So sales fell 9% in February due to all the recall noise as the overall industry went up 13%.
Now in the first 8 days of March 2010 Toyota sales are up 50% from March 2009.
So much for this recall stuff hurting their image…? :gotme:
It’s short term due to incentives so only time will tell.
Yeah 1 month was not a good sample size to say it was going to hurt their sales.
But
6 business days in a single month is an even worse comparison for a sample size. Dealers usually push all sales in at the end of the month, and don’t record many sales in the first week or so. So this month Toyota announced a new “monumental” program at the beginning of the month after having not much of anything on the table the prior month (plus hinting that something was coming) and sales are up. This does not surprise me.
Lets see how things shake out for full year 2010. I don’t know if it will be up or down but at least it will be a decent sample size. Plus lets see what the average per vehicle incentive spend is compared to prior year.
i still wouldnt hesitate to buy a Toyota if i was looking for a new vehicle…personally i think the recall issue was made more of a big deal than what is was IMO
After Toyota brand sales fell 10 percent in February as it struggled with safety recalls, on March 1 Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. introduced 0 percent financing, subsidized leases and free maintenance incentives.
Toyota Senior Vice President Don Esmond told suppliers today that North American sales surged about 50 percent in the first eight days this month, The Associated Press reported.
But for the full month, Toyota’s U.S. sales will increase about 30 percent, Edmunds.com analysts forecast.
“Incentives work best in the early going, but they start to peter out as the month goes along,” Edmunds senior analyst Jessica Caldwell said today. “That’s why it’s important for Toyota to find something else in the months ahead.”
George Magliano, director of North American auto research for IHS Global Insight in New York, said Toyota quickly attracted loyalists who had deferred buying until an incentive was offered. But the offers won’t help for long, Magliano said.
“This will boost sales a little bit, but it’s not going to continue beyond this month,” he said. “They’re still wrestling with the recalls and new reports of problems.”
Magliano said Toyota’s March results would tend to improve anyway because the industry is rebounding from decades-low sales in the first quarter of last year.
So Toyota was down 39% in March of last year over 2008 (Link) and this month will probably be up 30%.
So they will still be down ~20% over 2008 levels (unless my math is off)?
Like I said before, lets see what the full year looks like
This is like all the people getting excited that their 401ks are up huge over 2009.
So what?
2009 blew monkeys.
Yeah but who cares compared to '08. The point is that despite the recalls people are still using the incentives and buying cars, to the point that they are projected (as in your Edmonds quote) to be up 30% for this month from last year. With all the bad press one would think you’d see the number decrease not increase.
It seems most buyers either don’t care, or don’t see this issue as something to stop them from saving money on a Toyota right now.
I’m pretty surprised by this honestly. I do believe the recall is getting hyped a little too much in the news but at the same time I wouldn’t want my wife driving my daughter around in a new Toyota right now either. I’m really starting to believe there is some critical bug in Toyota’s drive by wire programming.
Well the feds now have that outa-control prius from CA and won’t give it to Toyota until they’re done looking at it first. (at least from what I read yesterday)
We’ll see if anything come out of it.
it seems like everyone i talk to says they won’t buy a toyota now… so this is surprising to me.
Yeah, that Prius story was the one that made me start believing they had a more serious problem. That wasn’t a, “oh, my throttle stuck and that’s why I drove off the road officer” excuse from some idiot who was probably texting. The Prius guy’s ride went for 20 minutes, even calling 911 and having a cop catch up to him. Then the cop said when they finally got the guy stopped he could smell the cooked brakes.
This looks real bad too:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/03/10/toyota.whistleblower/index.html?hpt=T2
Bottom line, I don’t know how any intelligent person could put the safety of their family in the hands of Toyota right now, at least until the truth comes out. 0% financing or not.
getting your pedal stuck is like winning a lottery.
Tell that to the families of the 52 people who had died so far.
see what i dont understand is why this guy with the prius didnt even try to turn off the car just because he was afraid of other cars behind him…sooo you would rather potentially die hitting something at 90mph then put your hazards on and turn off the car???
as said before early prius models in the first few months may need there, software updated, in general how many companies issue recalls with 18 probs, not hundreds. and this should be the deal, omg toyota had a prob, its the talk that toyota is making unsafe cars by the media, um most car companies have had recalls that can killl people, but because its toyota’s first time, its like they have been the only one with a prob.
hey sorry i kno its long but eh what u gonna do.
like gm had serious recalls right now, no one is talkin about, honda has some issues with air bags and window motors, dodge/chryslers r junk and have all sorts of parts like trannys going, ur brakes failing and could result in a crash, etc y is no one making a big deal about all of that. is it because they r accustomed to shitty cars that break and have problems, so when toyota does it its like like the devil and worse than any other recall that is happening.
and to the people that may get into a so called <faulty> toytota jus put it in neutral , its not that hard, and the guy that made the news and pushed this all forward, he was a cop and called 911 cause he didnt kno what to do in a panicking situation. hmmm i wonder
uhh the guy did try and he couldnt, listen to the 911 call again
GM recall of over a million for steering columns made the news and so did Honda’s shrapnel airbag but both did not come near the 8+ million and counting recalls that Toyota is making for the unintended acceleration.
Plus if you put yourself on a pedestal for quality, expect everyone to throw rocks when they see a flaw
Also, the run-away Toyota story is a lot more dangerous than a window motor failing. Its not like your window gets stuck shut if you have a faulty Toyota. What Ron said and that. That is why its a big story. Not because the media is out to fuck your beloved Toyota.
Maybe, but people are fucking stupid. Like the one idiot who called 911 when their car would not stop. Instead of having a 2 minute call with some retarded 911 dispacher, just put the thing in neutral and use the brakes, BRILLANT
Darwin is pwning people who can’t figure out how to stop a car with a stuck gas pedal…
Yeah I said this in the other thread; it really shows a lack of simple automotive knowledge in the general population that someone wouldn’t just throw it in neutral and hit the brakes. Although with the Prius the gear selection is electronic too… lol.
And the 911 operator kept telling him to turn the car off… which I would definitely think is electronically disabled while the car is at speed. Imagine hitting it by accident and loosing power steering?