets a little bit. felt jsut like a rebadged cav. that leather felt like i was sitting on glossy tan paper. the entire car felt liek it was made out of low-grade plastic(not as bad as my friend's 04 base saturn ion though) felt cramped(well i'm used to driving a Q, SUV, and 4-door truck) it lacked that cheap, yet comfy and roomy feel i get from my friends grand prix. thte only thing i was moderately impressed by was teh suprisingly non-distorting stereo(though i could build a comparable pioneer system for <200 off the wal-mart clearance shelf). overall impressions of the new cobalt without actually driving it were that it was nothing more than a slightly larger cav. good car for teenage girls, but i'd spend the extra money on a corolla if I was in the market for a reliable econo box. the first time i saw that whaletail cobalt on teh tv ad i almost died form laughter. really doesn't leve much room to consider who this car is being marketed towards. final thoughts on the cobalt..please tell me they didn't kill the camaro to put resources into this...

Actually the Camaro is coming back on a version of the GTO platform.

The solid reviews the Cobalt received were mostly because of how it drove, highway confidence, and its overall value.

A video review:http://www.drivingtelevision.c...title=

[In Canada there's a version called the Pontiac Pursuit.]

Jesda wrote:Actually the Camaro is coming back on a version of the GTO platform.

...

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ahem...

f***!!!!!

WHAT THE f*** IS GM THINKING! HOW COULD THEY f*** UP SOMETHING SO SIMPLE!?

With Ford's f*** up of the Mustang, Chevy has been handed this one on a silver platter. ALL they f*** had to do was make something to outdo the Mustink. And now we get a GTO REBADGE! THE GTO IS ALREADY A REBADGE! What the HELL!?

I knew it was coming back for '06. I've been awaiting any further news. I've also been sure that Chevy would not drop the ball here. I swear to god, if this car makes under 350hp and doesn't have IRS, I will lose what miniscule faith I have remaining in GM. That's ALL it will take for them to steal the market from Ford completely.

PLEASE Chevy. Don't let Ford win. I don't think I could take it...

I mean...

WHAT THE f***!?

Oh, and apologies for the profanity if it offends anybody.But it's necessary to express my contempt.

Well, nothing yet says it will be a direct rebadge. It will however have the same wheelbase, similar suspension, and a less powerful engine. It'll also be a lot cheaper. Think of it as a GTO with less power and more attractive sheet metal that kids can actually afford.

Since GM killed Zeta, for now, the Monaro/GTO platform is the next best option for a new pony.

this all falls right in with them making the impala FWD... blasphemy! every day i lose more faith in american cars as our image used to be tru muscle. i love the new corvette engine, but it looks like a bloody rx-8

When it comes to re-badging vehicles and not listening to their customers GM has Ford beat.