Threxx

This is a sad milestone for the American economy and IMO a sad milestone for Toyota enthusiasts who now have their favorite car company with nowhere to go but down. I'd say let's hope Toyota doesn't get comfortable up there and make some of the same mistakes that GM did, but I'd really rather see GM take the lead back for the sake of this country's economic well being.

jimxo

Worldwide..yikes!

Trexus

Congratulations to Toyota. I'm sure it's just a normal day as usual at Toyota but the numbers do speak for themselves. Keep up the great work Toyota...

mmarshall

I'm not sure I agree. A large (or at least significant) part of the American auto economy comes from the Toyota plants at Georgetown, KY, Fremont, CA, the new truck plant at San Antonio, TX, the Toyota/Subaru plant at Lafayette, IN, and others. The NUMMI Fremont plant, ironically, is shared by both Toyota and GM....the Pontiac Vibe and Toyota Matrix twins are built there, as were the Corolla/Prizms and Corolla/Novas of past years.

Threxx

I've discussed this extensively on both sides of the issue. It's certainly not a black and white issue of foreign vs domestic, but the last time I saw the numbers, approximately 75% of every dollar spent on a domestically purchased vehicle with a GM or Ford badge went to domestic sources - from the corporate offices to the dealerships to marketing, engineers, parts, and assembly. Simple equation - spend 10 grand, 2500 of it leaves our country.

The numbers for Toyota, Nissan, and Honda were in the 35 to 45% range.

Now you may say 35-45% vs 75% isn't the biggest deal in the world economically speaking. And in that limited perspective it may not be.

But consider that our economy benefits from having a powerhouse like GM in place. When GM makes money selling cars all over the world, it brings money back home. If GM were to die or fade out to the point of insignificance, it also reduces our income from foreign countries.

Toyota may have an admirable average of 40% of your dollar value staying in the country on a domestically purchased vehicle, but you can bet that if it's a Toyota and it's being sold somewhere outside of North America, then we don't see a single dollar from those purchases until it gets recycled through Toyota corporate.

mmarshall

Are you referring to a GM or Ford-badged vehicle BOTH purchased AND assembled domestically? This is important, because of the global nature of today's auto industry. Many vehicles purchased here in the U.S. have American-company badges on them but are, in actuality, built overseas, in Canada, or Mexico. Likewise, as we have already discussed, many foreign-nameplate vehicles are both built and purchased here and overseas.

And then you have the "Parts Content" and "Foreign Parts Content" issues, which muddle and complicate the issue even further. (Next time you look at a window price sticker, check it out...those figures are now required by law). Take, for instance, the ubiquitous "All-American" police, senior-citizen, and taxi vehicle...the Ford Crown Victoria. Many people (and perhaps the police themselves) think that when they are buying it they are getting a classic baseball/hot dogs/apple pie vehicle. Not so. Because of the EPA fuel economy standards and the requiremants that go into those standards, Ford takes advantage of an EPA loophole that allows an exemption for vehicles that contain more than a certain amount of " foreign" parts. Those cars are not subject to the math formulas involved in figuring the CAFE average for the company, so, of course, Ford builds the big heavy Crown Vic (and its resulting poor fuel mileage) with more foreign-sourced parts than with domestic ones.

The Crown Vic is only one example of as vehicle where the average buyer doesn't really know where it came from...and there are many others as well. In fact, that is one reason why we have CAR CHAT here...to educate each other and outsiders on issues like this.

And I myself don't claim to be an expert on the subject.....I have been following the auto market for over 40 years and am STILL learning...every day.

GS3Tek

iTrader: (8)

Congrats to toyota
Like what others said, don't get too comfortable and let the quality slip

Gojirra99

I think they are aware of quality & will try not to : CLICK HERE

Mr. Jones

what exactly does Toyota increasing worldwide sales have to do with the American economy.

mmarshall

Well, it IS starting to slip in some areas, like hardware and trim (see my recent 2007 Tundra review), but underneath the skin (even if the skin needs some improvement), Toyota still builds some of the highest-quality vehicles on the planet.

TRDFantasy

For all the critics, Toyota has mentioned many times their #1 priority is quality right now, not sales. Toyota has already delayed or extended development time for several future models just so they can double and triple check quality every step of the way.

It's not like Toyota lost focus all of a sudden and only focused on it's global sales.

Everyone knew this was coming, including Toyota. Toyota simply kept their head down, and continues to keep their head down and work hard. Unlike American automakers, news on Toyota's future models is very scarce, and Toyota likes to keep it that way.

Toyota years ago started to take precautionary measures and necessary steps to solidify it's corporate culture, so that there wouldn't be that many ill effects when they did become #1.

GM was #1 for over 50 years, and they stayed #1 for so long even though GM has made countless bad decisions, and there are countless examples of short-sighted thinking on GM's part.

This news is both good and bad for GM. Good that some pressure has been lifted off of GM, but bad because this is a huge psychological blow to GM for losing it's #1 spot. This could make GM lose focus.

Falcon LS

This is fantastic news. I just hope there won't be further drops in overall build quality. Sadly, the trend in the market now seems to be the more vehicles you sell, the more difficult it is to control quality.

STIG

I, for one, do not like the idea of Toyota becoming #1.

It's going to backfire them, and they need to take a lot of cautions.

But for now, congrats to them.

TRDFantasy

It was evident years ago that Toyota would become #1. It all comes down to fundamental differences between the corporate culture of Toyota compared to the corporate culture of GM.

There is no certainty it's going to backfire, but it is definitely a possibility. Toyota has been taking precautions against this for years now, and we will see in the coming years how the company handles the pressure.

dsp979

Thanks to Flipside and marshall for posting the actual articles.

I agree with posters who say they worry about quality. As long as Toyota doesn't get complacent, they will continue growing.

I still prefer to buy cars made in Japan, not American-made Japanese cars.