GM passes Toyota in 9-month globals sales

You have a comparison of two different companies:

GM is a company only running on 6 of 8 cylinders trying to get the other two moving again.

Toyota is a 6 cylinder running wide open throttle at 110%.

If and when GM can fire off the remaining sales then they will leave Toyota in the dust for the foreseeable future. Toyota simply is at max capacity for a while while GM has a lot of excess capacity to fall back on.

— Agent009 (View Profile)

Posted on 10/22/2007 1:03:02 PM | | Votes: 4   

Excess capacity or dead weight? Either way, use it or lose it.

— r_driver04 (View Profile)

Posted on 10/22/2007 2:37:54 PM | | Votes: 0   

And that's news how? Having worked for a GM dealership, I can tell you they'e always ready to deal because nobody's lining up outside their showroom doors. Everybody's down the street at Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Hyundai.

— r_driver04 (View Profile)

Posted on 10/22/2007 2:40:05 PM | | Votes: -1   

Would you buy a Supra now? They stopped building it just like Mazda killed the RX-7 and Nissan ditched the best Z car ever, because the market dried up and blew away.

The 350 is a partial return, but the RX-7 and Supra have to return. Let's not forget the Mitsu. 3000 GT.

— r_driver04 (View Profile)

Posted on 10/22/2007 2:42:44 PM | | Votes: 4   

I would buy a supra now...becuase I'm actually old enough to afford one ;-)

Nissan was smart when it created the 350Z because no other similar class of car was being produced in the US market at that time and it started pricing it at 26,000.00 just about the time that Gen X had become financially sound. The Last gen Supra and the RX-7 were pheonomenal cars...just a bit to early for the customers they were aiming at. Remember only those people with jobs in IT were commanding the huge salaries required to ship out 35,000.00. And most of them were not car guys. So when they went and bought expensive sports cars (35,000.00 was quite a bit back then) they went to BMW and MB.

And who could ever forget about the old diamond star and its american counterpart. AWD with a TwinTurbo. And the only one to come with a convertable (though it was heavy) I remember when Bee Racing put that car on the map.

— Spectator (View Profile)

Posted on 10/22/2007 3:16:51 PM | | Votes: 2   

If you're going to put the Avalon and Solara under the Camry derivative list, you may as well shuffle the Matrix with the Corolla as well. The Matrix is a Corolla wagon with different sheetmetal.

— S4cabriofoxone (View Profile)

Posted on 10/22/2007 5:09:53 PM | | Votes: 2   

JUGNU

There is a direct correlation between sales and desire...which is the connection I was making. Most people don't buy cars on the concept that this is the slowest most generic vehicle I could possibly buy. That dosen't drive people to show rooms. It's that car companies appeal with its vehicle line up that drive sales. Wether it be in huge rebates, phenominal warrenties or in the aspect every car commercial touches upon now (hell even minivans are getting in on this now...have you seen the recent commecial with the minivan carving through the mountain turns)...sportiness.

That's what helped raise Toyota to the top. It's sportiness. It had a supra, it had a celica, it had an MR2. But Toyota is not alone in this. Honda is falling into this problem as well...There is no NSX, nor Integra, nor any Type R in the US.

There is nothing to catch a buyers attention. No big name show stoper that says "people are going to snap there necks when this drives by".

The same thing killed oldsmobile and almost killed Buick which back in the day used to be known for fast rides. You don't produce anything to that gets peoples blood boiling, your market will drift away from you.

Nissan did it with the VQ powered cars. Mazda through the Mazdaspeeds. Cadillac is doing it with the CTS, Chevy with the Vette, BMW AUDI and MB have always done it, the Italians live through it and even Hyundai got a little bit of it when it redesigned it Tiburon.

So your right, I'm not quoting current sales figures of a specific model. I'm talking to future sales figures and what needs to change drastically in Toyo land to fix the fall off the top of the mountain.

— Spectator (View Profile)

Posted on 10/22/2007 3:56:21 PM | | Votes: 2   

I completely agree, Spectator. People aren't going to buy a Camry because it's a Camry... there needs to be something else, something special, to draw them into the showroom. Even Honda makes sportier cars than Toyota... Honda uses great engineering. You can't forget the S2000 or the Civic Si.

And JUGNU, stellar sales don't last forever if you have an uninteresting model line. The change will come... but if they want to prevent that from happening, Toyota has to change internally. Change their philosophy. Cars can be fun AND easy to live with! Look at Nissan, Mazda, VW!

— S4cabriofoxone (View Profile)

Posted on 10/22/2007 5:14:36 PM | | Votes: 1