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Old 05-10-2001, 12:12 PM
426DMB 426DMB is offline
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5/9/01 in Louisville Courier Journal, bylined The Detroit News.
Toyota has supplanted Dodge as the third most popular auto brand in America according to sales so far this year. If the trend holds for the year, Toyota will be the first foreign nameplate to rank among the top three in U.S. sales.
After record April sales, Toyota has sold more than 469,237 cars and trucks this year, 25,680 more than Dodge.
No. 1 Ford and No. 2 Chevrolet have sold 1,054,403 and 855,503 vehicles, respectively.
Toyota's milestone reflects a troubling trend for Detroit and it's three major automakers: Americans are now choosing Japanese, South Korean and German cars and trucks in record numbers.
As Toyota's U.S. sales and market share have increased, the company has shown it can apply it's strengths - superb quality, speedy engineering, robust manufacturing and canny marketing instincts- to the growing light truck business.
Whereas Dodge only has one SUV - the aging Durango -
(?!) Toyota has five. the hulking Sequoia, refined Highlander SUV and powerful Tundra pickup have garnered good reviews and and strong sales.
"Passing Dodge isn't an anomaly. This is two lines crossing on a graph and making an X" said a Michigan Toyota dealer sales manager.
A DaimlerChrysler spokesman said "We take this very seriously, and we want to hang onto No. 3."
Toyota numbers could get another boost this fall when a new version of Camry, America's best selling car is introduced.

I suppose perception and import nameplate mystique regardless of where they're built take the prize. Now of course Chrysler, oops DAIMLERchrysler is no longer an American owned company. The merger that became a takeover and now seems to be a castration doesn't appear to be delivering the hoped for benefits. I can't vouch for all the info at this site, but for some interesting
views see www.chryslertakeover.com.

The U.S.A. can do it! Let's hear it for MOPAR Heritage!
426DMB
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Old 05-11-2001, 01:11 AM
PRO PRO is offline
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So Chrysler is #4 now,makes perfect sense to me,you see you have a total of 2,772,800 cars sold and Chrysler has 413,657 which roughly represents 16% of the current market,which to me makes perfect sense seeing that 16 out of every 100 people I deal with in my repair/Hi-perf shop have any car sense at all.......PRO..
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Old 05-11-2001, 01:13 AM
PRO PRO is offline
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P.S. I almost forgot,Fords are good,Chevies are good,Toyotas are good......good to poop on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Old 05-11-2001, 03:24 PM
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68ChargerRT 68ChargerRT is offline
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Question Question...

