Posted on 08/01/2006 5:10:40 PM PDT by SmoothTalker
DETROIT - Amid steep gas prices, Toyota Motor Corp. rode its reputation for fuel-efficient cars to a double-digit sales increase in July and outsold Ford in the U.S. for the first month ever. Honda Motor Co. also reported robust sales.
" At Ford, sales of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles fell 35.2 percent. Truck sales tumbled 44.8 percent, while cars slipped 6.7 percent. Sales of F-Series pickup trucks, long the country's best-selling vehicle and the company's most important vehicle, shot down 45.6 percent."
" Toyota's sales, meanwhile, soared 11.7 percent, with cars jumping 19.8 percent and trucks up 1.3 percent. The company outsold Ford by more than 17,000 vehicles."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
In July we traded in our 2 Fords for 2 Toyotas. Sick to death of the constant repair bills and the gas guzzling.
It's nice to know when we're on the road that we'll make it to our destination.
You must be a stickler in regards to the laws, unless you are a cop!
I live near a police station, and DPS regularly pulls over overloaded *pickups* on the nearby freeway.
This is what happens in a real state when too many stupid people overload their trucks, and then have accidents that kill people. The police start enforcing the weight load laws.
Of course, in Kalifornia, the illegals driving the massively overloaded pickups (with the 20' high towers of pallets or mattresses) are given a free pass, even after they kill people because their truck fails or their load shifts and falls on some poor bastard.
Many, if not most, consumer trucker buyers (not you of course) never haul anything heavier than a cooler of beer - stand on any major intersection, even in Texas, and count the trucks going thru; what percentage of them are loaded to the hilt for "truck work" or torquing to the max pulling trailers? VS. how many of them are just carrying one guy and an empty bed?
Toyota and Honda are viable competitive choices for people just looking for a "lifestyle" truck, and that's a good chunk of the truck buying consumers.
Nice post.
Gonna have to look at Delphi's next monthly report to see if there's any more charges against their Pension fund to know how concerned to get, I guess.
Precisely my point! Toyota and Honda are toy trucks for the people to go to the beach and have a tail gate party and/or haul lawn mowers, weed whackers, maybe surf boards.Oh, did I mention the great gas mileage savings?
I would also tend to support a truck made in America, rather than a truck made in Canada (GMC & Chevy) or Mexico (Ford).
Smart!!! I'm still driving my '86 Honda. Bought it brand-new (even though you're not supposed to...) and it's still going strong!
No, they weren't! Hondas and Toyotas cleaned up!!
But they had an air of unreliability then that they certainly don't have now. Now they are looked at as well built, and both companies have moved new factories to my area, so they are almost looked at as American made. I think Toyota has a really good chance of bumping GM out of the top spot, at least temporarily.
I hope.
LOLOL!!! My 20-yr-old Honda baby was made in Ohio!!
Ford really blew an opportunity for gaining market share by maintaining a disregard for effective innovation.
What America could really use right now is a typically overbuilt Ford truck with an alternative energy powerplant. I think the Japanese will get there first, not so much because they are suffering from high gas prices over there, but because they recognize the market opportinuty over here.
And getting into Nascar next year is only going to add to the recognition of Toyota as an *American* company.
I love my 2000 GMC Sierra and nothing on earth could replace it(unless it had vortecmax =D).
Really sad that GM pulled the plug on the mighty 8.1L big block for 2007. Sad day indeed...
I heard rumors of a supercharged 6.2l replacing it..WTF? All the useful torque nerfed for a hp gain.
Oh, Yeah you would like to do that, but than again the Toyota's are bolted together in whatever plant in Alabama/Tennessee/Carolinas? and after the bills are paid in the USofA all the profits are sent straight to Toyota's Headquarters in Tokyo, Japan>So much for new generation of domestic cars/trucks. At least the profits from the cars/trucks bolted in Canada or Mexico are flowing back to Detroit, not Tokyo, or Seoul!
For the record for Toyota to be a REAL American Company, it had to be born in America,(like the Dodge Brothers, Walther P. Chrysler, Henry Ford, Ransom Olds,Fred &August Dusenberg, David Dunbar Buick et all .)
Bolting cars and trucks in the United States while providing decent paying jobs is commendable nevertheless.
OTOH that does not make Toyota a domestic brand.
I will bet Toyota greased a lot of suits to get to compete in Nascar, and obviously Nascar obliged.
Just do me a favor...don't piss on my leg and try to tell me it is raining!
" Remember, the Pinto and the Vega were really hot tickets during the last one."
The Pinto was especially hot when the gas tanks exploded ! Hehehe !
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