Most important task at Toyota is to manage the decline of the domestics

[robertlane]

"The most important management task at Toyota these days is to manage the decline of the domestics.”

 

"The most important management task at Toyota these days is to manage the decline of the domestics.” This damning statement from noted automotive consultant James Womack speaks to the prevailing mindset in some quarters of our industry.

 

Womack is quoted in the current issue of Fortune magazine, which carries a story describing Toyota’s as “America’s best car company.” Whether or not one agrees with this conclusion, the assertion does raise the question of what Detroit can do in the long term to compete with Toyota. | MORE |

[inteller]

"The most important management task at Toyota these days is to manage the decline of the domestics.”

 

"The most important management task at Toyota these days is to manage the decline of the domestics.” This damning statement from noted automotive consultant James Womack speaks to the prevailing mindset in some quarters of our industry.

 

Womack is quoted in the current issue of Fortune magazine, which carries a story describing Toyota’s as “America’s best car company.” Whether or not one agrees with this conclusion, the assertion does raise the question of what Detroit can do in the long term to compete with Toyota. | MORE |

 

 

sounds like a call to arms to me. annie get your guns.

[RichardJensen]

Wonder what Womack has to say about Toyota's San Antonio truck plant, or their Mississippi Highlander plant.

[tim kakouris]

it pains me to read on the net about how many people are rooting for the domestics to fail and the japanese to "win". just tragic.

[jasonj80]

it pains me to read on the net about how many people are rooting for the domestics to fail and the Japanese to "win". just tragic.

 

 

That's the American way, America is evil -- American Companies are evil. It is acutally pretty sad.

[robertlane]

it pains me to read on the net about how many people are rooting for the domestics to fail and the japanese to "win". just tragic.

Maybe some of these people who are rooting for the domestics to fail have been burned by them via bad products. It's no mystery that the Big Three built decades of vehicles with poor quality and the Asians have not.

 

While it's true that the domestics have greatly improved, they don't have the track record to back it up.

 

People have a strange habit of patronizing companies with good products.

[silvrsvt]

People have a strange habit of patronizing companies with good products.

 

Those same people also like cutting down those same companies when they get too big also, just because

[macattak1]

Those same people also like cutting down those same companies when they get too big also, just because

 

Greetings,

 

People also patronize non US mfgs. because we are constantly hammered about how guilty we should be and feel for living in successful America.

 

Further, some companies release models to a closed and protected home market and perfect them over 2 or 3 years and then bring them over to the US as fast as they can sell them with few to no restrictions.

 

We would stop feeling guilty for being Americans and start buying US made products as appropriate. We could also curtail to a cetrain degree the freedoms of outside closed market corporations to do business in the US. I am not much for tarriffs and limiting volume. But there is no reason why we should, in the 21st century, have trade laws and such that empower and meet our competitions needs while our companies are hamstrung.

 

Peace and Blessings

[Ovaltine]

it pains me to read on the net about how many people are rooting for the domestics to fail and the japanese to "win". just tragic.

 

I suspect that in addition to the quality and dealer treatment issues discussed ad nauseum on here, another factor in the perception of NON Big-3 workers not being sympathetic towards the current distress of Big-3 employees has something to do with the countless years of multi-thousands of dollar "bonuses" being handed out to both blue and white collar workers at GM/Ford/Chrysler while the vehicles they produced were routinely being marketed at $30-40+ thousand dollar MSRP's.

 

Many people I know found the annual special advertisements and discounts geared towards the cash laden auto workers and offered by outfits like ABC Warehouse and motorcycle and RV stores especially galling.

 

Combine that with the years of no drug or insurance co-pays by Big-3 workers, while the rest of the U.S. employed world was getting a big dose of "globalization" medicine (pun intended), and I think you've got a good recipe for a little "class envy" and their contentment in the Big-3 workers being taken down a notch or two.

 

Don't kill the messenger. I just calls'em like I sees'em. And from many of the people I talk to, the situation discussed above is definitely real, and an additional explanation for American apathy towards domestic automotive producers.

 

-Ovaltine

Edited March 19, 2007 by Ovaltine

[Deanh]

sounds like a call to arms to me. annie get your guns.

I'm with you Annie...that is just plain ARROGANCE personified.........

[Ovaltine]

 

Say.....what's the definition of a "pioneer"?

 

A guy face down in a puddle with an arrow in his back.

 

 

 

http://www.affordablehousinginstitute.org/...happens_wh.html

[Daryll40]

I am your basic auto consumer. My parents bot a new car every year or two and I've probably owned 25 cars in my 31 years of driving. Currently wife drives a 2003 Mercury Mountaineer (best Ford product we've ever owned), daughter a 2007 Honda CR-V and me a 2004 Lexus LS430. The quality of the American product is getting close.

 

But I can remember MANY vehicles from the 1970s and 80s where stuff never worked right and all you got was dealer arrogance. The culture at the domestics would never ever have allowed quality...management and the unions were too busy sucking dry every penny of profit for themselves, instead of reinvesting into better products. So my friends tasted the Pinto and Vega as new drivers and never went back. I had a '79 Plymouth Volare that had rust HOLES within 18 months. My friend with a Honda Prelude just laughed.

