2,200 Toyota managers to buy Toyota cars by March 31

Wednesday 14th January, 01:03 PM JST

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

› Login to comment

Latest 15 of 31 Total Comments Show All

JeromeInJapan at 05:33 PM JST - 14th January

It starts of with middle managment then flushes down to janitors... everyone will have to own a Toyota to keep them afloat and the upper managment will be driving their bmws, benz's, and ferarri's!
GW at 05:55 PM JST - 14th January

my brother in law works at Sanyo, my house is full of Sanyo crap over the years as I have been asked to buy Sanyo just before their year end.

Couple years back I got the call from mom in law in the spring just after I just shelled out a couple hundred thou on a new aircon(wasnt a Sanyo) & was informed we HAD to spend at least Y100,000 on Sanyo & submit a ryoshushou, man I was pissed off, the MILaw caught wind of my rant & told the mrs she wud give us Y50,000 towards it, man what a pain, I didnt want the MILaws yen but didnt want to buy Sanyo crap either as I couldnt even write off what I bought as a biz expense as they wanted the original ryoshushou........

Man I hope I dont get one of those calls in the month or so
presto345 at 07:11 PM JST - 14th January

2200 vehicles will hardly do anything to reduce loss in profits. It's nothing more than a publicity stunt.
ebisen at 07:17 PM JST - 14th January

bebert - This is so very normal. Also, you complaining about the American companies' very favourable lease plans shows that you have no idea about the automotive industry. This way, after the 6 months (or whatever) lease period is finished, the company can sell the cars as used, with big reduction in taxes - it's perfectly legal and greatly boosts the sales. Usually the employees are very good users, so that the cars are practically brand new at the end of the lease period good for both the customers and the employees - think about it. Every German company does exactly the same thing - the employees are not forced in any way - but it only makes sense for them to lease/buy their own products - I know because I work for one of these companies.
bdiego at 07:17 PM JST - 14th January

I like how we have to look back to 2007 to compare the Big 3 to Japanese cars. Toyota's overtaken GM despite their losses, and if you look at market share the Big 3 are in rapid decline relative to Japanese makers.
jmarc at 08:46 PM JST - 14th January

my cousin in France works for Citroen and gets an 27% discount if he buy a car from the compagny, but must wait 3 months before he can sell it. A friend of mine works for Daimler, and gets bargain deals if he buy a leased car. And he does because he can have a new car every years really cheap.

Toyota manager move is just to make some publicity, i'm sure they allready all have a toyota car and will just replace it.
usaexpat at 01:14 AM JST - 15th January

So they buy new cars and then get laid off so the cars get reposessed. Just speculating here. Anyway, 2200 cars is a drop in the bucket for Toyota.
taikan at 03:11 AM JST - 15th January

American companies like GM and Ford have been running circles around J auto companies for years... at least to according to total sales figures.

The Fortune Global 500 report for 2008 lists Toyota as #5 in total sales, with GM at # 9, Ford at # 13, Honda at # 40 and Nissan at #50. However, it also lists GM as losing more than $38 billion and Ford as losing almost $3 billion, while Toyota, Honda and Nissan had profits of $15 billion, $5 billion and $4 billion respectively. Thus, from a shareholder's perspective, Toyota, Honda and Nissan all have outperformed their American competitors, especially GM, by a wide margin. If stunts such as Toyota's middle managers publicly committing to purchase new cars in 2009 are part of the difference, then perhaps this is something the US auto companies should explore as a means of boosting sales and perhaps returning to profitability.
ca1ic0cat at 03:25 AM JST - 15th January

Yeah, 2200 cars isn't going to amount to a hill of beans. Nice gesture, but it won't change the outcome. Things will get worse before they get better.
bebert at 04:00 AM JST - 15th January

Forbes magazine 2007 report on the worlds top companies listed GM, Chrysler and Ford at #5, #8, and #12 respectively. Try Honda at #37 and Nissan at #45

Lets look at corporate performance by market capitalization:

Toyota = $96.6 billion Honda = $37.3 billion Daimler = $33 billion Ford Motor Company = $5.4 billion General Motors = $2.3 billion Tata Motors (India) = $1.6 billion

If American auto companies had been running circles around their foreign competitors, their market capitalization would be closer to those of Toyota, Honda and Daimler not that of a Third World auto company. Don't you think? I would bet those employees with 401k money invested in Ford and GM are probably not satisfied either, especially since both dropped their dividend.
mark_in_japan at 01:49 PM JST - 15th January

The program is "in no way mandatory" unless they want to risk their jobs when the company checks up on them.
unscrejects at 04:08 PM JST - 15th January

If going by the usual Japanese auto makers MO - the managers buy vehicles which the maker buys back immediately through a dealer. They're driven to the dealer from the factory adding about 40kms to the dial. The dealer then sells them as used old vehicles knocking the margin off. The maker breaks even. Then if the manager decides to be extra patriotic he buys the vehicle for himself at the hefty discount offered to his rank - over 19%. The only problem is that he's buying for a friend who pays him a little more than he paid for it. The vehicle is registered to him for a while. ALl the makers do it often.
unklesam at 04:56 PM JST - 15th January

"Toyota had profits of $15 billion"

Flash mensa... Toyota announced a 1.5 billion dollar loss and tossed this bone for the pundits to chew on:

"Departing from past practice, Toyota did not disclose its sales and production forecasts for the coming calendar year, saying it was impossible to predict where the bottom for the global vehicle market lay."

Toyota is in big doggie doo.
unscrejects at 02:53 PM JST - 16th January

unklesam: Right on the money! Toyota numbers have not been to close to the real deal for some ten years now - since Okuda took over. Newsweek sniffed a rat years ago but then didn't go after it.
holyman at 10:28 AM JST - 17th January

what a deal,,I will work for 1000 hours for a new toyota...where do I sign up...not available in America...would boost sales if all customers got heavy discount...some people fall like dominos..Toyota should act like the giant it is and pass on the deal worldwide