Toyota sales off more than GM or Ford

[toy]

Toyota trucks are actually made in IN and Texas. In Kentucky we make the Camry, Avalon, Solara, and now the Venza. Our vehicles are made in the US with primarly US made parts. Toyota believes in making vehicles where they are sold in order to sell more vehicles (by providing good paying jobs!) Makes since eh?! Wal-Mart and the big three need to figure this out! Thank you for buying a Toyota!

Does Toyota have a retirement plan for its employees, is it fully paid by the company, or is it a shared plan [they will match your contributions up to say 10% of your pay for instance] or what? Also how does their health insurance work? Some was saying that the union auto worker was making $70 an hour and after that was rebutted, and was confirmed that in actuality that they made no wheres near that and about three weeks later the same crowd that was hollering about the $70 an hour I heard one say that the union worker was making $80 an hour. You know in this economic climate the union worker didn't get a $10 an hour raise, they want to stir up strife between the workers that way they can get support to not make the loan to the big three. I looked at some of the big three vehicles lately and they had a large content of USA and Canada parts. Unless it has changed lately we have always had a good trading partnership with Canada, but some of these recently made free trade deals that have been made is far from being fair. If I trade with someone and it is apparent I get took to the cleaners with every trade, I got enough sense to not trade with them any more, too bad those that make those free trade deals don't have enough sense to do the same, would see our country collapse before they would admit they made a mistake.

 

[Tollster]

Allot of brand loyalty here, but quite frankly, I prefer to by what I believe is best, and that can change from year to year. I base what I believe to be best, by real world feedback from end users like us.
Warranty work, dependability, safety, common maintence costs, and so on.
With that said, I also take a strong look at the marketing and pricing of vehicles.
I have always been amazed at how the big three can price the trucks right along with the imports. Particularly when they have the highest paid workers, better retirement packages, better healthcare, and better perks for managers and CEO's.
So when you start to take a long look at this, one tends to wonder how they can be competitively priced. You soon realize it comes down to quality.
Now if you choose to buy American, you only support this behavior and give them no interest in making a better product.
I often wonder if the big three also prevent America from purging its foreign oil dependency due to the government bureaucracy, and after I see how easy it was to get American tax dollars I am now more sure than ever. They will be back with their hand out, this is just the tip.
No, and **** no, I don稚 think I would ever buy another American made truck! Besides, do you really think more than 50% of the parts that go into those vehicles are made here? Try mexican plastics, south american rubber, spanish computers, german braking systems and japanize lighting, almost everything is made everywhere else but here.
IMO the worst thing we could have done was bail them out, for if they did chapter 11, they surely would have saved themselves and came back much stronger and better. Now its gonna be up to you, and your children to support this good old boy club.

 

[QRTRHRS]

I agree with Tollster up to a point. And that point is what about the fallout during a reorganization?

I worked for AT&T Microelectronics>Lucent Technologies>Agere Systems which is now part of LSI after the government broke up Ma Bell. Ma Bell and Bell Labs had some great thinking people working there coming up with some fantastic ideas. Many with no practical use at the time. All well and good when money is no object. Plenty of those great minds stayed on after the breakup and continued to saddle the company with costly ideas that paid little return. Take that along with non contributing personnel from all levels and suddenly, the money runs out. Most of that plants property is now a ballfield.

If anyone ever read up on the story of big steel (Bethlehem) it is more or less the same scenario. Bloated numbers of overpaid non productive personnel. Cockimany wasteful ideas monetarily. Giving away the farm back in the sixties to placate the union.

Now along comes competition. Business as usual, full speed ahead, bloated dinosaur vehicles. No regard for what is happening. Then cry out for help? For crying out loud!

 

[Diamondpilot]

When Ford introduced the 6.0 Diesels their name became mud in the diesel world. Terrible problems the first year. I assume they are doing better now. I hope so for the customers sake.

The biggest problems with the 6.0 Ford was oil related. First off it has hydraulic injectors, smart idea because if it looses oil pressure the engine will not run. Anyway, the biggest problem was Rotella at the time foamed and gave the injectors false inputs. Dello and Delvac oils were fine along with the Motorcraft oil. I never had any problems because I always use Dello and have for years. Also on some early production motors there was nicks in the O-rings that separated the injector form the oil allowing oil into the fuel stream. There was also some problems with the placement of the EGR Valve on early motors that has been cured.

All in all I have 2 6.0's with zero engine problems or tranny problems, only a bad fuel gauge cluster in my F-350 with 75,000 miles accumulative for the two trucks.

Chris

 

[Diamondpilot]

I am not familiar with the Ventures/Montana is that a van ? and is it a front wheel drive? and what size engine does it have?

My neighbor had a Montana van with a V6 and had the same head gasket problem. It happened at around 75,000 miles, out of warranty and very expensive. They had it fixed and bought a Honda Van which they keep for 4 years with no issues. They now have a Lincoln Navigator.

