Toyota could overtake GM in US sales in June

[GermanCarGuy]

Oh I forget to mention: There's actually a big buzz in the US-Media, that GM might be surpassed by Toyota in June. However, did anybody of these journalists mention, that GM's market-share in Germany (after all, also a very important market) is about 3 times Toyota's market-share...?

[GermanCarGuy]

Originally Posted by windvale

I know the folks on this site are looking for the Volt to stand the industry on its ear, but...it looks like VW is coming out with a version of the Golf that will match the Volt (i.e. lithium-ion, 30 miles on electricity). I worry that GM may be betting everything on the Volt, while the competition may be able to match/exceed the Volt's performance and render it an "also ran".

Check out the link here:

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...ticleId=128028

No, this VW will probably NOT match or exceed the Volt's potentials. Over here they are talking about 50 km (Volt: 64 km) on pure electricity and a Diesel-Consumption of 2.8 Liters/100 km, whereas Diesel is the same or more expensive than gasoline. The Volt reportedly only requires about 2.3 Liters/100 km. The German car makers do NOT offer ONE SINGLE Hybrid yet, in contrast to the US-Brands! So I seriously doubt, they will be ahead of GM, regarding the Volt!

[PhishPhood]

Originally Posted by ejfx

If gas prices were not so high, this wouldnt be an issue right now...or maybe ever.

The main factor for people buying cars over the past few years is fuel economy...

toyota got lucky with this...
or maybe they planned this all along...maybe thats why they invested trillions into China...they knew it would create a boom for China, thus creating a huge demand for oil, end resulting in crazy high prices around the world

toyota knew they could never break our truck / suv market, so they caused oil prices to rise and forced us to stop buying trucks/suv and forced us into thier eco cars...they are hell bent on world domination...this is how the will do it

toyota is just a trojan horse!

Actually this is a more accurate view of what happened in the 80s and 90s. Business school case study. Japan is an island with essentially no natural resources at all....NONE. They have to import everything in order to make anything, iron ore, bauxite, coal, oil, wood pulp, everything. At that time in the past they came to the conclusion that if raw materials got really really tight, such as oil, then they'd be SOL because they have to import every drop of oil they use.

In order to protect themselves against this eventuality which many were predicting, many US geologists for example, that oil would become short in the 21st Century they had to make adjustments in their vehicles. This also fit their densely populated island and their way of life.

But they also saw that if oil got tight say 20-30 years in the future, say 2010, that a lot of the rest of the world would also want more efficient vehicles. Maybe not the same tiny econoboxes they drive in Japan but the same technology but in larger vehicles.

Here on the other hand we have a wealth of riches much of which we export all over the world. Coal, wood pulp, cattle, corn, food stuffs. What we don't have is an extraordinary wealth of oil. But in the 90's you couldn't tell the American citizen that. Oil was less than bottled water. So we didn't do any significant planning for a sudden tightness in 2010. We just used and figured that we'd adjust on the fly. Now we're flying.

Japan had to plan in the 80s and 90s, we didn't.

[AMERICA 123]

Originally Posted by GermanCarGuy

Anybody, preferring a Toyota over a GM-Vehicle should read this: http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=562

Exactly.

Even 2.00$ a gallon gas won't overcome that.

[SenorDad]

Originally Posted by GermanCarGuy

Anybody, preferring a Toyota over a GM-Vehicle should read this: http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=562

http://www.myspace.com/national_labor_committee