How do you know do you know everyones credit rating that you are around? Do you see what they hold in there checking account? Do you know if they own or lease the vehicle? People who complain about fuel prices going up are the people that don't need to spend 30K - 40K on a vehicle.

As for your comment on why people are buying "more fuel efficient SUVs" that is bullshit! Go and compare your specs an Acura MDX gets 1-2 miles more per gallon and has less horsepower and room. You are comparing a midsize SUV to a full size and guess what the full size has MORE to offer!!!!! here is a link tell me I am wrong!

http://autos.msn.com/research/compa...04104&v=t102497

This better for your liking

http://autos.msn.com/research/compar...4241&v=t104255

You are the one who said they are moving to smaller SUVs for better fuel economy.

Let me ask you this do you work anywhere near or within the automotive industry? Or do you just believe everything you read and hear?

The associated Press


Jul 23, 2008

TOKYO–Toyota sold more than 4.8 million vehicles worldwide in the first half, up 2 per cent from the same period a year earlier, the Japanese automaker said Wednesday.

That exceeded General Motors Corp.'s sales of 4.5 million vehicles in the same period, setting up Toyota to potentially end GM's 77-year run as the world's top automaker by sales.

Toyota Motor Corp. spokesman Hideaki Homma said the company sold 4,817,941 vehicles globally during the first six months of the year.

GM said it sold 4,540,409 vehicles, a decline of 3 percent from the first half of 2007.

The Detroit automaker blamed the decline on economic pressures and labor disruptions in the U.S. market. But GM said it posted record-breaking sales in other regions, including Latin America, Asia and Europe.

Automakers have been struggling lately to maintain sales momentum amid soaring motor fuel prices. Toyota has a reputation for high-mileage cars such as its hit gasoline-electric Prius hybrid, but it is still facing the challenge of sluggish auto markets in the U.S., Europe and Japan.

Expectations have been high that the pace of Toyota's recent global booming sales growth will diminish despite stronger sales in emerging markets, such as India.

Toyota has said it expects to sell 9.85 million vehicles worldwide this year, up 5 per cent from last year. But it may lower that target when it updates its strategy next month.

Toyota has been aggressively switching models to boost production of smaller, fuel-efficient vehicles instead of trucks and sport utility vehicles to meet changing consumer tastes.

Earlier this month, it announced sprawling manufacturing changes in the U.S., including starting production of the Prius for the first time, and shutting down truck and SUV production.

Toyota said it plans to produce the Prius – now made only in Japan and China – in Mississippi by 2010, and will consolidate truck production in San Antonio.

General Motors is also reshaping its U.S. production, closing plants and reducing pickup and SUV production.

Last month, all major automakers except for Honda Motor Co. reported steep sales declines in the U.S. for the worst June for the industry in 17 years.

Toyota officials say they are looking for growth outside the U.S. and Japan.

Last week, it said it is acquiring land in Brazil for a plant to likely start making compact vehicles as early as 2011. The plant, Toyota's second in Brazil, will create about 2,500 jobs and have initial annual production capacity of 150,000 vehicles, according to Toyota.

The switch to smaller vehicles is almost certain to bite into the profits at automakers because profit margins are heftier for bigger models.

General Motors has been losing billions over the last three years, while Toyota has been chalking up booming profit.

GM shares gained $1, or 7 per cent, to $15.32 in morning trading. Toyota's U.S. shares fell $1.19, or 1.3 per cent, to $91.68.

DETROIT — For the first time since the Great Depression, General Motors cannot call itself the world’s largest automaker. Its sales fell behind Toyota in 2008, a year when G.M. celebrated its 100th anniversary and narrowly avoided a bankruptcy filing amid a significant downturn in the economy.

On a mild day in February, Toyota Motor Corp.’s honorary chairman, Shoichiro Toyoda, summoned 400 executives to the redbrick factory in Nagoya, Japan, where his grandfather had built weaving looms a century ago.

The managers filed in for one of the customary updates from Toyota’s gray-haired, 84-year-old patriarch. What they got was anything but ordinary.

