How Toyota Dethroned GM as the Number One Automaker in the United States

[BB BELLA]

when I stop for fuel in my 95 ck3500, I get women walking up to me saying "that's a beautiful truck"
what do you toyota guys get "love you long time"

 

[YY1]

I've had a lot of women tell me my Dakota is beautiful.

I guess chicks dig that amber fire color.

Not mine, but same color-

 

[Detective D]

People need to stop with brand loyalty when it comes to anything after about 2005.
The people in office in the 90's made sure we would become a global market and guess what, we did, and every car and truck made since has had parts shipped in from different countries to get assembled.
Once that happened every single vehicle became an accountant equation of sourcing the least expensive thing that still hit a particular performance point. There is no love and ingenuity in car design, not anymore, there is just "market research" and bean counters finding things for the smallest pile of beans, then setting a price based on a category or market sector, not actual cost. This is why at year end they can cut $20,000 off the top of luxury brands and trucks.
In my opinion, buying new is either a purely economic decision based on circumstances(like right after the last cash for clunkers) or a fools errand. To each their own of course.

I love cars, I owned lots of different things. My family had lots of things over the years. Every brand back in the day made some good stuff and some trash. If you buy a low mile surviver thats a decade old you get to find out which is good and trash before hand. Buying new is a gamble, every time. Nowdays it probably doesn;t even matter what brand you buy, there are only one or two manufacturers on the planet for most components anymore. Everything is shared. A transmission might have an extra mounting hole in it for one brand and a different size output connection for another, but the guts are all the same and it was all made in one place.

 

[Encswsm]

I’ll never drive a Toyota. Or a Honda.

I did have a Honda 50 Mini Trail as a kid tho...

I have a Honda engine on my self propelled mower. Its nice always starts on the second pull.

 

[BeepBeepRR]

I would like to see the ranking after removing lease sales and fleet sales.

Anyway...

View attachment 1416448


These were the 10 top-selling car brands, models in 2022

But in these figures the more than likely include law enforcement as well as fleet vehicles. You don't see many Toyota Camry cop cars running around now do you? I guess total sales is total sales even if skewed.

 

[BeepBeepRR]

I have had 3 Dodge Dakota R/T's 2 black and one Deep Amethyst. They were not bad trucks but was happy when I sold them. Bought one for 900 bucks some idiot installed the intake gaskets on new heads in 3 pieces each side. Was dumping coolant out the back of the intake that's why I got it cheap. Don't ask me how in the hell they did that but 45.99 later it ran and sold for $3500.00

 

[Krooser]

Wh

For the first time ever, a foreign car company became the number one automaker in America in 2021. Toyota outsold General Motors, which had been the top-selling carmaker since 1931. Toyota sold 2.3 million vehicles in 2021, increasing their sales by 10% from 2020; at GM, sales dropped by 13% from 2020.

One of the contributing factors to the end of GM’s reign atop the car market was issues in the supply chain that led to semiconductor chip shortages. Here’s what happened over the year that led to Toyota’s ascension to the number one carmaker in the U.S. — and implications the company’s strategy has for the auto market in the future.

The Auto Market in 2021

Many industries have been disrupted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the auto industry was no different. However, some experts see pandemic-related supply chain issues as a detour for the long-term changes taking place across the auto industry.

Consumer demand for electric cars is one trend shifting the dynamic of the auto market. Many companies are spending billions to design battery-powered cars and the manufacturing plants that can produce these models. Most automakers are a long way off from competing with Tesla, but nevertheless, have prioritized spending with this goal in mind.

Toyota’s Prius, a hybrid vehicle, is the dominant model in this category, though Toyota is considered behind in the race to launch a fully-electric car. GM, on the other hand, was forced to suspend its manufacturing of the Chevrolet Bolt, its main electric vehicle, because of a battery issue.

Gaining market share in the electric vehicle category was among the top priorities for both GM and Toyota until the pandemic started. But COVID-19 changed the dynamic significantly, causing a semiconductor chip shortage that reverberated for automakers worldwide.

Causes of the Semiconductor Chip Shortage

There were a number of factors that contributed to the semiconductor chip shortage. First, demand spiked for cars following the pandemic, an unexpected outcome for which many automakers were not prepared. This was followed by a series of unfortunate events that few could have predicted.

“A freak cold snap in Texas in February shut down factories at top chipmakers. Drought in Taiwan around the same time threatened to dry up the island’s semiconductor supplies (since chipmaking requires pools of water to wash away industrial chemicals),” wrote Fortune. “Then, in March, a fire tore through a factory at Japan’s Renesas — a key chip supplier for the industry.”