So will Daimler use this as a future excuse to kill off Dodge? They blew Plymouth away because of lagging sales...
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Old 05-12-2001, 01:00 AM
426DMB 426DMB is offline
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PRO,
If 16% of the customers you deal with have any car sense you must have a relatively educated group. I'm a minor authority regarding the car business and I get to answer questions from friends all the time about what's hot and what's not. A good example of the perception lag out there is Mitsubishi. While most everyone can by heart recite the latest sins of the "Big Three" many people are shocked to hear about the recent revelation of coverups of quality problems at Mitsubishi which led to resignation in shame of the CEO. It seems Asian nameplates have a magic halo around them and many people perceive that American nameplate vehicles are half assed junk built in dark caves by Neanderthals with clubs. While I have to admit Toyota, Nissan and Honda seem to be good products for the most part, I'm not as impressed with the other Asian brands. None of them are my cup of tea and I think over priced and over rated sums up a lot of their offerings. By the way you left my favorite poop taget off your list. Honda has now been elevated to this place of dubious honor replacing that old favorite, Chevrolet. Incidentally, Toyota as a brand name only outpaced Dodge as a brand name. throw in Chrysler and Jeep sales and Chrysler as a whole still outsells Toyota. Still, it's sad to see a relative newcomer with foreign origins that got a strong foothold in the first gas crunch with underpowered, rust prone, flimsy offbeat styled econoboxes that happened to get good mileage and be cheap outsell an old American brand with a long, and rich history. They aren't cheap now and their quality wasn't always "legendary" as one of their TV commercials states.
68chargerR/T,
In 1999 the last full production year for Plymouth, nearly
300,000 units were sold. Not a huge seller, but not an
inconsequential amount. Costwise since everything with
Plymouth on it was also built as a Dodge or Chrysler the expense of building Plymouths wasn't that great. The same factories were used, no separate dealer network was required. Separate badging and trim pieces as well as all the advertising and administrative necessities did obviously have some cost. I think axing Plymouth was primarily a cost cutting move. Dodge probably won't get whacked, but I think the Daimler brigade will cut back some offerings. Already it looks like the new Charger and the Chrysler 300N will NOT be built. Not building exciting products that could provide much needed traffic in dealerships is more than enough to make me question the Daimler side's wisdom. Some have speculated the 300N may have been perceived as competition for some lower cost sporty product Daimler
may offer in the near future! Ain't Globalism wonderful?
"We'll sell everything we can to the Americans! We don't want anything of theirs except their defense technology. But we'll steal that!"
This could degenerate into a rant! Enough for now.
426DMB
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Old 05-12-2001, 05:55 PM
BIG RED MACHINE BIG RED MACHINE is offline
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Oh come on now,,Whats with this by sales crap,,See the way I see it is simple,all the printed in the papers crap is just that,,Ever ride in a Toyohta,like riding in a skateboard from long ago WITH the metal wheels not the new fancy ones of today((Any takers for a real trip sidewalk surfin'?)),,See it sums up like this...Toyota,Honda,Mitsibushi and all the other copycats are ALL BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE VERY SAME PEOPLE WHO BROUGHT YOU PEARL HARBOR!!!!,,While I realize the Pro-Jap crap people are going to load the gun belts here and claim<They are made in America>I'll SAY AGAIN,, WHO CARES!!!! Got my war bonnet on JUST LET ONE OF THOSE TOYOHTA'S TRY TO PASS ME AND THE BIG RED RIDE,,SOUNDS LIKE A TIME FOR REAL RAM HP TO BE EXHIBITED,,SMOKE SHOW INCOMING,JAP CRAP OWNERS ARE CRYING!!!!!
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Old 05-14-2001, 10:27 PM
Chargerchuck Chargerchuck is offline
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Big Red, I enjoyed your comments. Since my dad fought in the Pacific, I was raised to hold the Japanese in high esteem too But I haven't forgotten my good Deutsch buddies at DC either. I read somewhere that DC is sending someone over to Mitsubishi to help them out with their problems. As a bit of Axis payback I wonder if DC will do the same thing for Mitsu that they did for Plymouth. Let's hope so.
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Old 05-15-2001, 03:23 PM
426DMB 426DMB is offline
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WOW! Big Red and ChargerChuck, you guys are more strident than I am. While I'm not ready to fight WWll over again, I can certainly appreciate the viewpoint of those guys that battled the Japanese in that conflict. After all, they were ONLY trying to KILL them! I'd much rather have the Germans and Japanese making cars than war. What I can't understand is how people in this country can so easily turn their backs on their own homegrown auto industry that is doing a very good job now. Maybe they haven't always, but as a veteran of the auto repair trade I can tell you import brand is not a definition of perfection either. Import brand mystique started as a result of the preference of the wealthy for imports to set themselves apart. Rolls-Royce at one time manufactured cars in the U.S. in the Northeast The U.S. venture was short lived as those that could afford a Rolls wanted an "imported" one! Import owners saw themselves as quirky individualists apart from the crowd.
Beetlemania hit the country when Htler's people's car was imported into the U.S. in sufficient numbers to make an impact and now everybody could afford to tap into the mystique. I remember seeing some of these in the late 50s and early 60s when I was old enough to pay attention to such things. What struck me more than the car was the attitude of the people that owned them. They prided themselves on being different and talked about how reliable VWs were. (ain't much to go wrong with a 4 cylinder Briggs and Stratton) The cars themselves were obsolete when they were first imported. Underpowered, rust prone, offbeat style (if any at all) and a refigerator in winter. Lots of the other imports were also pretty substandard when they hit our shores. My dad told me "If you talked it up just right you could sell a turd to lots of people." Ad a gas crunch or two, then the import auto comanies recruited Americans to aid in styling and marketing, throw in some buyouts. mergers, cooperative projects and takeovers (DC) then more or less we have the "Global" auto market of today. Seems to me like a lot of "Globalism" revolves around a way to have more made elsewhere for lower wages or make it here in the U.S. for less than the prevailing industry wages all to sell to the #1 customer in the world , the U.S.A. While not an isolationist I think we need to watch out for ourselves more.
Just an Old Fart, 426DMB.
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