This blog contains posts and comments written by students in Dr. Tufte's economics classes at Southern Utah University.
2/25/2005
Toyota vs GM
Toyota announced last Tuesday that they plan to build at least two more auto plants in North America. Toyota expanded U.S. sales by 10 percent in 2004, by selling over 2 million vehicles here for the first time, and giving it a 12.2 percent share of the world’s richest car market. Toyota is not only meeting their sales projection they are beating them. With this kind of growth, Toyotas market share is sure to compete with the world's largest auto maker GM. GM has had slipping auto sales in recent years, and with no "ace up their sleeves" on the horizon will probably soon fall victim to Toyotas marching advance on the U.S. market. Toyota already has five finshing plants in North America, with a sixth currently under construction in Texas. The site of its seventh factory has yet to be unvailed, and the site of the eight will follow soon after. Toyota wants to be the biggest, and soon they will be if everything goes as planned. This obviously creates plenty of new jobs for the people located near these large manufacturing plants, but the economic benefits are so much bigger than that. With more production capability Toyota can become even more competitive. Hopefully they will offer lower prices, and better customer service on its vehicles, and in the future you may see more Americans driving Toyotas. Economic growth could not be more clear than when it comes to Toyota, they are a strong production company and are stategically planning to become stronger. Watch out GM.
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3 comments:
The name for this sort of phenomenon is insourcing.
The contrast to take away from reading this is - do you think the Japanese government or people are happy that Toyota is outsourcing to the U.S.?
My suggestion is that if someone is upset by outsourcing, then this move should make them happy. If it doesn't, perhaps they are just looking for something to complain about.
Yeah so im pretty sure that i am anti toyota. I agree they make great engines, i just totally support the home country over imports. Gasmileage... pfft don't even get me started. America is known for big burly you can't stop us vehiles, and i want to keep it that way. I am a chevrolet fan, no facts will change that. Not gas mileage, not looks, not cost. Not even crash tests, a freind told me yesterday taht the toyota camry got a better rating that the chevrolet silverado, how can you compare those? a car vs a truck? seriously, not possible. I know for a fact i would rather have a truck than a car first of all in a crash, the way i see it, more metal = safer. You can say taht more metal = more velocity to stop, which is true, but i feel that the factor of having more metal inbetween you and the other vehicle/deer/tree/whatever it may be is the best outcome. Toyota is becoming a bad monopoly, just like microsoft. It costs U.S. businesses hundrereds of thousands of dollars to operate overseas. Overseas they have locked the door, but no the U.S. leaves our wide open, you can buy whatever you want.. 1st ammendment ... Just wanted to put my 2 cents in. GO GM!
We bought a Toyota based on its reputation for quality. However, their customer service is the worst that we have ever encountered with either GM or Ford. Based on the experiences that we have had with three different dealers in two different states during the first three months that we owned our Sienna, we will never purchase from Toyota again and discourage anyone from doing so.
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