Ultimately, this forced GM, Ford, and European carmakers to slash production dramatically. By one estimate, the global car market lost about 4% of total sales in 2021 — roughly $110 billion in revenue.

Toyota, however, was less impacted than GM and other carmakers. This was because the brand learned from the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, during which the company struggled for about six months to recover. To prevent future downtime, Toyota designed a new strategy.

“The automaker came up with a list of about 1,500 parts it deemed necessary to secure alternatives for or to stockpile. The company also put in place an intricate system to monitor the vast network of suppliers that produce those items—and the smaller companies those suppliers buy materials from—to develop an early-warning system for shortages,” reported Bloomberg.

This strategy allowed Toyota to stabilize production and carefully manage its supply chains, ultimately beating out GM for the top spot in 2021.

The Future for Toyota and GM

Though Toyota may be on top for the moment, the company itself doesn’t expect to dominate for long. “Yes, we did surpass General Motors in sales,” said Jack Hollis, Toyota North America’s senior vice president of automotive operations. “But to be clear, that is not our goal, nor do we see it as sustainable.”

As the global economy and supply chain recovers, GM is likely to turn its attention back to fixing the flaws of its electric vehicle. The company has announced its goal to produce only electric vehicles by 2035. If anything, GM’s sales results in 2021 prove that GM should focus not only on creating new technology but also on shoring up supplies of the technology it needs for its existing products.

What ticks me off is the US invites the Japanese to bring their mfg. into our country yet American manufacturers are not allowed the same courtesy.

Back in the 90's I was selling at the local Ford store. A guy drove up and asked me if I would be willing to sell an E350 van to a US citizen living in Japan.

Sure!

I gave his friend a price. The buyer was going to fly home, take delivery of the vehicle then ship it to his home in Japan.

While we were working out the details my boss received a letter from the US Dept. of Commerce. It stated that we would be in violation of such and such a trade agreement between the US and Japan and we would be subject to fines and or imprisonment if we proceeded with the sale.

Then the Ford VP of sales called and told my boss if he sold the van to anyone in Japan he would have his franchise revoked.

Needless to say we did not make the sale.

I don't know how they got wind of this deal but I damn near started a trade war between two country's!

Another feather in my cap...

 

[Kern Dog]

People need to stop with brand loyalty when it comes to anything after about 2005.
The people in office in the 90's made sure we would become a global market and guess what, we did, and every car and truck made since has had parts shipped in from different countries to get assembled.
Once that happened every single vehicle became an accountant equation of sourcing the least expensive thing that still hit a particular performance point. There is no love and ingenuity in car design, not anymore, there is just "market research" and bean counters finding things for the smallest pile of beans, then setting a price based on a category or market sector, not actual cost. This is why at year end they can cut $20,000 off the top of luxury brands and trucks.
In my opinion, buying new is either a purely economic decision based on circumstances(like right after the last cash for clunkers) or a fools errand. To each their own of course.

I love cars, I owned lots of different things. My family had lots of things over the years. Every brand back in the day made some good stuff and some trash. If you buy a low mile surviver thats a decade old you get to find out which is good and trash before hand. Buying new is a gamble, every time. Nowdays it probably doesn;t even matter what brand you buy, there are only one or two manufacturers on the planet for most components anymore. Everything is shared. A transmission might have an extra mounting hole in it for one brand and a different size output connection for another, but the guts are all the same and it was all made in one place.

You really are confused, man.

 

[YY1]

How can buicks be popular in China, then?

...and how did all those Dodge vans get into Japan?

 

[Detective D]

You really are confused, man.

Explain.

If you are questioning the global sourcing:
Per my older post, as an example-
There is a transmission manufacturer in France. During oh I believe around 2006ish, they made transmissions for:
Honda
Acura
Cadillac
One of the asian companies, not sure if it was Kia or hyundai
(2) of the german brands, I think one was BMW for the X3 or X5 Suv thing they made
And so on and so forth.

Global sourcing. It was determined by 2010 that those transmissions were not designed 100% correctly, and Honda especially took a bad hit because previously about everything they had made in the 90's was considered bullet proof by the public. Nobody batted an eye at BMW having an issue and the cadillac wierd station wagon/crossover suv thing simply took a massive dump in resale and life carried on. Honda though people got mad.
So the BMW SUV with an $80,000 price tag at the time had the same transmission with a different computer chip in it then a $35,000 Honda and a $25,000 Kia(or Hyundai, I forget)

Recall all the F150's parked in a ball field waiting for chinese computer chips.
My 2013 Charger was built in Canada with "imported"(to canada) parts.
Tons of cars assembled in Mexico with parts from all over the planet.
Every car on the planet it seems has a Takata airbag in it, given all the recalls.