 

I think the unions were necessary in the beginning. But it's gotten to the point where the company exists for the benefit of the workers, instead of how it SHOULD be (the other way around). The US auto industry is a walking dead. Yes, I am sorry for what that means to the US economy and middle class worker, but we consumers were farked so bad so many times by GM/F/Chrys that many of us just can't feel bad enough to shed any tears.

 

Oh, one more thing. In spite of wife's great 2003 Mercury Mountaineer, I had a decision to make when we bot the Honda CR-V last fall. I wanted something daughter could drive for 10 years (until she can afford her own replacmement). Consumer Reports (yeah, you guys hate that mag but the reality is that they are basically correct albeit some occasional errors) says an 8 year old Honda has less defects/repairs than a 3 year old Ford. 'nuff said. Sorry! Do I want my kid calling "dad, this light came on.....dad, it won't start....dad, it's making this noise".

 

It's about over guys. The US auto industry will continue to exist as a downsized niche product supplier. Get over it and get on with your lives.

[Deanh]

basically all of us here are all crossing our fingers that this import worshipping will/ has awoken the sleeping giant........and if you look at some of the "beloveds" earlier attempts at gaining inroads they have their fair share of history as well...that is if the rust hasn't killed em off first....so here we are with role reversals...and catchup for the domestics....

[jpd80]

Did anyone bother to read the article?

There's only one quote from James Womack:

"The most important management task at Toyota these days is to manage the decline of the domestics."

I'm sure this one line has been used as a vehicle for article's author, John McCormick.

The rest of the article is John McCormick own ideas of "Consolidating the Big 3"

 

In many ways Ford is in equal, if not greater trouble than Chrysler Group. The Dearborn automaker appears to be floundering from one crisis to the next without any discernable strategy or firm grasp on the depth of problems at hand, be they uncompetitive models, production issues or ineffective management. Month to month, Ford’s sales in the US are dropping and there seems to be no end in sight to the downward slide.

Way too early to write off Ford's recovery, they're doing lots behind the scenes and new models are on the way

Given this bleak scenario, one has to wonder whether it might not make sense to cut to the chase, fold Ford into the mix and create one "super" automaker out of the best elements of Detroit's three home teams.

GM is almost back in the black, why would you want to triple their misery and debts?

 

Merging the most attractive parts of GM, Ford and Chrysler, while offloading the rest, could produce a very powerful and capable company. In the long run it may be the only way that Detroit can compete successful, both in the US and worldwide, with the ever strengthening power of Toyota.

How about selling products people want to buy?

 

Can anyone see how illogical the whole idea of consolidation of the big three would be? Notice how he skips over the "merging the attractive parts and offloading the rest". It's that "offloading the rest" that makes me laugh, probably 70% of the aquisition.

Edited March 20, 2007 by jpd80

[RichardJensen]

It's no mystery that the Big Three built decades of vehicles with poor quality and the Asians have not.

Sure they did. It's just that they hardly sold here at all.

 

CR dubbed the Subaru 360 "unacceptably hazardous" in 1968.

[68Cougar]

Did anyone bother to read the article?

Of course not!

 

Merging the most attractive parts of GM, Ford and Chrysler, while offloading the rest, could produce a very powerful and capable company. In the long run it may be the only way that Detroit can compete successful, both in the US and worldwide, with the ever strengthening power of Toyota.

Because making one big automaker out of several worked so well for the British car industry.

[68Cougar]

Maybe some of these people who are rooting for the domestics to fail have been burned by them via bad products. It's no mystery that the Big Three built decades of vehicles with poor quality and the Asians have not.

 

While it's true that the domestics have greatly improved, they don't have the track record to back it up.

 

People have a strange habit of patronizing companies with good products.

That has a lot to do with it. The domestics didn't care when they put out sub par products, now the customers don't care when the domestics do put out good cars. The general public has little symphony for autoworkers that make more than most "middle class" workers. Nor for management that is paid an obscene salary plus bonuses regardless how their company preforms. The domestics have only themselves to blame for where they are at. Blaming the customer for wanting to spend their hard earned money on a what they feel is a quality product just cements the negative view that John Q. Public has for GM, Ford, DCX, and the UAW.

[jpd80]

Should consumers buy:

American cars made in Canada/Mexico or Asian cars made in USA?

 

The most perplexing part for consumers is while Toyota builds new US plants and employs more US workers, Ford and GM continue to close down US factories, lay off workers and move production to Canada and Mexico.

 

The only reason to move factories just offshore is because labour costs are too high.

 

Perhaps if the USA had compulsory superannuation nationwide things would be different.

Works in Australia:

Companies are required by law to make additional payments equavilent to 9% of salary into all current employee's pension plans. The plans are independant of employers and travel with the employee from job to job.