Two months earlier, Toyota had forecast its first operating loss since Shoichiro’s father began making cars in the same factory, now turned museum, in 1937. Then in January, about three months earlier than planned, the company announced that Shoichiro’s son, Akio, would replace Katsuaki Watanabe as president. Akio is scheduled to assume his new job at a shareholder meeting Tuesday in Toyota City.

Even with these signals, the managers were ill prepared for the normally reserved Shoichiro’s litany of the carmaker’s missteps and his dressing-down of Watanabe.

“How many times have you made a mistake?” Shoichiro grilled Watanabe, who sat silently among stunned audience members, according to a person familiar with the meeting.....

Toyota has seen its U.S. market share slide from 17% for all of 2009 to 11.5% last month. In the auto world, that's huge. Toyota, which at one point was nipping at Ford as the country's second-largest seller of vehicles, was passed in sales and market share last month by Chrysler Group. Ouch.

Toyota's slide is due largely to recalls over unintended acceleration in 2009 and 2010, and the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan that damaged parts plants and cut Toyota's production, causing shortages of cars on dealer lots, the Associated Press says.

But Toyota's diminished sales could last, gulp, for years, says an analyst quoted yesterday by the AP:

Jefferies analyst Peter Nesvold writes in a note to investors that Detroit automakers and others have made so much progress on quality that Toyota no longer stands out. "Quality is now a given," he wrote. "Toyota's historical reputation for quality was no longer the differentiating factor that it had been for many years."

Nesvold wrote that he spoke to a contact at a top auto parts maker who is concerned that Toyota's market share is sliding because its cars and trucks are starting to look stale. The slide can be reversed with smarter designs, the contact told Nesvold. "This could take several years, or at least one product cycle, to implement — assuming that the company internally has already made such a decision," Nesvold wrote.

The AP said it couldn't reach a Toyota official for comment, but Toyota executives have pointed to an onslaught of new cars and trucks on the way that they think will juice sales. They also say that the supply line of cars and trucks has recovered enough from the Japan crisis that the automaker will show a sales increase this month for the first time since last spring.

Toyota Motor has agreed to spend $1.1 billion to settle sweepingU.S. class-action litigation over claims that millions of its vehicles accelerate unintentionally, as the Japanese automaker seeks to move past the biggest safety crisis in its history.

Shares of Toyota rose nearly 3 percent in Tokyo following the news, with some investors saying the settlement removed one uncertainty for the company and looked manageable given its improving sales outlook and a weaker yen.

The proposed settlement will compensate customers for economic losses related to possible safety defects in Toyota vehicles, covering most of the litigation involving unintended acceleration, although it does not cover claims for wrongful death or injuries.

About 16 million Toyota, Lexus and Scion vehicles sold in the United States spanning the model years 1998 to 2010 are covered by the action, according to court filings made public on Wednesday. Thirty nameplates are affected, including the top-selling Toyota Camry midsize sedan and Corolla compact car.

Toyota,the No. 3 automaker in the U.S. market, admitted no fault in proposing the settlement, one of the largest of U.S. mass class-action litigation in the automotive sector. "This was a difficult decision, especially since reliable scientific evidence and multiple independent evaluations have confirmed the safety of Toyota's electronic throttle control systems," Christopher Reynolds, general counsel for Toyota Motor Sales, USA, said in a statement.

"However,we concluded that turning the page on this legacy legal issue through the positive steps we are taking is in the best interests of the company,our employees, our dealers and, most of all, our customers."

The figure eclipses other settlements in the auto industry including Bridgestone$240 million payout to Ford Motor in 2005 over Ford's massive Firestone tire safety recall in 2001. Ford replaced 13 million Firestone tires, installed mostly as original equipment on the company's popular Explorer SUV, in one of the biggest recalls in U.S. history.

HagensBerman, the law firm representing Toyota owners who brought the lawsuit in 2010,issued a statement saying that the settlement was valued between $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion. In a memo filed in court, the lawyers said the settlement was "a landmark, if not a record, settlement in automobile defect class action litigation in the United States."

Toyota said it would take a one-time pretax charge of $1.1 billion to cover the costs.The company said it planned to book the charge as operating expenses in its October-December third quarter.

