business

Toyota takes 23% hit to profit on lower sales, yen

16 Comments
By YURI KAGEYAMA

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16 Comments
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I am sure they will be able to claim back lost profits from the Japanese taxpayer somehow; perhaps another "green car" subsidy or something.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

I am sure they will be able to claim back lost profits from the Japanese taxpayer somehow

Aren't we already paying for new American jobs?

https://www.japantoday.com/category/politics/view/abe-toyota-chief-to-work-together-to-boost-u-s-jobs

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I assume it's due to receding enthusiasm for hybrid and other eco-friendly vehicles. Toyota went big into this around 10 years ago.

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It would be interesting to know how much of that profit was earned on sales in Japan and how much tax was paid in Japan. Seeing as how Toyota paid no corporate tax in Japan from 2008 to 2013...

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milk that American market while it lasts the same can be said of US companies in China, for whatever tariffs Trump decides, if any, to put on Chinese goods Im sure China will reciprocate. Say goodbye to that $Trillion airplane orders Boeing, Apple, GM Ford etc. Last I checked the Chinese market is where all the growth is

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

it does not matter they are one of the privileged ones who get a government safety net no matter how incompetent they become

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I don't buy new cars anyway, but it seems a bit pointless buying one at the moment, given that self-driving is very likely in the next five years. Cars are the world's highest-value manufacturing industry, a huge part of the economy, and this could be a massive disruption to it, much bigger than either of the oil shocks.

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This is a continuing trend of Japanese manufacturers losing the international markets that they used to control and, it's not just cars. The electronics and household appliances markets have also shifted to other countries. So many Japanese countries are struggling to keep international markets, but the great leader Abe is still basing his economic recovery on exports. "Knock! Knock! Mr. Abe! Are you paying attention?"

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

He is basing it on exports, because the domestic market doesn't exist.

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Couple self-driving cars with car sharing ... I think the next thing is running a fleet of self driving cars that can be hailed by uber (this is probably already in the works). We wont need so many cars, and as a result huge amounts of capital will be freed up for other uses.

It's ok though. Sharp doesn't just make pencils anymore. The loser car makers can go out of business. Only the best will survive. But Japan will try to keep the losers afloat too.

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It will create inexpensive cars in USA to low income people. so it will create low paid wakes in USA to buy its cheap cars.

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I live in Henderson, NV, USA (next to Las Vegas). My wife, who is Japanese, drives a 2014 Blue Toyota Prius V. I believe it is called a Prius Alpha in Japan. She loves it because it averages 43MPG and is relatively quiet (until you want to drive on a slight uphill at 70MPH). Then the vehicle is as noisy as a chainsaw because the gasoline powered engine is revving so high. Anyways, I cannot speak about Toyota's worldwide sales, however, I would like to opine a bit about their US sales. My comments are based on my experience with Toyota and the opinions of friends and co-workers.

First and foremost what most people do not know is that when totaling worldwide sales, purchases by rental car companies are included in the total. As you can guess in the US these rental car company sales are HUGE to the automotive industries' bottom-line. For the US market winning or losing the rental car sales market is a tremendous boom or hit to their total sales numbers.

CAR ITSELF TECHNOLOGY: Toyota's insistence on using the Entune system for their car info/entertainment system is a big negative. Entune is so "clunky" and non-user friendly that my wife barely even uses it outside of connecting her cell phone via bluetooth and changing radio stations. For fun when we first purchased the vehicle, I used the Entune navigation feature which receives its' data from you cell phone (of course this eats up a lot of the data from your cell phone data plan if you use the navigation constantly). The display map via Entune was a disgrace when compared to our trusty Garmin. Also the Garmin comes with free lifetime maps and traffic updates.

ENGINE: In the US cars in the $25K - $38K (depending on options) most of the non-Japanese automotive companies have switched or will switch to some variant of a 2.0L turbo motor. Even Chevrolet is putting one in their 2018 Equinox SUV and it is available in several other competitors including Ford, Volkwagen, Hyundai, etc.. Toyota (along with Nissan, Suburu, and Honda) continue to use, although definitely proven and reliable, dinosaur technology in their engines. When you compare the specs of HP, torque, and MPG ratings, the Japanese car engines cannot compete with the many variants of the 2.0L turbo.

DESIGN: If you look at the new body designs of all of Toyota's vehicles comments from my friends and co-workers ranged from uninspired to ugly to disgraceful, especially the hood and grill designs. My best friend said, "Just look at a picture side by side of a RAV4 and a Hyundai Santa Fe or Tucson. There is no comparison. The RAV4 body is so ugly." Across the board with Toyota's products the body designs, accents, wheels, etc. seemed uninspired and boring.

PRICE-POINT: For whatever reasons Toyota (and Honda) vehicles in particular always seems to be $2K to $4K higher in price than its' competitors in the $25K-$38K market whether sedan or SUV or what the dollar to yen rate is. Nissan, Mazda, and Subaru have competitive prices when compared with non-Japanese car companies. This $2K-$4K increase is a big deal when considering people's finances and what they are willing to pay for an automobile. I sometimes wonder if Toyota and Honda suffer from the same old problem that plagues Sony which is "our product and quality is so much better than the competition that people will pay extra money for it." If this was still 2003 and earlier then Toyota, Honda, and Sony would have a point. However, in 2017 almost everyone else has caught up or surpassed the technology and quality that the Japanese companies produce.
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Alfie makes what seems to be a gee whiz comment here, "Seeing as how Toyota paid no corporate tax in Japan from 2008 to 2013.."

I realize that to some people, that period seems like ancient history. And a company like Toyota not paying corporate taxes in Japan... it is UNCONSCIONABLE! But come on, people. Do we all have alzheimer's? Are we like that guy in Memento and have to be reminded of history every time we read a news article?

Toyota did not pay taxes because it had no profits. Why? Gee. I wonder. We had the 2008 world recession and its aftermath for a couple years, and just when that improved, we had the 2011 earthquake and then the flooding in Thailand the year after. They had the acceleration recall / shakedown in there too. So this is just not a surprising statement at all. Of course they paid no taxes. They had no profits.

Comments by Jay above are not very enlightening. I don't know what they have to do with Toyota's financial performance. They had a great year last year, and this year was so-so. It is not a big deal. The other comments just make me sigh. Auto technology is not simply stereos and navigation. I don't know anybody who cares about that. Last time I checked, Toyota has the record for hybrid fuel efficiency, so I would guess that Toyota knows plenty about engines that other companies don't. They are delivering the right engine at the right price point. Other companies are flailing and might have something better, but if they cannot provide it profitably, it is not going to be sustainable anyway. Toyota makes bank from its old technologies, from its newer technologies, and not so much from efforts where it is reaching into the future, as with EVs and fuel cell vehicles. But two out of three is much better than most companies can manage.

And I keep seeing people diss Toyota on its design and look, but SURPRISE, people pay, as you say, 2000 to 4000 dollars more for a Toyota than they do for other similar cars. Why is that bad? To me, that means something. You put it all together and what it means is that consumers, who pay real money for real cars, know quite a bit more than all the analysts and arm-chair critics do. Year after year I see people like Jay criticizing Toyota for this and that, and year after year Toyota racks up sales and profits and everyone else struggles to catch up.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

So, what is the profit that Toyota makes?

So many SMES in Japan are just barely surviving and Toyota doesn't pay tax ?

Abe and Toyoda have private meetings?

The OB network comes into its own....

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