Quote:
Originally Posted by SierraGS
For now........
Toyota did not invest in Isuzu just for the Diesel tech, they have looooonnng range plans for it (Toyota's GMC???).
If gas prices stay high (and /or when China and India enter the U.S. market) Daihatsu will be back in the U.S. in a hurry.
Toyota acts quietly, quickly and effectively (but in plain sight) - thought GM would have learned this by now.
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Neither Diahatsu nor Isuzu (ignoring delivery trucks) will ever be back in the US. If a Diahatsu-based car comes to the US, it will be badged as a Toyota or a Scion. Isuzu's last products in the US were all GM rebadges. Their international lineup (again ignoring big delivery trucks) are all pickups, which can't be imported into the US due to the chicken tax. The Toyota badge is much more valuable in the public's mind than Isuzu's; there's absolutely no reason to reintroduce it here.
Prius may become a seperate badge in the future, but it will be like Scion-it won't have any seperate dealers, just sub-areas of existing Toyota dealers.
The end result is that Toyota will still only have two seperate dealer networks (Toyota-Scion-Prius and Lexus). There's also Subaru, I suppose, although including that in Toyota's total would be like including Mazda in Ford's.