Chris

 

[Builder]

Every oil change was done at the dealers. They were the ones who discovered both leaking gaskets and replaced the first. After their discovery of the second gasket and their unwillingness to do anything I took it elsewhere and was never back. The dealership kept calling about winter tuneups and other maintainance and I told them I had a problem I was waiting to have fixed before anything else was done. After several of these calls I told them if they weren't going to give help on the head gasket remove me from their phone list and stop bothering me. The calls stopped.

What was the time span between the 1st set of head gaskets puking and the 2nd set puking?

 

[Builder]

Allot of brand loyalty here, but quite frankly, I prefer to by what I believe is best, and that can change from year to year. I base what I believe to be best, by real world feedback from end users like us.
Warranty work, dependability, safety, common maintence costs, and so on.
With that said, I also take a strong look at the marketing and pricing of vehicles.
I have always been amazed at how the big three can price the trucks right along with the imports. Particularly when they have the highest paid workers, better retirement packages, better healthcare, and better perks for managers and CEO's.
So when you start to take a long look at this, one tends to wonder how they can be competitively priced. You soon realize it comes down to quality.

Maybe not. Maybe the board of directors of the Big 3 are willing to sell cars at a lower profit margin than foreign makes.

Now if you choose to buy American, you only support this behavior and give them no interest in making a better product.
I often wonder if the big three also prevent America from purging its foreign oil dependency due to the government bureaucracy, and after I see how easy it was to get American tax dollars I am now more sure than ever. They will be back with their hand out, this is just the tip.
No, and **** no, I don稚 think I would ever buy another American made truck! Besides, do you really think more than 50% of the parts that go into those vehicles are made here? Try mexican plastics, south american rubber, spanish computers, german braking systems and japanize lighting, almost everything is made everywhere else but here.
IMO the worst thing we could have done was bail them out, for if they did chapter 11, they surely would have saved themselves and came back much stronger and better. Now its gonna be up to you, and your children to support this good old boy club.

You had me agreeing until the bold part near the end. All you have to do is look at the sticker or research the vehicle. It will tell you the content. My GMC vehicle is 82% domestic. That is greater than 50%.

I do reluctantly agree that bankruptcy may be the best answer. It would allow a stronger leadership to emerge and allow them to purge all the fat & excesses. However, I think you really need to look at the viewpoint that it would take years for their customer base to willingly go back and buy from a recently bankrupt company. I would go back because i know better, but many won't.

 

[PapaPerk]

Does Toyota have a retirement plan for its employees, is it fully paid by the company, or is it a shared plan [they will match your contributions up to say 10% of your pay for instance] or what? Also how does their health insurance work? Some was saying that the union auto worker was making $70 an hour and after that was rebutted, and was confirmed that in actuality that they made no wheres near that and about three weeks later the same crowd that was hollering about the $70 an hour I heard one say that the union worker was making $80 an hour. You know in this economic climate the union worker didn't get a $10 an hour raise, they want to stir up strife between the workers that way they can get support to not make the loan to the big three. I looked at some of the big three vehicles lately and they had a large content of USA and Canada parts. Unless it has changed lately we have always had a good trading partnership with Canada, but some of these recently made free trade deals that have been made is far from being fair. If I trade with someone and it is apparent I get took to the cleaners with every trade, I got enough sense to not trade with them any more, too bad those that make those free trade deals don't have enough sense to do the same, would see our country collapse before they would admit they made a mistake.

Toyota's benefits are excellent... some of the best in the business. The idea is to have excellent benefits without being lavish. That way when the economy goes south there's some money in the bank to pay the workers and not lay them off. It's a great idea... and being put to the test. We'll see how it goes.

 

[Scooby074]

I had a 1996? Cavalier 2.2L that went thru a haeadgasket at around 100000Kms as well. I think those engines were well known to go through head gaskets. After that head gasket repair, the car went on to over 320000KM without any other major repairs. I just sent it to the crusher this summer. The engine still ran, but the body was rotten. It was pretty good car

 

[Hoosier Hay Man]

What isn't getting national attention is that GM has bankrupted several suppliers it wasn't willing to give break to when raw materials were going thru the roof and sued several others over contracts signed when prices were lower. GM buyers beat down their suppliers to the point of putting many out of business before this crisis. It hasn't been just a few either.
Then they go begging to Washington for money after they have milked every possible red cent out of their supply chain.
Ask any supplier of automotive who they would rather supply and the transplants are at the top of the list. There are many quality suppliers in this country who will no quote GM. It is no secret in the trade.

Maybe we should now call GM Goverment Motors.

Sorry for the rant, but sadly GM could be a very mean company to deal with. I can only hope they can get their act together and become a respectable company who will put people first.