Toyota to suspend production for 11 days in Japan

...and Tire Manufacturing Companies will have to follow Toyota. Goodyear.

...and Tire Manufacturing Companies will have to follow Toyota. Goodyear.

No, it sounds like a terrible year.

Their will be consolidation this year. We may well have only three or fours makers this time next year, if things carry on as they currently are.

Or perhaps one, there is a rumor the government wants to nationalize the auto industry here. Toyota seems to have inflated their estimates and is actually bad off.

Overnight, Toyota reported that its U.S. sales in December were down 37% on year, a worse drop than Ford Motor Co’s 32% drop and GM’s 31 percent slide.

I'm supposed to be taking the Toyota factory tour at the end of March. If they are manufacturing again by then and still running the tours it might feel a bit uncomfortable. A bit like touring a hospital or something?

closing for three whole days in a month? incredible! will the staff also get 3 days off in january? and AGAIN five in feb, 6 in MARCH? oh dear

Are most of the employees working at the plant part-time? If so, 11 days are going to hurt.

Goodyear follow Toyota? You mean Bridgestone? Jwills: Most Toyota factory workers have been part-time for some years now - regular workers were shanghaid into part-time contracts - hence Toyota's advantage over the US makers. I called this two years ago - Toyota were in a serious numbers scam and would be hit hard when it came time to pay the tax on phantom profit. This shut down is supposed to generate a paper loss which then writes off the profit so-called earned last year. They'll also issue major recalls which on paper cost them a few hundred million. But the actual cost is much much smaller since over 90% of vehicle owners never respond to recalls. If I'm correct you won't see a major crisis with suppliers since this whole thing was planned with their knowledge - they're not expecting any orders. It's the kanban method - only produce parts on build order from the maker. SO most parts suppliers (including tire makers) sit and wait until orders come in, even if it takes a year - this explains why the transplant suppliers in the US could find time and line space to accept US maker orders.

Toyota should do the right thing and change all of it's cars into hybrids, to force Nissan and Honda etc..to go in to Hybrid mode, this would also help us use less gasoline and clean up our environment. Brazi has been using cars that run on sugar cane alcohol fuel, if Brazil has the brains to make good cars, can't the Japanese try something different to help turn this horrible economy around???