Toyota Quality Control

Hmmm, perhaps now is the time for G.M. to grab back some of its market share.

Ken Thomas of the Associated Press reports:

Toyota suspended U.S. sales of some of its most popular vehicles — including the best-selling car in America, the Camry — to fix sticking gas pedals that could make the cars accelerate without warning.

In another blow to the world's No. 1 automaker, Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday it would halt some production at six assembly plants beginning the week of Feb. 1 "to assess and coordinate activities."

Counting Cars

Anyone interested in a little anecdotal, totally unscientific auto industry research? Today when I was walking from my office at a Silicon Valley university to the train that would carry me very slowly back to San Francisco, I decided to count the number of American-made cars entering the campus through the main entrance. Those of you partial to "Made in America" t-shirts won't like the results. I thought it was going to be a shutout until an ancient, repainted Caprice Classic rolled into campus to make it 23-1.

That was worse than I thought, although most of the cars were probably owned by students in the night MBA program clearly partial to BMW's, so I decided to count cars in the Caltrain parking lot. Again, bad news for American automakers — 19-1 with a single Chevy truck. And yes, at this point I'm beginning to look very suspicious as I wander around the lot shaking my head and counting on my fingers.

When I get back to SF, I take a stroll down my block and it is another near shutout with a single new Ford Focus competing with 16 foreign cars. And the Focus is owned by neighbors whose other car is an Audi. There's even an old Alfa Romeo sedan on my street, proving that San Franciscans will buy an unreliable Italian car before they'll consider buying American.

I'm not questioning anyone's choices. After all, I drive a 1990 Camry that's been stolen and, unfortunately, returned three times. But the tabulations make me wonder what the count is in other parts of the country.

So if you feel like it, head out on the street and give me some numbers along with your location.

GM's Brilliant Strategy

GM clearly has no shortage of problems, but one of the most enduring and idiotic is the corporation's insistence on creating various models that are basically identical and having them compete against each other for buyers and GM marketing money. As The Wall Street Journal
explains:

For example, GM has four mass-market midsize sedans. The Chevy Malibu is backed by a ubiquitous ad campaign and is a top-seller. Meanwhile, the Buick LaCrosse, Pontiac G6 and Saturn Aura have struggled to build the awareness and recognition needed to compete. Toyota Motor Corp. has one model to compete with those offerings -- the Camry -- and last year it alone outsold GM's four models, 473,308 to 386,024.

A year ago the Aura was named "Car of the Year" at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, but now, with Malibu marketing in full swing, Saturn dealers are struggling to move the Aura. In some parts of the country dealers are offering rebates and 0% financing on the car. Mr. Maguire said he had to line up an Aura financing package on his own because GM's marketing support for the car wasn't boosting sales enough.

Pontiac could run into a similar problem this year when it introduces a new rear-wheel-drive sedan, the G8. Although it is Pontiac's most important launch since 2004, GM marketing barely mentions the car.

Even when GM does spend on its smaller brands, it often sees little return. In past years, television ads have promoted Saab's sports cars as "born from jets," but in 2007 Saab dealers sold just 32,711 vehicles -- not much more than a single month of sales for the Camry or Honda Motor Co.'s Accord.