Toyota’s plethora of brands failed in April to shore up former show-car-of-the year Camry. The bland Camry family sedan suffered a 14% sales decline in April, with Toyota, Prius and Scion dealers losing sales to family members because of inroads by VW/Audi, and Hyundai/Kia. Toyota is bulging with too many brands and models, a dealer… Continue Reading
Tag Archives: toyota
Lexus Holds Gold Medal in Luxury Set
Amid all the clamoring among pursuers of supremacy in the luxury-car market, none retains more pluses than Toyota’s Lexus brand. From the No. 1 perch atop the premier brands, Lexus has established a reputation of excellent never really challenged-either by Nissan’s Infiniti brand over the past two decades since either brand was launched, or by… Continue Reading
Safety Defect Recalls Sting Lexus, Volvo, and BMW
WASHINGTON, DC-Caught with a surfeit of safety flubs on 2010 Lexus RX models, Toyota Motor has bitten the platinum bullet and agreed to pay the U.S. Department of Transportation $17.35 million in civil fines for failing to report vehicle defects as required. The latest of Toyota’s costly infractions also involved carpets that trapped accelerators and… Continue Reading
2013 Model Year Gets Underway
The 2013-model year has arrived, amid personnel shakeouts to bolster profitability at U.S. automakers on a global scale. It needs repeating. The focus on ‘product, product, product’ has given way to cries of ‘profit, profit, profit,’ a change faced by top executives in a market still gripped by sales problems and high operating costs keeping… Continue Reading
Is Marketing Now in Charge of Customer Relations?
Julie Hamp’s appointment as communications chief for Toyota Motors Sales, USA, Inc. may halt or hasten the dismantling of what at one time was rated the most potent PR force among the automakers. Retirement, resignation and severances have removed four seasoned veterans from the Toyota field force and three of its PR field offices have… Continue Reading
Road + Track Relocating; Toyota Recreating PR Team
There’s likely to be a lot of traffic on Lane Changes when Road & Track’s move to Ann Arbor, Mich. is finally done. That could be by the end of September. CarPubInsider editor Eric H. Killorin writes the move is the likely beginning of consolidation amongst the big four auto magazines if not to two,… Continue Reading