I suppose the inevitable doesn’t deserve better than a below-the-fold story on the Post‘s business page:
Toyota outpaced its rival to sell 8.972 million cars and trucks around the world in 2008, about 616,000 vehicles more than GM’s final tally of 8.356 million.
This was a long time coming:
GM took the world’s largest auto manufacturer title from Ford in 1931. Two years later, Toyota began making cars.
Toyota’s smaller, fuel-efficient cars have appealed to consumers during spikes in gas prices. Through the ’70s and ’80s, GM’s quality declined as Asian competitors made a name for themselves in reliability. Toyota has since aggressively entered the truck and sport-utility market to grow itself as a full-line manufacturer. In the United States, Toyota’s sales have slowly chipped away at Chrysler, then Ford.
Given how terribly GM is performing in this down turn, how dubious its leadership is (see GM’s Lutz: Wagoner is one of “the innocents,” just “the mayor of a city hit by an earthquake), and how the future is smaller cars and hybrids — where Toyota clealy leads — and plug ins — where the jury is out on who will lead, it will be a great challenge for Detroit to regain leadership.
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Hoooraay, long time coming indeed!! Thank you Gaia we have been finally put into our proper place and will continue to sink in world domination as is proper and right.
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
GM’s real problem is its non-competitve cost structure. The great deals made with the unions happened before: Japanese brands opening non-union plants in the US. The arrival of Korean low (labor) cost/high quality cars. Ballistic inflation of health care costs. Pensioners living to 90 instead of 75. Robotics, modular construction and out sourcing greatly reducing the number of autoworkers adding value and contributing to pensioner expenses.
So GM had to go with its strength – large, high mark-up cars, trucks and SUVs. Historically low gas prices (until last summer) made it work. Toyota’s most recently built US plants were for large Pickups and SUVs, trying to get a bigger piece of this lucrative business. The real US automotive competition was maintaining market share in the truck/SUV market. Fighting off Japanese luxury and mid-size cars was second. Small cars were in last place.
GM’s mid-size car quality is disappointing. Even with a Consumer reports “recommended” status, I spent enough on repairs on my Impala over the years, that I might have come out ahead if I had bought a Lexus. Not to mention the inconvenience and worrying about what’s going to happen next. Its partly cultural, but mostly its trying to squeeze every penny out of car building to pay for unbelieveable overhead.
GM has done some nifty things with overdrive transmissions and fuel injection, and class by class, its fuel economy is often the best. My neocon friends say the CAFE rules did in GM! Impalas and Malibus are among the best selling cars right now. The get 29 to 34 mpg on the highway. Would anyone be buying them if they still got 18?
The bungling deregulation and saber rattling by the Bush administration is what upset this thing, and its gone much deeper than GM.