…when Toyota is losing money:
Battered by falling demand from consumers around the world and a surging yen, Toyota and other Japanese automakers have been reducing earnings outlooks and cutting workers.
“The change that has hit the world economy is of a critical scale that comes once in a hundred years,” President Katsuaki Watanabe said at the company’s Nagoya office. The drop in vehicle sales over the last month was “far faster, wider and deeper than expected.”
Toyota forecast an operating loss of 150 billion yen ($1.66 billion) for the fiscal year ending March 2009. Toyota has never reported an operating loss since it began disclosing such figures in 1941. But it did have an operating loss in unofficial, internal calculations for the year ending March 1938 a year after the company was founded.
And they think that pouring billions down the Detroit rathole can save them in such an environment? Particularly when the union refused to give on work rules? Mickey Kaus has more, here and here.
What a disaster this administration has turned out to be at the end.
The Administration is no great shakes, sure, but most of this problem is the fault of Congress. Would Detroit even be having a problem (other than its usual problems) absent the credit crisis?
One of the things I find most depressing about all of this is that the Dems are going to use it all as an excuse to impose single-payer socialized medicine on all of us.
I’ve seen comments saying that the reason the administration is doing this is as a counter to history revision by the Democrats later. If Bush’s policies dovetail smoothly into Obama’s policies, then the Democrats will have less of an opportunity to spend the next 2 years blaming the Republicans, because the “new” Democratic policies would be the same as the “old” Bush policies.
This way, the Democrats can’t tag Bush with causing calamity because he rejected bailouts, and thereby justifying more bailouts. This way, the effectiveness of the bailouts can be judged on their own merits, instead of being a rallying point for the Democrats.
“What a disaster this administration has turned out to be at the end.”
Now when did you think the Bush Junior administration
turned out to be a disaster?
Now when did you think the Bush Junior administration turned out to be a disaster?
There is no such thing as a “Bush Junior administration,” except to those ignorant of the president’s name. However, the G. W. Bush administration has been a disaster in many ways for years. It has been far less of one than either a Gore or Kerry administration would have been, though.
I just returned from a 2 week trip to San Diego. If my casual observations reflect reality, I can see a lot of the Big-3’s problem – they’ve lost the California auto market. I’d love to have a Toyota dealership there because their cars were everywhere. Casual observation suggests that the majority of Big-3 products were pickups and SUVs but that represented only a small percentage of the vehicles on the highways. Toyotas, Hondas, Mercedes, and BMWs were far more common. I read years ago that imports owned over 50% of the California market. My observations suggest the percentage is significantly higher. This should be easy enough to check with DMV registration statistics.
I just don’t know why anyone would buy a new car, ever. Even when you consider the 0% and the incentives it never adds up to the depreciation hit that one takes even just driving the car off the lot. Not to mention the fact that people get rid of a new car after 3 years — right when the depreciation finally starts to level off. A car that is 2-3 years old is practically still new in my book.
Now I am browsing around on Autotrader and I’m really tempted to get another car. The downturn in business is an upturn for the consumer. I’ve seen loaded 2006 Ford f-150 king cab V8’s with 30k miles going for $9000. That was probably a $35k-$40,000 dollar truck at new MSRP. 2002 BMW 530i with 70k miles and only $9000. 2004 Honda Accord V6 with 75k (just getting broken in for a Honda) and only $8500. 5 years ago I dropped a bit over $10,000 on a 1999 Toyota Solara V6 with 115k. There are some awesome deals out there right now.
I just don’t know why anyone would buy a new car, ever. Even when you consider the 0% and the incentives it never adds up to the depreciation hit that one takes even just driving the car off the lot. Not to mention the fact that people get rid of a new car after 3 years — right when the depreciation finally starts to level off. A car that is 2-3 years old is practically still new in my book.
I suspect that a lot of the 2-3 year old used cars are actually returned lease vehicles. I’ve bought both new and used cars over the years. Most of the time, I keep them for a long time such as my current car that I bought new 8 years ago. I see no reason (with the exception of an accident) that’ll cause me to replace it for several more years. To me, the happiest miles are the ones after the vehicle is paid off (typically within a year of purchase for me).
“owever, the G. W. Bush administration has been a disaster in many ways for years.”
Really? Like How?
“owever, the G. W. Bush administration has been a disaster in many ways for years.”
Really? Like How?
You know what? I’ll attempt to explain that to you, in small words (because you’ll obviously not otherwise get it), after you tell me why you can’t figure out when and when not to push down the “shift” key.
Or why you can’t put figure out how to punch the first letter of a sentence.
Because, you know, there’s not much percentage in debating morons.
Hmm, how many ways is the auto industry in pain?
The year started with sky rocketing oil prices. This caused people to drive less. Some speculated this would cause people to dump SUVs and trucks, but those who did the math figured out that the higher cost of gas didn’t exceed the price of new car (and as Josh points out, the immediate depreciation).
Then the housing bubble popped, and the credit crisis began. Now good people, who paid on their houses and cars, couldn’t get a reasonable loan without going through draconcian processes that they heard about from their parents decades ago. Sure, Congress bailed out the banks, but to get the money, the pendulum had swung the other way. Now you had to prove employment for years to get a $30,000 line of credit regardless of your current salary. Better to pay cash, if you had it. And if you had it, you were probably smart enough to hold onto it to go bargain stock hunting.
I almost forgot about Congress crapping on the auto industry with new CAFE standards. Sure, they were born of the high oil prices that “are here to stay” (but didn’t). So you can rundown to the local dealership, and buy a car today that gets shitty mileage. Or, you can wait until the auto companies figure out how to squeek out more mileage and buy one of those cars.
All this to consider before even getting into the tax which is UAW.
Throw in a down economy, when people are having to sell off capital investments to pay debts, and the used car market looks damn good. After all, name me one major innovation in new cars made this decade? Hybrid? Nope, the Prius came out in 2001, but the technology is a bit older, and the market is full of these cars that don’t pay for themselves (unless you got the US tax credit, which no longer exists). SatNav? Buy a TomTom or get a Garman. E85 flex engines? Only if you think ethanol is cheaper than oil at <$40 a barrel, and you don’t mind paying more at the grocery store for food. MP3 interface? Buy a new radio if you can’t find a used car that already has one. Same with XM/Sirius.
Throw in roughly half the US population that voted against Obama, because we didn’t want a President beholden to special interest like the Unions, Car companies, and Banks, and you find a lot of people shrugging.
Heh… Popular Mechanics piles on…