 

Oh, and give all workers 4 weeks annual leave instead of that stingy 2 weeks.

Edited March 20, 2007 by jpd80

[RichardJensen]

Because making one big automaker out of several worked so well for the British car industry.

 

American Leyland.

 

 

If GM buys Chrysler that's TOTALLY what I'm going to call the combined company.

 

And it'll be real easy to come up with a new badge and put it on the cars where the GM badge is right now.

[jpd80]

 

American Leyland.

 

 

If GM buys Chrysler that's TOTALLY what I'm going to call the combined company.

 

And it'll be real easy to come up with a new badge and put it on the cars where the GM badge is right now.

 

A Viper 'Vette, sounds German to me, LOL

Or is that a 'Vette Viper? sounds like something on a windshield.

Edited March 20, 2007 by jpd80

[triton-boy]

I am your basic auto consumer. My parents bot a new car every year or two and I've probably owned 25 cars in my 31 years of driving. Currently wife drives a 2003 Mercury Mountaineer (best Ford product we've ever owned), daughter a 2007 Honda CR-V and me a 2004 Lexus LS430. The quality of the American product is getting close.

 

But I can remember MANY vehicles from the 1970s and 80s where stuff never worked right and all you got was dealer arrogance. The culture at the domestics would never ever have allowed quality...management and the unions were too busy sucking dry every penny of profit for themselves, instead of reinvesting into better products. So my friends tasted the Pinto and Vega as new drivers and never went back. I had a '79 Plymouth Volare that had rust HOLES within 18 months. My friend with a Honda Prelude just laughed.

 

I think the unions were necessary in the beginning. But it's gotten to the point where the company exists for the benefit of the workers, instead of how it SHOULD be (the other way around). The US auto industry is a walking dead. Yes, I am sorry for what that means to the US economy and middle class worker, but we consumers were farked so bad so many times by GM/F/Chrys that many of us just can't feel bad enough to shed any tears. its a free country america you do what ya gotta remember you can have kids to fight a war over seas whiLe other countries dont........ but rule your industries........one day you will wake up..........are you enjoying house prices falling? you aint seen nothing yet..... just wait but///////// iam not even an american and your slamming your own countries businesses.........hey trust me ....other countries love ,you have kids and support the war effort for oil for us too .,,,as they ravage your home based industries...........WAKE UP FOOLS....

 

Oh, one more thing. In spite of wife's great 2003 Mercury Mountaineer, I had a decision to make when we bot the Honda CR-V last fall. I wanted something daughter could drive for 10 years (until she can afford her own replacmement). Consumer Reports (yeah, you guys hate that mag but the reality is that they are basically correct albeit some occasional errors) says an 8 year old Honda has less defects/repairs than a 3 year old Ford. 'nuff said. Sorry! Do I want my kid calling "dad, this light came on.....dad, it won't start....dad, it's making this noise".

 

It's about over guys. The US auto industry will continue to exist as a downsized niche product supplier. Get over it and get on with your lives.

[mettech]

That's the American way, America is evil -- American Companies are evil. It is acutally pretty sad.

 

America is driven by anything new and progressive. That's why we left the old mother land behind. :happy feet:

 

The USA has the largest GDP in the world. It remains that way because of new ideas. :stats:

 

The only evil that USA has is the drag of non-progressive companies. :shades:

[Automotive Paint]

I think everyone is over analyzing this myself. I truly believe in most cases the Big 3 quality is on par with the Japs and not the factor driving people to buy Japanese. As someone who buys a new ride for business every ~14 months or so IMO the biggest problem the Big 3 has is crappy re-sale overall due to too many vehicles being produced which then require incentives to sell.

 

How many people have sat down at a Big 3 dealer post 9/11 and heard, "Your trade is worth less than it should because the new models have 0% or a $4K rebate on them."

 

A perfect example is the Japs didn't 0% the Camry to death to move it post 9/11 therefore it has excellent resale. Now compare the resale and incentives on the Big 3's comparable cars, look at how many people have bought those comparable cars only since 9/11 and imagine what they are offered for trade on those cars after 2 or 3 years of ownership.

 

IMO the Big 3 builds a nice car but they must build too many to sustain the plant in which they are built which in return over-supplies the market.

 

I really think it's that simple.

[silvrsvt]

IMO the Big 3 builds a nice car but they must build too many to sustain the plant in which they are built which in return over-supplies the market.

 

I really think it's that simple.

 

You bring up a good point...GM decided that 0% financing was the thing needed to move Cars after 9/11 and well everyone except the Japanese are paying for it, because they followed suite. I think Ford has finally realized that 0% super sales and unrealistic sales projections of years ago isn't the way to run the company any more, and when new projects get approved, they have much more realistic sales and pricing goals on them.

[Bluecon]

Most of the crying I see is done by the leaders of the Big 2.5 and the unions. Another reason people are not buying the Big 2.5 product is the unions just can't help but involve themselves in politics. Buy a union built vehicle and you are supporting the Democrat party or in Canada it is closer to communists.