1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

"Why Toyota Is Afraid Of Being Number One"

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by DaveinOlyWA, May 29, 2007.

  1. DaveinOlyWA

    DaveinOlyWA 3rd Time was Solariffic!!

    Joined:
    Apr 13, 2004
    15,140
    611
    0
    Location:
    South Puget Sound, WA
    Vehicle:
    2013 Nissan LEAF
    Model:
    Persona
    a couple of common themes here.

    1) Toyota's astute business sense. they saw what they wanted, figured out a good way to get it, and with their legendary near-flawless execution, is well on their way to achieving their goals.

    2) the only real opposition to the article is by, to put it bluntly, people like the Ford pickup driver who is simply blind to other options that remotely resemble progress. there is no doubt that the F-150 is a very well made vehicle, heck, i have one and its got way more miles than his does. but to base the buying decision on who its gonna help the most, well, he needs to do some fact checking. plain and simple.

    i lived in Southeast Michigan when the big 3 started to abandon the area for cheaper places like mexico. they literally laid off entire towns leaving displaced auto workers no chance whatsoever of staying the communities where they grew up in.

    i know people who became alcoholics when their livelihoods were yanked out from under them, a few committed suicide. i got out early, but i was lucky, i was young, no children, no wife, easy to pack up and go and that is exactly what i did. i pretty much left nothing behind since the rest of my immediate family did the same less than a year later.

    so to say that buying a Toyota means sending money back to Japan, its just not that simple anymore in this shrinking world with its expanding global economy.
     
  2. quagmire0

    quagmire0 New Member

    Joined:
    Aug 1, 2006
    108
    1
    0
    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priussoris @ May 29 2007, 08:43 AM) [snapback]451442[/snapback]</div>
    So he complains about the cost of the Prius, then goes out and spends more on a less fuel efficient vehicle than his original car? Oy. :blink:
     
  3. FloridaWen

    FloridaWen New Member

    Joined:
    May 8, 2007
    573
    4
    0
    Location:
    Plant City, Florida
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DaveinOlyWA @ May 29 2007, 07:56 AM) [snapback]451458[/snapback]</div>
    You obviously remember that 1989 movie (documentary) by Michael Moore...... Roger and Me !!
    I was a real teenage "gearhead" (starting in 1968) which is still being carried thru my life. In 1989, when I first watched that movie and "saw" the story of the Mexican GM's, etc. I was 36 years old, but my "respect" for GM had changed (for the very worse) way back in 1978 when GM started putting Chevy-built engines in Olds., Buicks, Pontiacs, etc. along with the famous "METRIC 200 transmission" made in Brazil for a 4 or 6 cylinder application, that GM was using on it's V8's...... NO trans. cooler either....... they were dying left and right, then the '78 Old's 350 Diesel auto............. what a piece of crap !! And let's not forget the Chevy VEGA, aluminum block with NO STEEL cylinder sleeves..................
    While others (which we referred to back then as "foreign") like Honda, Toyota, Subaru, etc. were making fuel efficient vehicles, GM, Ford and Chrysler continued to make the big, gas guzzling "boats" that got around 10 MPG !!
    For a YEAR of my life, while living briefly in Connecticut (2004), I was a SERVICE MANAGER for a small, family owned Chrysler Dealership (name withheld to protect the guilty) and was SHOCKED to see OVER 95% of Chrysler parts MADE IN MEXICO !! Then to see vehicles like PT Cruiser made there too..... for cyrin' out loud, what was really MADE IN USA BY USA workers ?? The sales brochures ??
     
  4. FloridaWen

    FloridaWen New Member

    Joined:
    May 8, 2007
    573
    4
    0
    Location:
    Plant City, Florida
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    An interesting article about Toyota from BusinessWeek, March 5, 2007....

    http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine...071.htm?chan=gl

    I especially like this line near the end..........
    "It reminds politicians that Toyota has spent $17 billion over 20 years on new plants and that it directly employs 38,000 Americans."
     
  5. priussoris

    priussoris New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 5, 2007
    1,005
    4
    0
    "A 50-year-old homebuilder from San Antonio, he has 195,000 miles on his Ford F-150. "I've never owned a Japanese car of any kind," says Foster. "I believe in supporting American jobs. I know Toyota creates jobs here, but the money goes back to Japan.""


    I like that line, I guess that guy doesn't know that the ppeople working there getting paid by the Toyota company spends "their" money here in the states, which help economic growth.

    sometimes I just don't get it.

    If American car manufactures can deliver a product that has FE like toyota they would still be in the race .
    I have a neighbor who looked at my prius wanted to trade in his ford focus came back and said it cost too much for a prius , also he said his mother would kill him if she saw he bought a "foriegn" car He ended up buying a Pontiac G6 2006 model for 18k I asked him what mpg he should get was told 32-33 hwy
    his focus was getting 40-ish mpg he said. I thought why trade it in for less mpg when that was the purpose of the trade to begin with was to get more mpg he said.

    sometimes I just don't get it.
     
  6. MickeyA

    MickeyA New Member

    Joined:
    May 27, 2007
    81
    1
    0
    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(FloridaWen @ May 29 2007, 08:24 AM) [snapback]451397[/snapback]</div>

    That reminder is just what I've been thinking: If you don't give us alt fuel options & just play the political Syriana games you been doing...I will vote you out of office NOW.