GM, Toyota go toe-to-toe

[jcgable]

General Motors Corp.'s fight for global supremacy with leaner, richer Toyota Motor Corp. is only getting harder.


Battered by a weak U.S. market, high gas prices and jittery consumers, the largest American carmaker endured two years of steep losses and now is on the verge of losing its long-held title as the world's automotive leader.


GM shrugs off the significance of the much-hyped sales race with Toyota. But the Detroit automaker vows it won't go out without a fight, and is pushing on every front to catch up to Toyota when it comes to image and reality.



The Japanese automaker is also outpacing GM on fronts that resonate with consumers: creating a green image and a reputation for top-quality vehicles. GM faces the momentous challenge of fighting back -- and doing it with far fewer resources than the hugely profitable Toyota, whose bullet-proof reputation for quality and manufacturing execution is the standard of the industry.


"How do you deal with a company whose financial wherewithal is formidable? The answer is you don't go directly at them," GM Vice Chairman Fritz Henderson said on Monday during an interview at the North American International Auto Show. "You've got to do things differently; you've got to be more creative. We need to be quite clever in terms of how we use our resources and efficient in how we use our resources."

More at link
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...89/1148/AUTO01

[Koasterking]

It's obvious that GM is putting up a fight. Look at all the new cars and technologies that GM is introducing. This show, I think GM had something new for each brand! It's going to be a good fight, but I don't think Toyota is the target. Perception is. That has been GM's arch rival for years. And the rate they're going, it's only a matter of time until people realize that GM is a damn-good car maker. Not until the Volt is released that people will start to see that.

[CrunkedRL]

Yota hardly has a bulletproof reputation as far as producing top quality cars it's all about the perception the lemmings of the world have been having about this company for the past couple decades. I mean even biased car publications such as Consumer Reports had to lick their wounds a couple months ago vowing they would no longer assume yota vehicles to be superior to their domestic counterparts in the areas of reliability and quality. Per capita yota has just as many thirsty vehicles as GM so their no more greener than the General IMO.

[HoosierRon]

Earth To Every Media Outlet In The World: Gm Is Not The Only Car Company To Be Losing Sales In Its Home Market. There Is A Certain Japanese Company Whose Home Country Sales Are Tanking.

[BryceStrong]

Originally Posted by Detroit News

GM faces the momentous challenge of fighting back -- and doing it with far fewer resources than the hugely profitable Toyota, whose bullet-proof reputation for quality and manufacturing execution is the standard of the industry.


"How do you deal with a company whose financial wherewithal is formidable? The answer is you don't go directly at them," GM Vice Chairman Fritz Henderson said on Monday during an interview at the North American International Auto Show. "You've got to do things differently; you've got to be more creative. We need to be quite clever in terms of how we use our resources and efficient in how we use our resources."

Sounds like Toyota fighting GM thirty years ago.

[montrealvue]

Originally Posted by HoosierRon

Earth To Every Media Outlet In The World: Gm Is Not The Only Car Company To Be Losing Sales In Its Home Market. There Is A Certain Japanese Company Whose Home Country Sales Are Tanking.

All of this while Kia and Hyundai are sneaking up on them. The Amercans and Japanese are both in trouble as the Koreans are still gaining ground. '08 will definitely be an interesting year indeed!

[zete]

The question is, once Toyota achieves #1 what happens then. Do they still have the drive they had in the past or do they pull a GM from the 70s and 80s?

I think Toyota is in a precarious position. Complacency is the enemy of every company and yet whenever someone becomes a #1 they immediately become complacent. Historically this is evidenced by the inability to take risk. GM, on the ropes now, has gone back and started taking risks. Ironically, it was its constant risk taking that got it to #1 but once there complacency set in.

Toyota can be seen as doing the same thing. Although never a truly innovative company they at least had a focus on doing what they do best. But now they seem more interested in entering every niche. And while they've been doing that their quality -- even on their core vehicles -- has suffered. Could any of us believed that the Camry would have so many problems out of the gate 10 years ago? It would have been unimaginable.

In my opinion, the best thing that ever happened to GM is the fact they got kicked in the keester. It's made them wake up and that's a great thing for the buying public.

[mikesright]

In a related article, a certain VW executive said this about GM, "Whom else should we target?" asked VW sales chief Detlef Wittig. "General Motors? Certainly not."

Guess GM's going to make the industry its bitch in upcoming years, including Toyota, which is starting to get outclassed by Ford, of all things, already.

[starlightmica]

One million, I mean, 20 billion dollars! (T's 2007 estimated profit)

Not to worry, there's still lots of money to be made in the car industry. Question is, who will profit in 2008?