Toyota: new King in town

It is real. It is a milestone. It is something that seems like a new age:

• Toyota Motor Corp. became the world's top auto seller in the first three months of the year, passing rival General Motors Corp. for the first time, the Japanese automaker said Tuesday.

It is bad news for GM? Possibly, no. Wagoner was cutting fleet contracts, which contribute mainly to poor margins. But Toyota is telling to the world, that its long term strategy is paying off. Toyota long term strategy focus on quality and efficiency is paying off.

Let's see, if automakers will learn the same way Boeing did in the past. Boeing faced EADS (Airbus), and is again on top of the hill.

Again, automakers need new corporate leadership like Sloan or Iacocca.

Auto industry: too much capacity and players

The auto industry is like a volcano, exploding large amounts of mud. The reason for this explosion is simple: too many players in auto industry, in US.

Probably, US is becoming the "world arena" for automakers: GM (with brands like Chevrolet, Saab, Daewoo or Opel), Ford (with Ford, Mazda, Land Rover or Jaguar), Daimler-Chrysler (with Mercedes, Dodge or Smart), Toyota (with Toyota, Lexus), Honda, Hyunday, Nissan, VW (VW, Audi, or Rools-Royce), etc.

DaimlerChrysler today said fourth-quarter net income fell 40 percent to 577 million euros ($757 million) from 966 million euros. Revenue dropped 1.9 percent to 40.7 billion euros. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expected net income of 726 million euros in the quarter.

No matter Zetsche will argue, Daimler will regain its previous name, Daimler-Benz.

Last of the Mohicans's strategy of GM and Ford

These are the titles today for the car industry about January, 2007 sales:

"Car sales shocker: Ford tumbles to No. 4
GM sales down 16.6%; Ford down 19%; DaimlerChrysler's up 3.2%"

Apparently there is no near recovery for Ford or GM. Simultaneously, Toyota rose to US's n.º 2 automaker. Even DaimlerChrysler is from mixed foreign origin (Germany). The Last of the Mohicans's strategy of american automakers of insisting on big cars, big power, big oil spenders, may, if the course isn't changed, lead to their death, alone and miserable.

Sorry, but maybe plain and words are necessary: "It's the ecology, stupids!".

Automakers: winners and losers

After the turmoil of US automakers, specially Ford and GM, we see the headlines on Nissan: Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co. said Friday that profit tumbled 22.6 percent in the October-December quarter amid rising commodity costs, tougher competition and softening sales.

At the other side, the winners are: Toyota and Honda (Nissan, which was recently surpassed by Honda as Japan's third-largest automaker in terms of vehicle production).

The major problems for the losers are: US market (Nissan was "certain" to miss its global sales target of 3.73 million units for the business year ending on March 31 as it underperformed in the United States and Japan), energy and innovativeness (In the first half of the fiscal year, Nissan launched just one of 10 new products scheduled for introduction).

Finally this: Combined U.S. sales for January by Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. outstripped those by GM and Ford combined.

Ford: again

We are the ones, that love people that admit to learn with others. This is about some speculation in markets, last month, concerning a possible connection between Ford and Toyota. Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford, had been in Tokyo, last month, and now he says: he deeply admires the Japanese automaker for its manufacturing processes and product development strategy.

It is remarkable that a person who is the top responsible of a brand saying this about a competitor: Mulally called Toyota "the finest machine in the world, the finest production system in the world. So we went to study with the master. I really wanted to connect with each of the manufacturers in the industry and to do it quickly".

Probably, some Americans, does not like this approach. In our opinion, it is the best approach: to be a learner, instead of a blind and an arrogant person.

Ford Motor Company

Yesterday, it was the last day of President Ford. Today, The Wall Street Journal tried some gossip, about an eventual meeting of Toyota and Ford CEO's.

Are we witnessing another gossip about Ford, like the one with Renault/Nissan? We will see it.

But, look it to the volume of Ford stock, during December 2006: huge. We will see, if it is bad or good!

No news

To read this: Toyota said to overtake Ford in January 2007; it is like to say this: in 2007, USA will not leave Iraq.

And Ford will be third in cars, in USA. Because, globally, Ford is now third.

The picture for America's automakers are not good, even in USA:

• GM enjoyed 28% market share in 2001. Today they have 24%.
• Ford had 21% in 2001. Today they have 15%.
• Daimler-Chrysler came from near 15% market share to a 13% level, now.

Probably, Asians do it better!