The G Man

I guess payback is a biatch. All the major non-Japanese automakers in the world making it a unanimous as no-show for biennial Tokyo auto show. This article is suggusting that it is a form of payback for refusing to open the Japanese auto market to serious foreign competition.

http://bostonherald.com/business/aut...&position=also

dunnojack

that's ok. it's not like the foreign brands sell poorly because they can't enter the japanese market.

LexFather

That is one of the dumbest and worst researched articles I've read recently.

1. Companies have dropped out of TONS of auto shows, not just Tokyo TO SAVE MONEY THIS ECONOMIC CRISIS. We have posted multiple threads in the past of car makers dropping out of shows to save money.
2. Japan is NOT a country with Auto GROWTH. The birth rate is negative and cars actually have a somewhat negative cognition with the youth.
3. Its from the Detroit Free Press, as reliable as that 25 year old Hyundai Excel.

MPLexus301

iTrader: (3)

Perhaps the title should read, "A little payback for the Japanese GOVERNMENT" judging by the tone of that article.

Even then...I agree with Mike. Also, truth is, Toyota is going to benefit greatly from everyone else being gone because the LF A will be the most remarkable debut. I guess they may also show the Toyobaru from what I hear...

Less attendees = increased focus on those who stick it out

TRDFantasy

Predictably biased article coming from the Detroit Free Press .

IS-SV

Considering some of the lame cars GM tried to sell in Japan, they might be banned from the show anyway.

The G Man

Its not about lame cars, its about shutting out foreign competitions and at the same time, exporting goods as a major income. Its about fair play, we, Americans, plays fair and we have suffer in recent years and lost a lots of jobs because of that. As the article stated, China does not restrict foreign competition and Japanese and Korea does. The pay back is justify, In fact I think we should do more to restrict imports from those 2 countries.

marshmallo

LOL, the Boston Herald would fail quality control at a TP factory.

mmarshall

Although this is not 100% true, basically, I agree that it is primarily a money issue. I also don't see it necessarily as a "payback" to Japanese manufacturers, because, with the possible excepton of Toyota, their share of the pie has been falling recent anyway, while Hyundai/Kia has been steadily gaining. Last, of course, it is been increasingly hard to define a "Japanese", American", European" or "Korean" auto company anyway, as the world auto market has become so global and intertwined. Ford and GM, however, may buck this trend slightly, as, with the selling off of their "foreign" brands, they have become slightly more "American", though both still have European branches.

Porsche, however, pulled out of the big Detroit Show the last few years, not necessarily because of economic issues, but because they recognized something that I have noticed for years......and posted on, many times. The Detroit Show is still the largest one in the industry, and the traditional place to introduce new models.......but, now, is almost totally useless in the Detroit area, where the city itself has become essentially one vast run-down slum. It would make FAR more sense, today, to have the traditional new-model introductions in the enormous, car-rich Washington D.C. or Los Angeles areas, both of which are far more important now to the market than Detroit. Even Atlanta, where you live, Mike, is now more important for sales than Detroit, and is probably third in the country behind L.A. and D.C. Indeed, we ARE starting to see more importance......and more introductions........at both the D.C. and L.A. shows, particularly in L.A.