Posted on 05/06/2005 11:14:05 AM PDT by snowsislander
Toyota President Fujio Cho may offer troubled General Motors Corp. help with safety and environmental technology at a meeting with Chairman Rick Wagoner this month, a Japanese newspaper said on Thursday.
The report comes a week after Toyota's chairman raised the possibility of raising prices to help struggling U.S. manufacturers, which are losing market share.
Wagoner is expected to fly to Japan on May 14 for the meeting, which is also likely to be attended by GM's research and development chief, Larry Burns, the paper said.
Toyota's honorary chairman, Shoichiro Toyoda, planned talks with Wagoner in the United States on May 24, the paper said.
GM posted a $1.1 billion quarterly loss last month, its worst result since it skirted bankruptcy in 1992.
Shares in GM, which had been at their lowest levels in more than a decade, soared on Thursday on news that elderly billionaire Kirk Kerkorian had offered to more than double his stake to 8.8 percent. The financier is known for shaking up companies he invests in.
Toyota Chairman Hiroshi Okuda said last month that voluntary price rises were one way of easing the U.S. motor industry's difficulties.
A Toyota spokesman later denied the company was considering such price rises.
My suggestion is that they read the Sherman Anti-Trust Act first.
Is Toyota suggesting they play the same game that the oil companies do??? (chuckle).
It could be that there are more serious talks afoot than what was reported; the President of GM flying to visit Toyota, particularly with the events of the last few days, strikes me as it might be a harbinger for more than a discussion of environmental and safety technologies for GM's products.
There's no good way out of this situation. GM has hamstrung itself with contracted benefits to employees who may have retired long ago. Whatever they bargained for long ago - were terms GM was foolish enough to agree to. Either the unions and retirees agree to give something back, or GM uses bankruptcy to off-load the pension programs to the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation - which needs that like a hole in the head - and to vitiate the health benefits programs for past and present employees. The shocking thing is that even drastic maneuvers like that may not save GM.
In this man's army - the key criterion to the future of GM is the path that generates the least costs to the taxpayer.
In 1994 I bought a GEO prism based on a consumers report recommendation. It was designed by Toyoda (Corolla) and put together and sold by GEO(GM.) It turned out to be my best car yet. In 2004 I could not find a 2004 Prizm so I bought a Toyoda Corolla. The moral of the story is to teach GM how to make cars that work, not to give them Welfare. Also, GM needs to get bankruptcy protection from the CEOs and union employees and retirees. Who would buy their stock now?? Not the union members.
Note :
"GM, Ford downgraded to junk-bond level by S&P"
http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-bonds0506,1,7528432.story?coll=bal-home-headlines
The Pontiac Vibe (a.k.a. Toyota Matrix) is the only late-model GM product I'd consider owning.
I hope that a way is found to bring GM back from the precipice, but I hope that it isn't by a Chrysler-style bailout of GM.
Yep, the Feds bailed out Chrysler, only to see it bailed out AGAIN by Daimler Benz.
Wagoner has been in Washington twice in the last month too. A lot of travel for a CEO who is up to his ass in alligators. Perhaps he did not get what he wanted from Washington so he is going to get it in Tokyo. There certainly is no reason for Toyota to do anything benevolent to help GM.
Yup. That's what I see. I see Toyota merging somehow with GM. Somehow in that process GM will completely overhaul its current ties to Unions, pensions, health care, etc. It's coming. You watch.
Are the GM execs still paying themselves 5+ times more than their Japanese and European conterparts?
I don't know much about European corporate practices, but I would assume that the disparity is at least a factor of 5 between GM's practices and Toyota's. Typically, a Japanese shacho doesn't have all that large of a salary compared to what our captains of industry receive.
It would not even surprise me to find out that there are American employees of Toyota who have a larger salary than the president of Toyota.
Until the US automakers tell the UAW union to go fcuk themselves, we will be stuck with over-priced, under-designed cars and trucks. At least Ford has some cars worth owning for the price. GM vehicles are pure junk!
industry thread ping.
Looking at the 2004 numbers, it should not be an insurmountable number. GM 27.3%, Toyota 12.2%, or a total of just under 40% of the US market. They could try to spin off a couple of lines to lower the percentage if they had to - to put a little dressing on the deal. Given the historical Republican support for big business, the deal should pass antitrust muster.
It would be unlikely to be a straight up merger, as Toyota would not want to assume the pension and health care liabilities.
I wonder if Toyota would want to own a piece of the UAW. I doubt it, and the UAW is not going to just let them have GM.
GM and Ford were both foolish not to buy the Japanese out during the Japanese depression. Of course, I'm not sure that the Japanese would have let them do that anyway.
Yes, but they could buy the nameplates without buying the factories. I recall several weeks ago that GM was planning to start putting the GM logo on all of its cars. That could be related to this. Toyota might be interested in say picking up, for instance, the Chevy, Cadillac, Hummer and Saab brands with rights to the Corvette, etc. GM would then still make most of its product lines under the GM brand in the existing factories, but with a large cash infusion. Under that scenario, Toyota might or might not get the related dealer networks.
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