cc assignment

7/31/2019 CC Assignment

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In addition to all these cars, Toyota started producing a civilian truck named theLand Cruiser. Styled like Jeeps, the original Land Cruiser. They used a bigger enginethan the Jeep a size and configuration more like the Dodge weapons carrier, whosecapacity it shares.

In 1955, Toyota produced its first luxury car, the Crown, powered by a four cylinder,1.5-liter engine with a three-speed column shift, followed by the 1-liter Corona.

The start of Toyota's international sales

Toyota set up a headquarters in Hollywood in 1957; the first Toyota car registered inthe United States was a 1958 Toyopet, sold in 1958; the California license plate wasinstalled by Toyota Motor Sales (USA) president Shotaro Kamiya himself, in front ofthe California DMV.

In 1959, the company opened its first plant outside Japan. Toyota maintained aphilosophy of localizing both production and design of its products. This builds long-term relationships with local suppliers and local labor. By 1967, Toyota had become

well established in the United States, albeit as a niche player. TheCoronafour-doorsedan was seen as competing mainly against the Volkswagen Beetle. The Corona wasknown from its early days for quality as well as a low price.

The first Americanized Toyota the Tiara, otherwise known as the

ToyotaCoronaPT20 came out in 1964. The six-passenger car had a 90 gross-

horsepower engine (probably about 60-70 bhp net); it could reach 90 miles per hour,

and was comfortable inside. One year later, the Corona was added at under $2,000;

it offered an automatic and factory air as options, very unusual in imported small

cars at the time (as was the engine's horsepower rating). Sales hit 6,400 in 1965, and

reached 71,000 by 1968, nearly doubling each year until by 1971 Toyota was selling

over 300,000 vehicles per year, a far cry from 1964's 2,000. Toyota itself was very

small in the late 1950s by world standards, and in 1963 was the 93rd largest non-

American corporation in the world but in 1966 was already 47th (in that time it

went from being the 9th largest Japanese corporation to the 6th largest, and for that

matter the tenth largest auto manufacturer in the world it would steadily move up

to the #3 position and will soon challenge Ford for #2). In 1967, the Corona sold for a

reasonable $1,760 - a little below the smallest Big Three sedans with a goodbalance of performance,gasmileage, and comfort.

Toyota introduced another new car to the US in 1967: theCrown, available as awagon or a sedan. The Crown was never a big seller but it certainly did better thanmany foreign cars in the segment; the sedan sold for $2,635, the wagon for $2,785.
http://www.toyoland.com/cars/corona.htmlhttp://www.toyoland.com/cars/corona.htmlhttp://www.toyoland.com/cars/corona.htmlhttp://www.toyoland.com/cars/corona.htmlhttp://www.toyoland.com/cars/corona.htmlhttp://www.toyoland.com/cars/corona.htmlhttp://www.toyoland.com/history.htmlhttp://www.toyoland.com/history.htmlhttp://www.toyoland.com/history.htmlhttp://www.toyoland.com/cars/crown.htmlhttp://www.toyoland.com/cars/crown.htmlhttp://www.toyoland.com/cars/crown.htmlhttp://www.toyoland.com/cars/crown.htmlhttp://www.toyoland.com/history.htmlhttp://www.toyoland.com/cars/corona.htmlhttp://www.toyoland.com/cars/corona.html


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Toyota affected constituencies and its current reputation

By Paul A. Eisenstein

It can take ages to build a reputation. Now Toyota has to wonder and worry how quickly

an image can be shattered.

This should have been a great year for the Japanese maker, which knocked down king-

of-the-hill General Motors in late 2008 to become the worlds best-selling automaker.

But Toyota hasnt had much time to celebrate. The carmaker has been plagued by a

variety of setbacks, including slumping sales, under-utilized assembly lines and

multibillion-dollar losses.

But perhaps most worrisome of all are signs that the companys vaunted quality has been

slipping. Long hailed as the industry benchmark, some key Toyota products have

suffered quality snags in recent years. That includes the new Tundra pickup, which

Toyota had hoped would finally give it a foothold in the full-size truck market, the last

segment controlled by the Big Three.

On Wednesday, The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it has launched

a probe into Toyota's 2000 and 2001 model year Tundra pickups after authorities

received complaints alleging that "severe frame corrosion" caused brake system failures

or spare tire separation.

While the company insists it is getting its quality control sorted out, last weeks recall of

3.8 million Toyota and Lexus-badged vehicles certainly doesnt help on the image front.

The recall is meant to replace floor mats that can unexpectedly snag the accelerator

pedal, making it difficult to slow a vehicle down. It was ordered after a California state

trooper and three family members were killed in a related accident involving a Lexus.

Company President Akio Toyoda, the scion of the founding family who took over this

year in a management shake-up,offered his condolencesto the victims' family last

week and warned that the company was in a "near rock-bottom crisis."

The automaker could be in for an even worse time if it cant find a way to shut down

attorney Dimitrios Biller. Hes the former national managing counsel who oversaw the

company's National Rollover Program from 2003 to 2007. Now he's a whistle-blower

claiming the Japanese giant has been hiding potentially damning evidence that should
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have been provided to owners whove sued the company over allegedly defective

products.

AP fileToyota's recent recalls of the 2005 Toyota Prius, top, and 2007 Toyota Camry, bottom, have hurt its vaunted reputation

for quality.

