Toyota coming to Michigan?

[Ming]

Toyota coming to Michigan?
By Danny Hakim, New York Times
03/06/2005



DETROIT — At many union halls in Michigan, signs on parking lots still warn that foreign-brand cars "will be towed away at owner's expense."

So why is Michigan's Democratic governor, Jennifer M. Granholm, pushing so hard to close a sweetheart land deal with Toyota?

The answer: because the domestic auto industry, the engine of the state's economy throughout the 1900s, is sputtering in the 21st century. With seven of Michigan's 10 largest employers either domestic automakers or parts suppliers, Michigan was one of only two states to lose more jobs than it gained last year. Michigan's unemployment hit 7.3 percent in December, tying with Alaska as the worst in the nation, according to the most recent state jobs report from the Labor Department.

General Motors and the Ford Motor Co., two of the state's three largest employers, said Tuesday that their sales continued to fall last month. With both companies' shares trading near annual lows, they are cutting the number of cars and trucks they plan to produce. And GM's production cuts are particularly deep, spreading economic distress across the region. That has left Granholm little choice but to redouble the state's efforts to diversify, both beyond cars and toward other carmakers.

"Clearly our fortune has been tied to the Big Three and, if they're declining in market share, then our employment situation declines," said Granholm in a recent interview. "If we are to succeed we must diversify and diversify in a big way," she added.

That includes wooing Toyota, the company that has taken more business away from the Big Three — GM, Ford and the Chrysler division of DaimlerChrysler — than any other. Michigan is currently fighting in court to push through a deal to sell public land to Toyota that would allow the company to expand a technical center near the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. A local developer who outbid Toyota by $16 million has sued to block the deal, but courts have so far sided with the state.

"If we want to further our position as the automotive capital of the world, if we want to have international investment here, whether it's Toyota or Hyundai or Mitsubishi, you name it, the German auto manufacturers, we're going to be aggressive," Granholm said.

Granholm, 46, is a Canadian-born governor with a common touch and a knack for managing policy minutia — like a Hillary Clinton with a dollop of Oprah. At a recent speech in Kalamazoo, Mich., she strolled, microphone in hand, through an audience gathered near the entrance to the local chamber of commerce. She was cajoling promises from little kids to go to college, pitching her plan to turn the state around and cheerleading — "we have a huge inferiority complex," she told the crowd. "We don't want our motto to be 'Michigan, no worse than the rest!'"

"We would be open to Michigan," said Dennis Cuneo, senior vice president of Toyota North America. "If you had asked me that question 10 years ago, I would have answered very doubtfully, but in the past year we have sensed a change in atmosphere. Gov. Granholm has been very aggressive in courting Toyota."

And what do the Big Three think?

"This is in the tradition of America," said James J. Padilla, the president and chief operating officer of Ford. "We open our doors and make things open and accessible. My only concern is that I wish everywhere in the world we went we got the same reception."

Full Article Here: http://www.insidebayarea.com/busines...ove/ci_2597738

[Kar Krazie]

Sounds good to me. I don't see why not.

[GMFreak8]

I hate that picture.

[Infiniti Z350]

Originally Posted by gonenuts15792

I hate that picture.

Yeah, that background is really overdone. A simple gray background or even a smaller Toyota logo would have sufficed.

[tgagneguam]

"This is in the tradition of America," said James J. Padilla, the president and chief operating officer of Ford. "We open our doors and make things open and accessible. My only concern is that I wish everywhere in the world we went we got the same reception."

Ah, and isn't that part of the problem? I do think that Detroit could try a little harder overseas, though.

[AndrewGS]

I think it sucks. Michigan, Detroit especially, is known as the capitol of American auto manufacterers, you bring in and embrace Toyota and that's a slap in the face of the American auto industry.

[Infiniti Z350]

Originally Posted by AndrewGS

I think it sucks. Michigan, Detroit especially, is known as the capitol of American auto manufacterers, you bring in and embrace Toyota and that's a slap in the face of the American auto industry.

So you wouldn't like Detroit to be a world capital of the auto industry instead of just American? Plus, according to the article, Michigan could use the jobs the tech center could bring.

[tallpaul]

The motor city will be called TOYOTA CITY. how lame.

[crazywop112]

If Toyota gives more jobs to people in the US that's a good thing. It's companies based outside of the US like Nike who are hurting the US economy. If Toyota wants to build cars here let them.

[Infiniti Z350]

Originally Posted by tallpaul

The motor city will be called TOYOTA CITY. how lame.

Don't be ridiculous. There's already a Toyota City in Japan in the Aichi prefecture. Maybe Toyotaville or Toyotown...

Seriously though, if Toyota sets up a facility in Michigan, it's not the end of the world.

[uujjj]

Toyota in America is becoming like Ford in Europe; people are starting to think of Toyotas as essentially American cars.

[Globalist]

Toyota is very smart. They didn't come to Michigan to build plants but a technical center. After eroding Big 3 marketshare, Toyota is maybe now targeting their engineers to build better trucks. Why choose the South to build Plants and Michigan to build a technical center?

[Ming]

Might as well, Toyota derives 90% or so of its profits from the North American market. Now if they were to stop raking so much of it back to Japan (for those drinking parties ) and invest heavily in Detroit, that would take away one of the last obstacles to their being a very Japanese company.

[chrisbenz]

I would love to see the next 2 plants that thy are going to open go to Michigan.And after thy open the plants the UAW wins them

[Cortazzo]

OMG, i would love to see the UAW win prespresentation at all of the foreign plants, at least everyone would be burdened with opressive labor rules.