Posted on 04/04/2006 10:22:32 AM PDT by iPod Shuffle
Toyota says it set March sales mark as others fell off
From Tribune news services Published April 4, 2006
Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday that it enjoyed record U.S. sales in March, surpassing expectations in an otherwise difficult month for the industry, while General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. saw their sales drop again despite a handful of hot-selling vehicles.
Overall, industry sales slipped 2.9 percent as automakers had trouble matching sales from March 2005, which got an artificial boost when the Big Three U.S. automakers unleashed a flurry of incentives to cut back on inventory.
The seasonally adjusted sales rate for March, which shows what total sales would be if they remained at the same rate for the entire year, was 16.6 million vehicles, according to Autodata Corp. Automakers sold 17 million vehicles in all of 2005.
Toyota said sales rose 6.9 percent, led by a 15 percent increase in truck and sport-utility vehicle sales. While sales of full-size SUVs sank--the Toyota Land Cruiser, for example, slid 31 percent from a year ago--sales of the midsize 4Runner rose 15 percent and sales of the redesigned RAV4 crossover surged 117 percent.
GM's sales tumbled 14.4 percent. Car sales dropped 21.5 percent as GM eased off on sales to rental fleets, while truck and SUV sales slid more than 9 percent despite brisk sales of the redesigned Chevrolet Tahoe, which saw a 20 percent increase.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Buy American. Buy a Camry.
Maybe Ford should just make Mustangs?
The Toyota Tundra RD, aka TuRD, is sellin well.........
Six weeks ago bought a 2006 Highlander for me and a 2006 Matrix for my youngest daughter from Toyota -- we LOVE our new Toyotas. My son is next up for a Toyota. Sales, service, and the vehicles are what sold our family on Toyota -- BTW the Highlander is a much quieter ride then any other SUV I drove -- won that title hands down.
We left Ford -- my Taurus had brake and electrical problems which they could never seem to fix not to mention my daughter's car -- not sorry to leave Ford and left Buick/Chevy for Ford about eight years ago.
I read an interview with a Toyota exec in which he talked about how Toyota is trying to help American car makers, because it fears the backlash and economic downturn if they go out of business. Reminds me of Microsoft investing in Apple.
The Chevy behind it has been through two motors, busted pulley on the power steering, and the column shift indicator doesn't work, and it's not much older than my Toyota.
If I had the $$$ I'd buy a newer one, I've been through a a 70's Corolla with 347,000KM on it and a 80's Tercel I did a transmission swap in (someone tried to teach there kid stick in it...damage was not Toyota's fault).
We also run Celica, Corolla and pu's in demolition derby...
I have owned both domestic and foreign cars. Suffice it to say that I'm not likely to ever buy a new car made by an American-based manufacturer again. The quality and endurance just isn't there. Dealers like to talk about warranties; they need to realize that the best warranty in the world is the one I never have to use.
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