Toyota has tried to place a gag order on Biller and to paint him as a disgruntled former

employee with a history of suing his employers. But last week, a federal judge in Texasissued a temporary restraining order to keep the carmaker from destroying any evidence

regarding the crashworthiness of its vehicles.

Some observers suggest Biller could become the Ralph Nader of Toyota, a reference to

the longtime consumer advocate who shattered GMs reputation back in the 1960s when

he revealed safety problems with the small Chevrolet Corvair.

He very well could be, and depending on how the media handles this, this could incite

something very negative in terms of public perception, says George Peterson, chief auto

analyst with AutoPacific Inc., a California-based consultancy. Their image will hinge on

how they handle things. If they try to hide things, this could hurt them.

Even if the storm over the recalls and rollover lawsuits blows over, theres no question

that Toyota is in for a rougher time than its had in years.

While AutoPacific data shows that the Toyota brand has one of the highest consideration

levels the percentage of motorists who would consider purchasing its products its

U.S. sales are off by nearly a third since the recession began at the end of 2007. In turn,

that has forced the automaker to ramp up incentives, something it normally avoids

whenever possible. According to the research service Autodata, Toyota's various North

American brands have been spending almost $2,000 a vehicle on rebates such as zero-

interest loans and other incentives, nearly as much as Ford.

I think everyone expected Toyota to walk on water during this recession, says Peterson,

but this recession has spotlighted that they have weaknesses, after all.


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The decline of the U.S. market has been particularly troublesome and was the primary

source of Toyota Motor Co.s worldwide loss of $4.4 billion for the fiscal year that ended

on March 31. Another big loss is expected for the current year.

Toyoda who has a penchant for motor sports is well aware of the fine line between

winning and losing, but the executive has repeatedly cautioned, in recent months, that a

turnaround will take some more time. (The company started out in the textile business,

but changed the spelling of the company name when it began building cars.)

One reason for Toyoda's caution is the breadth of the trouble facing the company. While

quality may be the word consumers are most likely to associate with the brand,

productivity is the term you would most likely hear from competitors, many of whom

have worked to copy the company's vaunted manufacturing systems.

Yet the most recent Harbour Report, an annual measure of factory floor productivity,

found that Chrysler had tied the Japanese maker and GM was coming up close behind.

After emerging from bankruptcy proceedings heavily influenced by the federal

government, those two makers have shed their least efficient operations and, along with

Ford, have won major union concessions that could let them leapfrog their Asian rival

when it comes to productivity.

The troubles with the Tundra only underscore Toyotas perilous situation. The

automaker spent $1.5 billion to build an all-new plant in San Antonio, Texas, to produce

the truck, twice the original budget. But its running at a fraction of planned capacity.

Indeed, slumping sales forced Toyota to put on hold what was to be the newest of its

expanding production network in North America, a partially completed facility in

Tupelo, Miss.

All is not doom and gloom, of course. After an unexpected slump in demand when fuel

prices fell sharply early this year, a new, third-generation version of the Prius hybrid has

been gaining market share rapidly. So has the new Venza, an entry-level crossover

vehicle.

But for much of the past decade, Toyota has been used to setting goals and then

exceeding them. Now, Toyoda and his management team are forced to rethink even the

most basic corporate fundamentals.

Every company faces these sorts of problems, says Peterson, but Toyotas have hit all

at once.


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Getting to the top might seem to have been relatively easy. The challenge is going to be

staying there.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Toyota still has the best reputation in the automobile business

Whether Toyota has been a downfall over the past years but it still has got best

reputation in the market recently. Some sanity is finally creeping to into the media

free-for-all surrounding the Toyota accelerator and brake recalls. Curiously, the

piling-on seems to be continuing in the business pundit world,

withoneafteranotherdeclaring the death of the Toyota brand. Thosewith a better

understanding of how consumers buy cars seem to be less apocalyptic.Edmunds.com, for example,analyzedNational Traffic Safety Administration data

over the last ten years and found that Toyota had had 9.1% of all the complaints in

the database, but 13.5% of the U.S. market. That was good for 17 out of 20 (here a

lower rank is better), bettered only by Mercedes, Porsche and Smart. Compare

Toyota to the worst brand on the list Land Rover which received 0.6% of the total

complaints in the database, while its sales amounted to only 0.1% of all new cars

sold in the United States. Of course, anyone who drives by a Land Rover

dealership on a Saturday morning already knows that.

As we pointed out in a recent post entitledFive Reasons why Toyota will be OK,people buy cars via comparison shopping. Our most recent ranking of automobile

companies (shown at the top of this post) still has Toyota on top. Toyotas overall

reputation including customer and employee satisfaction, community involvement,

the environment and social responsibility has dropped a bit recently, but has

consistently tracked ahead of competitors like Honda.

Thats not to say the recalls involving floor mats, accelerator systems and hybrid

brakes coupled with and a slow and clumsy initial public response by Toyota senior

managementhavent taken a toll. In the graph below, its clear that Toyotas

reputation for customer satisfaction as reflected in online stories and commentary has dropped significantly in recent weeks. But notice that Honda has also seen a

drop most likely associated with their own recalls. Ford is seen as having

recovered somewhat in recent months after a bout of mis-association with the other

American automakers involved in government bailouts. And their reputation for

customer satisfaction did NOT follow Toyota and Honda down in recent weeks.

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