Toyota's Weak Quarter Brings Grim Forecast

[flowomo]

Source: WSJ

TOKYO -- Toyota Motor Corp.'s net profit dropped 28% in the January-March quarter as the Japan-based car maker forecast that a stronger yen, soaring raw-material costs and a continued U.S. slowdown will likely lead to its first fiscal-year profit drop in seven years.

The grim forecast by the world's most profitable auto maker underscores the impact shrinking auto demand in the U.S. is having on car makers' profits, even as they scramble to offset losses with aggressive growth in China and other emerging markets....

Still, the company continues to depend on North America, where sales are slumping, for more than a third of its overseas profits. Evidence of the difficulties ahead for Toyota could be seen in the car maker's performance during the fiscal fourth quarter, when net profit fell to 316 billion yen from 440 billion yen a year earlier amid weak U.S. sales and a stronger yen that eroded earnings. In North America, Toyota's sales fell 7% in the quarter to 2.14 billion yen from a year earlier.

Even so, Toyota far outperformed its Detroit rivals, unseating General Motors Corp. as the world's largest car maker by sales volume for the quarter, as high gasoline prices drew Americans to Toyota's line up of smaller, fuel-sipping vehicles such as the Yaris and the Prius gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles. In the U.S., Yaris sales shot up 58% for the quarter over last year and Prius sales increased 23%.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121022697493776701.html?mod=hpp_us_whats_news

[liberal N proud]

1. No one has any money

When you don't have any money you can't buy a car.

The oil company has all of mine

[Edith Ann]

2. Amen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[liberal N proud]

3. The local news just compared price of gas to milk

Gallon of Gas $3.79
Gallon of Milk $3.50


I couldn't stand it I had to send them an email asking the talking head if he drank 10 gallons of milk a week.

[CountAllVotes]

4. I saw someone driving a new Prius today

I asked them how they liked the car and they were uncertain. :shrug:

They said they were wondering if perhaps they should have tried to find something used that gets 25-30+ mpg. to buy instead as they really could not afford this new Prius.

So, ? re: Toyota. I know there have been some big recalls recently.

[Sherman A1]

5. Possibly, they should have done their homework

The Prius is nice but cost vs benefit comes out in favor of the Yaris, lower mpg (mine gets 38 mpg combined city/highway), but it's $10K less and that is a whole lot of gasoline even at $4.00 per gallon.

bought it in January and had one week at 39 mpg. It's a good commuter car. Too, bad that Detroit is behind the curve again. I really wanted to buy an American Made, Union Built vehicle, but none were close in the cost vs benefit category.

[peacebird]

6. Prius has lower emissions also. We love ours - got it for 21k 3 years ago

Got a nice chunk off our tax bill from the Feds for it (I think it was $5k) and get 54 mpg spring thru fall and 48 winter.... It's also a more comfy ride than the Yaris I think.

But simply for cost/mileage benefits you are right in your analysis.

[OhioChick]

7. Japan's Toyota Motor to hike prices in North America - report

Japan's Toyota Motor to hike prices in North America - report

05.06.08, 8:03 PM ET

TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - Japan's largest automaker Toyota Motor Corp. will raise prices of most of the cars it sells in North America starting this month in a bid to offset rising production costs and a stronger yen, the Nikkei reported at the weekend without citing sources.

Surging prices of steel and other materials and the yen's rapid appreciation have forced the auto giant to increase car prices at a time other than during its twice-yearly adjustments, the business daily said.

Vehicles imported from Japan such as the Prius hybrid and the Yaris compact, marketed as the Vitz in Japan, will carry the new prices.

The price hikes will average 0.7 percent, the report said.

The price of the popular Prius will likely be marked up by 1.8 percent, while that of the Yaris is expected to climb by 1.6 percent to 1.7 percent.

http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2008/05/06/afx4977736.html

[DemoTex]

8. Part of Toyota's problem .. new-car lots full of these:

http://image.trucktrend.com/f/truck-news/toyota-tundra-pricing-has-toyota-blown-it/1056997+w600+cr1+re0+ar1/2008-toyota-tundra-front-view.jpg

My Toyota sales manager friend says the decision to go big on their Tacoma and Tundra pickup trucks is killing them. The lowly 4-cyl Tacoma basic pickup and 4-cyl SR-5 are now hard to find items and HOT.

BTW: The owner of the Toyota distributorship for the southeast flies around in a Gulfstream-5 (he has a fleet of private jets). Guess things aren't that bad at Toyota.

[lib2DaBone]

10. Tacoma is Junk

I bought a brand new Tacoma P/U. The dashboard rattled and the rear brakes did not work. Toyota was unable to find the rattle in dash, could not fix rear brakes. Horrible Service Dept. I sold the truck with just 900 miles on it.. what a piece of crap.

[JCMach1]

11. It's not the same Toyota as 1980's and 1990's

They are having real quality concerns now...

There are other choices out there as good or better...

[ileus]

9. wonder if anyone's falling for dodges 2.99 gas BS???