sprtch06

I'm suprised the "people's army" hasn't took care of the strike yet. Why is it when something is called the people's, it never really belongs to the people?

I wouldn't say it is the end of classic trucks. About a month ago I was tasked with tracking fuel mileage in our fleet for about a month. We run 5 different makes of truck, including the latest aero models. I can tell you that no one make controlled the fuel mileage race. The single biggest factor in fuel economy is the guy holding onto the steering wheel. I can also tell you that the Heavy truck side doesn't need the "great one" to set fuel economy standards for us. When fuel hit 4 clams a gallon, the industry tried everything under the sun on it's own to increase fuel economy without any help from Uncle Sam. In the heavy truck side, increased fuel economy is directly tied to our profits and your costs as a consumer. Better fuel economy is a competitive advantage. If Pepsi's fleet is averaging 8mpg and Coke is only getting 6mpg, who do you think can win a price war at the grocery store? It just goes to show how out of touch with the real world the "great one" is with reality. Here is to hoping he can get some of his change back in November!

Today I had to go to the local airport and pick up a car that is left for our corporate pilots to drive. I drove by the rental lots and saw that they were full of Camrys,Accords and assorted Nissans. We were also told by an officer in our company that the field sales people were going to start driving a mix of Toyota,Honda,and Subaru cars under the guise of higher resale value. That got me to thinking, didn't Detroit say that fleet and rental sales were killing the resale value of their cars and that they were going to backoff of that market because it wasn't profitable enough. Did the Japanese find a secret somewhere? Or are they not that far removed from Detroit?

Here's something you don't see very often, mad Toyota cutomers. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35150948/ns/business-autos/

If you watch import commercials, I think the message they are trying to convey is that "only smart/intellignet/sophisticated people buy our cars". Those thoughts feed into the thinking of a majority of Californians seeing themselves as smarter than the rest of the country and therefore translates into higher import sales. JMHO

Here lately, I've been thinking that American automakers should be studying Toyos public relations methods instead of their manufacturing methods

What crack are those guys smoking? Just as with WW2 failure is still not in the Japanese vocabulary.

Could Fiat bring Chrysler some competition for the Sprinter? I stumbled across this while looking over the Fiat site. http://www.iveco.com/en-us/products/pages/...%20-%20mot.aspx

How is it that they are broke,can't pay wages or tax refunds, but yet CARB still has the funds to pay people to think up crap like this.

A IT guy at work has had the steering column rebuilt 3 times on his Tacoma. They told him that he would have to pay for the next rebuild. So much for standing behind your product.

Wow! you don't see articles dissing Toyota very often. Just like the author said, they aren't as green as they would have you believe.

Where's the mention of supplier problem/defect?

If you can't Dodge it, Ram it!

I just saw two Flexes this weekend in Northwest Arkansas

A long article detailing his career and not one mention of Corinthian Leather. RIP

It would make an excellent competitor to the POS FJ Cruiser

I believe that they shut down the plant in CA and moved all production to WVa. As for Hino sales, they really didn't start to takeoff until they switched to an American drive train. If you look at their spec sheets, you will see that the engine and cab are Hino the rest of the truck is made by American vendors. A lot of their dealer network consists of Class 8 dealers that didn't have a full medium duty lineup.

Sure, a lot of the Big 3's problems are of their own making, but I think perceptions are worse than reality. My wife has an Oldsmobile van with 92k on the clock. It has been a steady performer and has never let me down. The only problems are with some of the interior trim, specifically the seats. Between mine own and the kids my wife babysits it's a wonder there is an interior left. Besides not all of GM's screwups are bad. I remember in tech school, word was a 5.7 Olds diesel block punched .125" over with 455 heads made for an idestructible drag race engine.

I agree with what you say. Manufacturing in China is like it was here during the industrial revolution. The answer to air pollution was a taller smokestack. If a guy got hurt on the job, throw him to the wolves because there is someone to take his place. I often wonder what our manufacturing costs would be minus the cost of regulatory compliance.

I would hate to see what would happen to Jeep if Renault got them. They all but killed Mack. I went to a Volvo truck repair class that was taught by a 40 year Mack man. He said they were so neglected by Renault that they were on their last leg when Volvo bought them. I would hate to see another American icon get run into the ground

Reading your post reminds me a of a guy I used to work with. He had a 77 F-150 he bought new. It had a 300-6 and a 4-speed. At one time he had Freuhauf trailer leafsprings in it so he could haul the 1 1/2 tons of cattle feed that would fit in the bed instead of the 1/2 ton that made the springs squat. He said he had to put a set of wheel bearings in every six months and it rode rough empty. Whenever I rode to work with him we never went over 60mph and got passed like we were in reverse. He still has the truck but doesn't work it like he used to.

Where did you get your truck? I want one myself

Yet more jobs moving south. If you were ever were around Sterling trucks, you could see that they had not seen any real changes since Ford sold them. Sure they had a few pieces from the Freightliner parts bin, but a lot of the stuff was still carried over from Ford. They allowed DTNA to offer a cheaper truck when the FL product was deemed to expensive.

Don't the latest versions of that commercial have the Fords photoshopped out. That was ineffect saying that if you want to play teeter-totter drive a Toyota and if you want to build a teeter-totter, drive a Super-Duty. Its hilarious that their 3rd try at a full-size truck flopped. Maybe Detroit isn't the pushover the press makes them out to be.

If Toyota can't do anything else, they can spin a story. If that was one of the big 3 the story would be about how they were ran out of the market and unable to compete. Once they sold trucks to all of the posers, their market went flat.