Toyota doing its part to help the US economy?

gee... i would expect gm to be doing better, given how often we had to replace our gm vehicles.

planned obsolescence is supposed to *boost* sales, eh? when people are convinced that 100k is the end of a car's useful life, they buy more often.

if they're smart... they seek out cars that last longer.

 

I am not at all thrilled by our trade deficite, not at all! But the fact is, it is not the fault of us who buy Toyotas, or Hondas, or Subarus, or KIAs, and on and on. In fact our trade deficite would be much worse if the Toyotas, Hondas, Subarus, and KIAs building factories here, hiring US workers. The problem is with the GMs, Fords, Chryslers not being willing to make a vehicle people want, ad campaigns like "Get your manhood back, buy a Hummer" may win over a few feeble minded, but not many more. In addition, the US auto industry is not alone in this plight, when was the last time you bought anything that didn't say Made in China on it? No the problem lies right here in the US industries, the industries that use what may as well be slave labor simply so they can pay their CEO the same each day that they pay theie average worker in one year.

 

The only way you can fix this issue is get Americans to settle for driving shit box American cars or the US car industry can start making better cars people want. Coming to a Prius forum to preach GM will have no affect what so ever.

 

*former* connection to a dealer. they also sold suzukis, and as you can imagine warranty expenditures were downright absurd on those things.

but it's not about warranty when the expected end of life of car A is under 150k miles, and the expected end of life of car B is well above 250k miles. is it?

 

Not this again.

You have yet to provide accurate numbers and references as how you derive the Toyota surplus. Then you taught the big 3, yet they close down factories in the US and moves production elsewhere (while Honda and Toyota are openign factories in the US).

Lastly if trade deficit is your big concern, why are you not focussing on number 1 = CHINA??????? China makes Japan look like small fry in terms of trade deficit.

Seems more like a desperate attempt by a GM dealer trying to make a copmpetitor look bad, rather than cleaning their own house and getting GM to produce the goods.

Have you ran political campaigns much??? Seems like exactly that tactic they use these days, make the other guy look bad instead of solving the problems. That is the reason why GM sucks and the current political landscape look so bleak. Have we lost the good leaders and companies in the US?? Oh wait there are a number of them, but they don't work for GM nor run for politics.

Threads like these show how pathetic GM and its dealers have become.

BTW malorn you should post in this thread where garbage arguments (like this thread) belong
http://priuschat.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41049

 

All the sources for your deductions would be good.

BTW GM might be doing much better if you and all your GM buddies were more focused on taking care of your customers and less on posting on Toyota forums. Shouldn't you take care of your customers now, rather than post here? I notice that you post during office hours rather than after hours, so is GM paying you to go and post on Toyota forums??

 

See other thread, as it seems your sources are far less accurate or reliable than you seem to think, or you are just cooking the numbers to suite your needs.

Must be great to be paid to troll on forums that discuss your competitors.

 

Durable goods are those that are meant to last more than three years.

The only reason the economy vis a vis durable goods made the grade recently is because Boeing made a big sale. Boeing doesn't make cars.

One has to wonder if GM makes a durable good any more. How long does a GM car last? And what *is* the repair cost during that lifetime? These are things *I* look at when I make a big purchase like a car. Or a water heater or a washing machine or anything else I pay over $1,000 for. Any durable good that costs me a chunk of money, I look to see how durable it is, what the anticipated repair is, (if I can repair it myself or must hire professional help) and what it will cost me over it's lifetime.

That's why I check Consumer Reports and I buy energy star appliances.

A Prius is an "energy star" car.

 

GM ought to pay someone to troll the car forums and take notes of all of the criticism. And instead of wasteing time defending it, really study it. Whether it is warranted or not, there is a perception there. If there are grounds for the criticism, you fix it. If there aren't, you still fix it. It takes years to live down a lemon reputation. The only way to change that is to build reliable cars that perform well and stay out of the shop. After a few years that lemon reputation will go away. If you're defending yourself through PR instead of product....you're in trouble. I only owned one GM. I've written my issues here and I've read plenty from others that have owned a string of GMs. If GM wants to sell more cars, it needs to address those complaints and it needs to build something people want to buy. NOT convince people to buy what it wants to build. That is GM's primary problem.

If Malorn is representative of GM's mentality, GM is in trouble.

 

I am sorry for ever contributing to this thread, but enough is enough. If you quit feeding it, it will go away.

 

I doubt the number you quote very much. First because I proved it to be wrong in the other thread with NA production of Toyota.
http://priuschat.com/forums/showpost.php?p=537921&postcount=33

Secondly the government website you list as your source of information is mostly an estimate, but for argument's sake it can be deemed a reasonably accurate estimate. I also find it interesting that you rarely provide direct links ot information, but rather only point to sites. This is normally the action of someone with soemthign to hide in regards to the data they quote.
http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/guide/sec1.html

Thirdly the conclusion you draw from the government website is completely incorrect. You can't simply take the trade numbers they quote and then calculate Toyota's portion out of it based on soem dubious info source listing numbers of cars sold/imported. Letme expand a bit since it seems you have a problem with numbers, figures and what they actually mean.

So lets start with Automotive Imports from Japan
http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/product/enduse/imports/c5880.html

Total value of new , used and parts was $60B. But notice all the categories for new and used passenger vehicles, sub assemblies, parts, tires, etc, etc.

Now exports for the same categories was just over $2B. In actual fact the difference between import and export was exactly $ 57,842,672 , which is different from the number you presented. Link for exports
http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/product/enduse/exports/c5880.html

Ok so now that we established your math is fuzzy at best. Lets analize what the numbers actually means.

Note that it is for new and used vehicles, does your calculation factor this in (do you actually have numbers for the used vehicles?? or just another assumption?) You also note that a substantial portion is allocated to parts, tires subassemblies, etc actually 28% are related outside of passenger cars (new and used). You do realize that the big 3 uses Japanese parts in their vehicles ranging from tires to radios and even transmissions, etc. Example
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aisin_AF33_transmission

So by now we all realize that your simplistic calculation and conclusion of Toyota's contribution to trade deficit is completely flawed. You simply do not have the data to prove your case, and there are huge gaps and errors in the data that you have shown.

Simply put looks more like a political campaign than a real study. Sensation based on flawed data and understandign of the data topped off with poor calculations to try and prove a point.


Lastly I have no idea why the mods tolerate you on this forum as you provide very little accurate information and only troll this forum trying to create arguments with legitimate users of this forum. I have yet to see you provide any valueble and accurate information that is relevant to the Prius community. You spend most of your time trying to make Toyota look bad, for obvious reasons as I belive you get compensated indirectly by GM. In short you are a troll paid for by GM to try and discredit Toyota on a Prius forum that adds no value apart from creating disruption.

 

SO looking at the trade deficit why aren't you focussed on China instead of a single Japanese manufacturer? Oh wait you use Chinese products and seel competitive products to the Japanese manufacturer. Hardly bias observations now is it???