"This is positive, as it removes the factor that was the biggest concern when it came to lawsuits ... Because Toyota's absolute numbers are very big when it comes to profits, it's hardly going to have an impact," said Koji Endo, an autos analyst at Advanced Research in Tokyo.

Toyota may be able to offset costs with a rise in its profits as the yen weakens, headded. Toyota's operating profit increases by 35 billion yen for everyone-yen rise in the value of the dollar. The automaker has forecast an operating profit of 1.05 trillion yen ($12.3 billion) for the financial year ending in March 2013. Toyota shares rose 2.7 percent, compared with a 1 percent rise in Japan's benchmark Nikkei index.

Lingering Effects

Toyota's recall of more than 10 million vehicles between 2009 and 2011 hurt the company's reputation for reliability and safety. The effect of the recalls on sales and loyalty remains "difficult to isolate,"IHS Automotive analyst Rebecca Lindland said.

"A lot of their growth through the early 2000s were first-time Toyota buyers,"she said. "Those are the people that were most vulnerable to saying,

'I'll never own a Toyota again.' The long term effects won't fully be realized until all of the cars that have been impacted by the recall have been retired."

The biggest safety crisis in Toyota's history began to get public notice in August 2009 when an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer Mark Saylor and three members of his family were killed in a Lexus ES 350 that crashed at a high speed.

A separate lawsuit over the death of the Saylor family was settled out of court. A handful of wrongful death and personal injury cases are still pending, but the vast majority of the litigation over unintended acceleration will be finished if the proposed settlement is approved, said a person with knowledge of the remaining lawsuits who wished to remain anonymous.

Within a half year of the Saylor family crash, Toyota President Akio Toyoda and other company executives were questioned in a high-profile U.S. Congressional hearing, and Toyoda made a public apology. Toyota maintained all along that its electronic throttle control system was not at fault, and reiterated that on Wednesday. It has blamed ill-fitting floor mats and sticky gas pedals for the problem.

A study by U.S. safety regulator the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and NASA found no link between the reports of unintended acceleration and Toyota's electronic throttle control system.

Increasingly Common

The settlement, which must be approved by a California federal judge, includes direct payments to customers as well as the installation of a brake override system in more than 2.7 million vehicles, according to the settlement agreement filed in court.

The terms include a $250 million fund for former Toyota owners who sold vehicles at reduced prices and a separate $250 million fund for owners not eligible for the brake override system.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs are slated to receive up to $200 million in fees and$27 million in costs, according to court documents.Richard Cupp, a professor at Pepperdine University School of Law, said the settlement was large for the automotive sector but was dwarfed by other litigation involving economic loss claims. State cases against the tobacco industry,for instance, amounted to more than $200 billion.

"That could mean that lawsuits like these could become increasingly common, even where there is not provable physical injury on large scale," Cupp said.

"That could mean that lawsuits like these could become increasingly common, even where there is not provable physical injury on large scale,"

Toyota Motor Corp. will stop building cars in Australia in 2017, spelling the end of the local industry after Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. announced last year they also plan to pull out.

The Japanese company, which started making cars in the country in 1963, cited high manufacturing costs, an elevated Australian dollar and low economies of scale. Toyota has 2,500 manufacturing employees in the country, it said in an e-mailed statement today.

Toyota's decision marks the end of an Australian car industry that traces its roots to 1901, as a fall in trade tariffs, the small scale of local plants and an Australian dollar that surged almost 50 percent against the U.S. currency from 2009 to 2012 pushed consumers to cheaper imports. Ford said in May that it would stop output in October 2016, while GM's Holden unit announced a 2017 departure in December.

"Once Ford and Holden went, it was always going to be hard for the last one to survive," said Stephen Walters, JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s chief economist in Australia, citing the strength of the currency, small scale of local production and high costs.

"There will be spillover effects in terms of employment lost in the car industry itself and related industries."

Australia's biggest

Toyota's manufacturing halt will leave Australia with no consumer carmaker for the first time in peacetime since at least 1925, when Ford established a plant in the southern city of Geelong to assemble the Model T. The industry, including parts manufacturers who supply the three carmakers, employed 50,370 in February 2013, according to government data.

