Toyota chief fears GM, Ford demise
06-11-05, 06:07 PM
#76
Guest
Posts: n/a
Originally Posted by mmarshall
Flip and Inabj2 are both correct here to an extent. The G6 does have noticeably better fit-and-finish than the Grand Prix and the former Grand Am, but the materials used for assembly....especially in the interior.....IMO are sGM to to spend $200 more in car interiorstill rather flimsy and cheap feeling. They just don't LOOK quite as cheap as before because GM is finally starting to figure out again ( as it did in the 1960's ) how to assemble and detail their interiors using cheap materials.
Its not bad but GM needs to realize it needs to be class leading or up to class leading. BTW, not sure ya'll seen this.
http://www.thecarconnection.com/Indu...173.A8694.html
GM to to spend $200 more in car interior
06-11-05, 06:15 PM
#77
Lexus Fanatic
There IS SOME hope, though, for GM interiors...though I agree with you there is too much gray. Notice, in the top picture, that there is a three-spoke Toyota-derived steering wheel.....the same one as on the Corolla, Celica, MR2, RAV4, Matrix, and Lexus IS300. ( I have an IS300 and recognized it immediately ). The only difference is that the Celica's and IS300's have the transmission buttons on the spokes....the others don't. No doubt that wheel came from the parts bin used for the Pontiac Vibe...a Toyota Matrix twin. And the nice chrome rings around the gauges (probably just chromized plastic) don't hurt either.
Last edited by mmarshall; 06-11-05 at 06:25 PM.
06-11-05, 06:32 PM
#78
Lexus Connoisseur
Actually it's similar and fashioned after but not the same. The Corolla, Voltz, Celica, Matrix & MR2 used the same steering wheel and obviously w/the Vibe. But they are not the same. The only buttons these particular Toyota derived wheels have are the e-shift buttons for the Celica GTS and MR2 SMG and the cruise control switch.
Last edited by flipside909; 06-11-05 at 06:41 PM.
06-13-05, 09:18 AM
#79
Lexus Fanatic
Big brothers watching
I'm actually hoping Antitrust laws will prevent Toyota from inflating the prices.
How about you?
http://biz.yahoo.com/usat/050609/12928284.html
USATODAY.com
Price remarks by Toyota chief could be illegal
Thursday June 9, 9:41 pm ET
For the second time in about two weeks, the chairman of Toyota Motor in Japan said the automaker is likely to raise U.S. prices and give struggling Detroit car companies room to raise theirs - a comment U.S. antitrust experts say is ill-advised and borders on illegal.
Inviting competitors to match your price increases can be illegal "price signaling," says lawyer Jim Weiss, former head of an antitrust unit at the Justice Department and now in private practice at a law firm specializing in antitrust.
If rivals don't follow, no violation. "But it invites the government to look into what you're doing. When the government looks into what you're doing, they frequently find something, even if it's not what they intended," he says.
Toyota Chairman Hiroshi Okuda, speaking in Osaka, Japan, made his most recent price comment after General Motors announced Tuesday that it will close plants and cut 25,000 jobs by 2008 to get its North American auto operations in the black. GM lost $1.3 billion in North America the first quarter.
GM had no comment on Okuda's remarks, which were reported by Japan's Kyodo News and published on U.S. newswires.
Mike Michels, spokesman for Toyota Motor Sales, the automaker's main U.S. unit, says prices might rise because of higher costs or additional features, but "There're not going to be any arbitrary price increases. That's not how we do pricing. I don't think Chairman Okuda meant it that way."
Okuda's reasoning both times, according to wire reports, has been that U.S. automakers can improve earnings if they charge higher prices. He said he's afraid that financial trouble among Detroit car companies will be blamed on tough competition from Japan-based automakers, creating an anti-Japan backlash that could hurt sales.
Toyota is the biggest Japanese brand in the USA. It has 13.3% of the U.S. market through May. It is just 0.7 percentage points, or 48,658 sales, behind No. 3 DaimlerChrysler, according to Autodata.
His most recent price remarks came at a press conference in which Okuda was speaking as chairman of the influential Japan Business Federation.
Antitrust lawyers say the Justice Department is likely to take note of the comments and watch for unusual moves in Detroit automakers' pricing.
Okuda's comments might have the opposite result. Antitrust lawyers say it's possible that Detroit car companies might temporarily skip planned price increases on models that compete directly with Toyota models to prove they are not colluding with Toyota in a price-fixing scheme.
How about you?http://biz.yahoo.com/usat/050609/12928284.html
USATODAY.com
Price remarks by Toyota chief could be illegal
Thursday June 9, 9:41 pm ET
For the second time in about two weeks, the chairman of Toyota Motor in Japan said the automaker is likely to raise U.S. prices and give struggling Detroit car companies room to raise theirs - a comment U.S. antitrust experts say is ill-advised and borders on illegal.
Inviting competitors to match your price increases can be illegal "price signaling," says lawyer Jim Weiss, former head of an antitrust unit at the Justice Department and now in private practice at a law firm specializing in antitrust.
If rivals don't follow, no violation. "But it invites the government to look into what you're doing. When the government looks into what you're doing, they frequently find something, even if it's not what they intended," he says.
Toyota Chairman Hiroshi Okuda, speaking in Osaka, Japan, made his most recent price comment after General Motors announced Tuesday that it will close plants and cut 25,000 jobs by 2008 to get its North American auto operations in the black. GM lost $1.3 billion in North America the first quarter.
GM had no comment on Okuda's remarks, which were reported by Japan's Kyodo News and published on U.S. newswires.
Mike Michels, spokesman for Toyota Motor Sales, the automaker's main U.S. unit, says prices might rise because of higher costs or additional features, but "There're not going to be any arbitrary price increases. That's not how we do pricing. I don't think Chairman Okuda meant it that way."
Okuda's reasoning both times, according to wire reports, has been that U.S. automakers can improve earnings if they charge higher prices. He said he's afraid that financial trouble among Detroit car companies will be blamed on tough competition from Japan-based automakers, creating an anti-Japan backlash that could hurt sales.
Toyota is the biggest Japanese brand in the USA. It has 13.3% of the U.S. market through May. It is just 0.7 percentage points, or 48,658 sales, behind No. 3 DaimlerChrysler, according to Autodata.
His most recent price remarks came at a press conference in which Okuda was speaking as chairman of the influential Japan Business Federation.
Antitrust lawyers say the Justice Department is likely to take note of the comments and watch for unusual moves in Detroit automakers' pricing.
Okuda's comments might have the opposite result. Antitrust lawyers say it's possible that Detroit car companies might temporarily skip planned price increases on models that compete directly with Toyota models to prove they are not colluding with Toyota in a price-fixing scheme.
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