You can;t tell me you have never seen a tag, on anything, even a shirt, that says "made in XXXXXXX with globally sourced components"

As for what I like, I am a gearhead I like stuff for it's characteristic. Can be hard to explain. New cars are painfully dull, full of nanny computers and designed to all look the same, choice of a globally sourced I4 or V6 shared between multiple companies sometimes, heavy as a bulldozer, etc.
The only recent car that caught my eye I would be interested in driving to see is the Toyota 86. OWAIT! Even this car is shared with Suburu (BRZ) and I think has parts in it designed by BMW. But at least they made an attempt at a driver's car.
Part of why all the new stuff is so damn boring is they are all related, parts for everything coming out of one or two factories, with very few of the brands trying to uphold a quality standard. Depreciation on a new vehicle is astronomical because a chunk of the mandatory warranty is gone already. Some people don;t care about perpetual car payments so they trade in and budget a payment for a vehicle every month like a utility bill. I like to own things instead of owning debt, so buying new is silly to me.

 

[Photon440]

How can buicks be popular in China, then?

...and how did all those Dodge vans get into Japan?

Buicks are popular in China because that's what they want. When General Motors approached China to set up a factory which opened in 1997, they intended to build Chevrolet there. But China objected; ever since the first Buicks arrived in China in 1911, practically every President or Emperor in China was seen to be driving one, followed by anyone of importance in business. Following that tradition, they insisted that GM start by building Buicks, because that name was so well known in China.

They even had (still have) Buick minivans that the rest of the world didn't see. They are over there because they build them over there.

On a similar note, the Ford Taurus is still built and sold in China, even though it isn't available elsewhere.

 

[BeepBeepRR]

If you cant beat them join them. Pontiac Vibe uses a Toyota power plant. Hell its the same car as a Toyota Matrix. You don't see a Toyota with a ford power plant. I stand by my previous statements.
Toyota Matrix below

Pontiac Vibe.

 

[Photon440]

If you cant beat them join them. Pontiac Vibe uses a Toyota power plant. Hell its the same car as a Toyota Matrix. You don't see a Toyota with a ford power plant. I stand by my previous statements.
Toyota Matrix below
View attachment 1685061

Pontiac Vibe.

View attachment 1685062

No, Toyota doesn't use a Ford engine. The new Supra uses a BMW engine. The old Toyota six was reverse engineered from the Chevrolet Stovebolt and many of the parts were interchangeable.

By the way, Toyota police cars may be more common than you suspect.

Back in the 1980s.....

Now, 2024 isn't over yet, but for 2023 Ford outsold Toyota in the States, pushing them back to #2.

 

[BeepBeepRR]

No, Toyota doesn't use a Ford engine. The new Supra uses a BMW engine. The old Toyota six was reverse engineered from the Chevrolet Stovebolt and many of the parts were interchangeable.

By the way, Toyota police cars may be more common than you suspect.
View attachment 1685064
View attachment 1685065
View attachment 1685067

Back in the 1980s.....
View attachment 1685066

Now, 2024 isn't over yet, but for 2023 Ford outsold Toyota in the States, pushing them back to #2.

I remember when the Olympics were in Atlanta a few local police departments got Volvo cop cars. They were few and far between and certainly not more than 2 per police department. Unlike the amount of Crown Vics, Impalas as well as the Chargers. Well, not sop much chargers in 1996. I would bet money those toyotas above were not pursuit vehicles as much as they were parking lot crawlers.

 

[1STMP]

No, Toyota doesn't use a Ford engine. The new Supra uses a BMW engine. The old Toyota six was reverse engineered from the Chevrolet Stovebolt and many of the parts were interchangeable.

By the way, Toyota police cars may be more common than you suspect.
View attachment 1685064
View attachment 1685065
View attachment 1685067

Back in the 1980s.....
View attachment 1685066

Now, 2024 isn't over yet, but for 2023 Ford outsold Toyota in the States, pushing them back to #2.

I worked in the fleet
department for a major
utility company.
Once a year the big three
would hold fleet vehicle
showings of what they had
to offer with upgrades to
powerplants and
suspensions.
These showings were held
in conjunction with city
utilities/police, sheriff,
and state police.
Police/sheriff/state police
need space (for transporting
suspects), bulk or size for
pit manuvers, speed, and
suspensions that can handle
jumping a curb or two,
and heavy duty brakes
that can stop the load.
There's no current Toyota
built that can match these
demands. Cop cars see
much more severe duty
than your everyday sedan.
And these options were
available only to those
entities and not the general
public.
One of the main reasons
police cars are picked clean
at your local salvage yards.