The Japanese company is Australia's biggest automotive exporter, sending overseas about 73 percent of the 101,424 cars produced in 2012, according to a November submission to a government inquiry on the future of the industry.

"We did everything that we could to transform our business, but the reality is that there are too many factors beyond our control that make it unviable to build cars in Australia," Toyota Australia President Max Yasuda said in the statement. "Our manufacturing operations have continued to be loss-making despite our best efforts."

In a stunning punch to one of the most admired carmakers in the world, the U.S. Justice Department today announced a criminal fraud charge against Toyota Motor for misleading customers about unintended acceleration complaints in its cars, and said it would defer prosecution in exchange for a $1.2 billion fine, the largest in history against any automaker. The government also said it would appoint an independent monitor to review Toyota’s safety processes and reporting procedures for the next three years.

The settlement ought to send chills through the halls of General Motors, which is facing its own criminal probe for failing to promptly notify customers of safety concerns in its vehicles.

The $1.2 billion fine dwarfs the paltry $$66.15 million that Toyota has been assessed in civil penalties by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for untimely recalls.

U.S. officials were brutal in announcing Toyota’s culpability in the case involving “sticky” accelerator pedals and floor mats that consumed headlines in 2009 and 2010, knocking the once-vaunted automaker off its pedestal and sending its CEO, Akio Toyoda, to Washington to apologize.

“In its zeal to stanch bad publicity in 2009 and 2010, Toyota misled regulators, misled customers, and even misstated the facts to Congress” said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. “Even while giving unequivocal assurances that it had fully addressed a grave safety problem, Toyota knew full well that the problem of unwanted acceleration persisted.”

In a statement, Toyota was contrite, but resolute that the problems that led to the safety crisis are now behind it. “At the time of these recalls, we took full responsibility for any concerns our actions may have caused customers, and we rededicated ourselves to earning their trust,” said Christopher P. Reynolds, chief legal officer, Toyota Motor North America. “In the more than four years since these recalls, we have gone back to basics at Toyota to put our customers first.”

Reynolds continued: “We have made fundamental changes across our global operations to become a more responsive company – listening better to our customers’ needs and proactively taking action to serve them. Specifically, we have taken a number of steps that have enabled us to enhance quality control, respond more quickly to customer concerns, strengthen regional autonomy and speed decision-making. And, we’re committed to continued improvement in everything we do to keep building trust in our company, our people and our products. Importantly, Toyota addressed the sticky pedal and floor mat entrapment issues with effective and durable solutions, and we stand behind the safety and quality of our vehicles.

“Entering this agreement, while difficult, is a major step toward putting this unfortunate chapter behind us. We remain extremely grateful to our customers who have continued to stand by Toyota. Moving forward, they can be confident that we continue to take our responsibilities to them seriously,” Reynolds concluded.

As part of Toyota’s response to the crisis, it created a $50 million Collaborative Safety Research Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., to partner with universities and others on safety advances that it will share across the industry. It also enhanced the autonomy of executives in different regions of the world, including naming the first American CEO of Toyota’s North American Region as well as Chief Quality Officers for North America and other principal regions – all of whom have direct lines to President Akio Toyoda.

Toyota will record $1.2 billion in after-tax charges against earnings in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014 for costs relating to the above agreement.

Toyota is relocating its sales headquarters from California to Texas to bring its various U.S. operations, which are currently spread across the country, into once space, Reuters reports.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry reportedly courted Toyota by promising lower taxes and easier regulations, according to Bloomberg.

Sales, service, marketing, advertising, manufacturing, and quality operations will relocate to suburban Dallas, according to Reuters. Employees will be informed of the move on Monday, and some will be offered relocation packages and financial assistance.

The relocation is a blow to California, which holds the biggest auto market in the U.S. Toyota has more than 5,300 employees in California, most of whom work at the Torrance headquarters near Los Angeles, Bloomberg reports.

Moving Toyota's headquarters will take several years, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The LA Times notes that 75% of Toyota's cars that are sold in the U.S. are built in America — mostly at plants in Texas, Mississippi, and Kentucky — so the relocation will place the automaker's headquarters closer to its production centers.