Posted on 11/09/2009 5:05:46 PM PST by bruinbirdman
For Akio Toyoda, a man with a passion for sports cars, disbanding Toyota Motor's F1 team was a painful choice, but like a playboy billionaire who has hit hard times, his money-losing company had to empty its garage of the expensive toys. Toyota burns through $500 million a year to compete at the pinnacle of motor sports, and beyond a creaking trophy shelf, it has gained little from its involvement.
It's not, however, going to be enough to stem Toyota's ( TM - news - people ) bleeding. The world's leading automaker is still living beyond its means, and Toyoda will have to do more than give up a few sleek racing machines to rescue the company. On Thursday he announced the latest results, which at first glance gave reason for cheer. A loss that was expected to balloon to $5 billion for the year after a $4.5 billion deficit a year earlier, will, Toyoda promised, be a more manageable $2.2 billion loss. But much of that improvement is thanks to the American Cash for Clunkers subsidy and tax breaks at home meant to engineer a shift to low-emissions vehicles.
Awash in more than $50 billion in cash piled up during its relentless conquest of the U.S. and other overseas markets, Toyoda may feel he has time to spare, a buffer that will let him hang on until the economic storm passes. If he does, he's wrong. It's a stark choice, but he has to shutter a big chunk of production at home. With production capacity of 10 million cars, Toyota will sell less than 7 million vehicles this year. Four million units worth of capacity is in Japan, and most of that in a former textile town in central Japan that renamed itself Toyota in gratitude for the prosperity
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Not a time to disconnect from Japan. Time to get ready to do a lot of business with Japan, just as Japan has supported the USA during hard times.
Kelly seems to be a bit sour grapes, kick Japan when she is down? Pretty wild for a guy who lives in Tokyo.
Seems a bit PO’d that Japanese auto companies have to make cuts in order to survive. a socialistic resentment of Toyoda’s dedication to corpporate largesse during the good times? Kelly seems to be just another lefty prig , barely disguised as a journalist, decryng the greedy capitalists
who actually gave Japan the highest living standard in the world.
As the dollar continues its fall against the yen, the US will be the low cost producer of Toyota cars. (as long as the UAW, and Obamacare stay out)
yitbos
Maybe he drank the Obama kool aid. He is starting to sound like it.Toyota in NASCAR? Whew! ( I chucked my TV years ago. One thing I do miss is NASCAR). They are obviously still good to go here. Obama can’t touch them (yet), they do not have a union to screw them over.
There is a higher calling.
yitbos
Maybe he descended from Ned Kelly
I didn't get the impression that the title referred to the US-Japan relationship, but rather whether or not Toyota should decouple from Japan. And it is a legitimate question.
NASCAR is more important to a peoples-car manufacturer like Toyota. F-1 is more important to sports-car manufacturers like Ferrari or Jaguar or McLaren.
I do believe that some forms of improvements in engines, in suspension and in gearing, but don’t have links right now to cite. Also, if handled correctly, the organizers of motorsports can direct cars to, say provide more power for lesser fuel, to be safer (crash zones etc), to have easier handling etc.
I do believe that some forms of improvements in engines, in suspension and in gearing, but don’t have links right now to cite. Also, if handled correctly, the organizers of motorsports can direct cars to, say provide more power for lesser fuel, to be safer (crash zones etc), to have easier handling etc.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.