[davinp]

Neither Toyota Motor Corp.'s chairman nor its CEO attended the Detroit auto show, but if their absence was an effort to downplay the Japanese automaker's growing presence in the U.S. market, it didn't succeed.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070109/AUTO04/701090354/1148/rss25

 

[RAV4EVR]

DAVINP... The heading is kind of misleading.. but.. whatever...

Ford Motor Co.'s new CEO Alan Mulally holds up Toyota as the industry model.
A longtime admirer of its lean and methodical production methods, Mulally flew to Japan last month to meet Chairman Fujio Cho to discuss areas where the two companies might work together.

AND "many" here were claiming in the earlier thread where Ford and Toyota talks were discussed a few weeks ago, that FORD doesn't want anything from Toyota................. BULLSHIT.

Anits don't even have the decency to ADMIT someobody's success and demand...LOSERS !

In spite of the struggles of Detroit's automakers, "we haven't seen evidence of a backlash the way maybe 15 or 20 years ago, we'd have expected," said Jim Press, president of Toyota Motor America.
"We're more of an American company. We've been here 50 years."
Nationalist sentiments are fading with the realization that it's a global business, he added.

A "few" still have strong sentiments and haven't come to that realization yet... LOL !!!

 

[84Cressida]

People who backlash against Toyota are the people who portray their GM as "#1". They are simply relics left over from the dark days, they will soon either fall or finally wake up and smell the coffee.

 

[Deuce]

no, a backlash would've occurred were it not for two major changes in America:

1) The dotcom economy that made the average person more attentive to business news and more educated about stocks and business,

and

2) NAFTA.

NAFTA affects it more because, thanks to the UAW's Buy American campaign that put country of final assembly on new car window stickers, people realize Toyota and Nissan build more cars and trucks in US states, while GM & Co., are building more parts for its cars in Mexico, Canada, and elsewhere, even though the cars are assembled in the US.

Plus with all the financial missteps of GM (DirecTV spinoff, irrational labor negotiations, etc.), people realize today that it isnt the Japanese that are taking away jobs, its Detroit not putting out a competitive product. "Dey took er jahbs" isn't an effective rallying cry anymore. Now its "Do yer job asshole."

 

[aznstylez]

Neither Toyota Motor Corp.'s chairman nor its CEO attended the Detroit auto show, but if their absence was an effort to downplay the Japanese automaker's growing presence in the U.S. market, it didn't succeed.


"For us, it has never been a goal to outsell GM," said Jim Lentz, executive vice president of Toyota Motor Sales in Torrance, Calif. "We're a customer-focused company. The customer doesn't care who's No. 1, 2, 3 or 4."

Toyota cars speaks for itself. Customers knows who to run to when they want a reliable car.