Toyota overhauling entire U.S. operation -Michigan Auto News & Reviews - MLive.com
For years, Toyota Motor Corp. could do no wrong in the U.S. market. Customers snapped up the Japanese automaker's Camrys, RAV4s and Lexuses (Lexi?) as fast as the automaker could build them, prompting Toyota to rapidly expand its manufacturing footprint in the United States.
But as the U.S. economy crumbled last year, Toyota took a mighty fall. Its sales are down 38 percent this year, an even steeper drop than the industry as a whole, which is off 35 percent.
Yoshimi Inaba, Toyota's top executive in the United States, said Monday that Toyota could be facing the once unthinkable prospect of closing plants here. Inaba, who met with reporters in Washington, also said it needs to make its vehicles more appealing to consumers. According to a report in the Detroit News:
Inaba acknowledged that Toyota vehicles had often lacked "passion" and that the company's vehicles must be "more exciting, more nimble."
"Toyota is a good car but not exciting. Those are the comments we usually (or) always get," Inaba said.
Toyota overhauling entire U.S. operation -rMichigan Auto News & Reviews - MLive.com
But as the U.S. economy crumbled last year, Toyota took a mighty fall. Its sales are down 38 percent this year, an even steeper drop than the industry as a whole, which is off 35 percent.
Yoshimi Inaba, Toyota's top executive in the United States, said Monday that Toyota could be facing the once unthinkable prospect of closing plants here. Inaba, who met with reporters in Washington, also said it needs to make its vehicles more appealing to consumers. According to a report in the Detroit News:
Inaba acknowledged that Toyota vehicles had often lacked "passion" and that the company's vehicles must be "more exciting, more nimble."
"Toyota is a good car but not exciting. Those are the comments we usually (or) always get," Inaba said.
Toyota overhauling entire U.S. operation -rMichigan Auto News & Reviews - MLive.com
