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Is Detroit Three more fitting?
Toyota to displace former auto giants
January 8, 2004
BY JAMIE BUTTERS
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
What is the best term to describe General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group as a trio?
For decades, they were simply the Big Three.
But now that they no longer hold 85 percent of the market, and Chrysler is no longer an independent American company, the name just doesn't fit.
Here's an idea: the Detroit Three.
That is the term Toyota Motor Corp. executives have taken to using.
One analyst said Toyota, which became America's top-selling car brand last year, is trying to preempt any potential backlash before it tops Chrysler or Ford in total U.S. sales.
In a meeting with Wall Street analysts Wednesday morning, Jim Press, executive vice president of Toyota's U.S. sales arm, used the new term when he talked about Toyota's three brands outselling Chrysler Group's three brands last August.
"In August, we registered sales higher than one of the Detroit Three. Nothing really happened. There were no earthquakes, no locusts. There was no big disruption," he said. "It was really just a natural progression of what's been happening for some time."
(Full story here)
Toyota to displace former auto giants
January 8, 2004
BY JAMIE BUTTERS
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
What is the best term to describe General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group as a trio?
For decades, they were simply the Big Three.
But now that they no longer hold 85 percent of the market, and Chrysler is no longer an independent American company, the name just doesn't fit.
Here's an idea: the Detroit Three.
That is the term Toyota Motor Corp. executives have taken to using.
One analyst said Toyota, which became America's top-selling car brand last year, is trying to preempt any potential backlash before it tops Chrysler or Ford in total U.S. sales.
In a meeting with Wall Street analysts Wednesday morning, Jim Press, executive vice president of Toyota's U.S. sales arm, used the new term when he talked about Toyota's three brands outselling Chrysler Group's three brands last August.
"In August, we registered sales higher than one of the Detroit Three. Nothing really happened. There were no earthquakes, no locusts. There was no big disruption," he said. "It was really just a natural progression of what's been happening for some time."
(Full story here)