Featured Toyota? 'Unless Things Change, We Will Not Survive':

It's called "Planned obsolescence"; and it's happening in every sector of the economy. Anything that's built to last is lost future revenue; especially when your direct competitors can make a similar device for a third of the price.
Wages keeps going up with inflation and people are getting lazy and IMHO - dumber. Only 1 in 8 of the last people I trained, actually got it. The rest was too lazy and had no common sense. That one person that got it actually read and understood the supplemental material vs the rest of them relying on AI that almost always lead them astray and down the wrong path to repair something. When you don't understand how something is suppose to work; AI can't help you fix ANYTHING; when you ask it how to fix the do-hicky because the thingy-a-bob isn't turning.

planned obsolescence definition at DuckDuckGo

 

The level of skill required to assemble a car is pretty low compared to the level of skill required to repair one. And those endpoints keep getting further apart.

As with so many other things, it is becoming cheaper just to replace a bad one instead of repairing it. Toyota appears to understand that when the goalposts are being moved in that direction, their commitment to spare parts, repair service and possibly even repair info are suddenly questionable expenses.

It appears likely that their new Chinese competition isn't going to invest nearly as much into repairability. I predict some will be judged harshly for it, but that there will be enough of them overall that somebody will figure out the right deal, and Toyota is worried they won't last that long.

 

Once the current EV backlash by all the MAGAts ends again, moving away from fossil fuels will be way more aggressive than in the past and Toyota will for sure be doomed if they invest more in dismissing it than embrassing it; it used to be they had to dismiss it because of the momentum they had with parts makers. That's not going to be the case next time around.

 

From the article;

Toyo had a great run - especially & in part due to many of Japan's own tarrifs. They began to hammer gm/Ford sales & quality in the 80s. Now? We're supposed to feel sorry that China is beating them at their own price undercutting game? Don't hear Kia Hyundai crying about it. They had a chance to leapfrog Tesla at one time - but chose in stead to lie - saying no one wants EVs. Now Tesla sells what ~2 million/year? And others outsell their 1 & only plugin hybrid?
Now Toyota wants peeps to wait even longer for parts & service like mane of the others?
(sigh)
.

 

How long will the brands who do build for the long term last? One of my previous cars is still able to have almost every part replaced by the manufacturer 25 years later.

But to maintain that reputation, its lowest cost model's purchase price inflated by more than 400% over those 25 years. And the all the bells and whistles version of their current lower cost model equivalent went to $200k used !!! No that isn't even the most sold most costly model, that is their low cost model.

Porsche.

 

I have doubts about the future of the electric car craze. My friends who train car mechanics, and especially my friends who are electronics engineers, are skeptical about electric cars. Instead of being tied to a vehicle that requires an electrochemical reaction during charging and discharging (a chemical reaction environment requiring a delicate laboratory: a battery), wouldn't hybrid systems, which have alternatives, be much more logical? Furthermore, plug-in hybrids seem much better to me. In fact, in Northern Europe and Türkiye, even with the addition of an LPG system, these vehicles achieve much lower fuel costs and very low carbon emissions. If they could develop an LNG system instead of this LPG kit, I think we would move even further away from electric vehicles.

 

Odd time for this posting when the world is so short of LNG. And boy are the prices going high which would obliterate any calculations done as recently as even a month ago.

I have a hybrid. I see a lot of EVs with drivers pretty pleased with their choices. And I see a lot of overpowered vehicles at gas tanks filling up taking 5 times the time my hybrid does and of course 5x the currency of choice.

 

The world might be short, but everything is local to somebody. Maybe they still have good cheap access in Turkiye.

 

For the sake of the Prius, I hope Toyota gets a clue and survives.

Double kWh the Prime battery pack. Locate outside the cabin and add full speed, fast DC charging, a Prime+ with better control laws would be awesome competition. But my 2917 was too little, too late, and too dumb. The mechanical parts are fine.

Bob Wilson

 

tough to predict the future for anyone, Toyota is doing just fine, and on the right track imo

 

ah yes. 20/20 hindsight -
Seems pretty stupid now - the hardcore push by anti CO2 folk - w/ the abundance of coal. Talk about sequestering CO2 though, & people say talk to the hand. Talk about scrubbing coal ash? Talk to the hand.
We live at least ½ a year - Pacific northwest & it runs (last time I checked) something like 81% to 84% Hydro. Lots of biomass for us after that. Thank God the pro fishery Folk haven't been allowed to destroy all the Bonneville dams to make it easier for fish but harder to prevent flooding or turning Farms arid much less causing us to not have to live in caves w/out electricity.

LOL - maybe Toyota saw the writing on the wall with California (the home of the Lions share of electric vehicles) - importing most all their electricity. Then they went & fined the bejesus out of the refiners - causing them to leave. So yeah, maybe toyo saw that kind of stupidity & knew it would lead to not being able to support any more Electric vehicles.

 

and don't forget hydrogen

 

The fuel that remains forever in the future.

Bob Wilson

 

Check out how Brazil is doing with their home grown 40% and 15% ethanol fuels. Much less exposed to global crude prices.

 

they must be happy about Iran

 

..... as they continually chop down more & more rain forest - just to get a couple good crop years - then move on to destroy more rain Forrest as the soil is notoriously poor. No need for petrol chemical fertilizer. That's just Great