Hey everyone,

I have been thinking about this a little lately, and I wanted to see what you all thought about it. Am I way off track?!

It seems to me as though Toyota is paralleling GM of the 70's and 80's. And by that I mean, cutting corners - doing things cheaper, riding along on a reputation instead of producing the product to maintain the reputation? It seems like Toyota (and I've thought this since before this whole recall situation) is cutting corners a lot. I don't spend too much time in Toyota's, and I personally strongly dislike the company - mainly because their products all lack excitement or driving dynamics (I guess I can't say all, my experience is very limited). I don't know - I don't follow Toyota too closely and I could be way off track. I was just wondering what you though about it.

If that is what is happening, I find it ironic. You would think they could see what happened to GM and how hard they are having to work to get past all the perceptions people developed of their products that were less then desirable, and possibly learn from it.

Anyhow, that is my opinion and I just wondered if I am somewhat accurate, or totally off base. Have a great day all!

A lot of us agree with your assessment of the current situation, Mr. Ouch.

I agree with what you are saying. There is hard evidence that Toyota is cutting corners where they have been requesting suppliers cut 30% of their costs off the products.

Here's hoping their marketshare hits 35% of it's peak !

I think that you're right.... and I think that it's happening a lot faster at Toyota than it did at GM.

I've been referring to Toyota's issues as GM syndrome. When people keep patting you on the back even after you start going down hill, it makes it very hard to see just how bad things have gotten until you finally screw up big time.

+1

++2

The only major difference between the two companies was their reasoning for such adjustments. For GM, there was a requirement to consider the foreign competitors with their smaller, lighter and more fuel efficient a threat to their existence. All of the domestic auto makers had to change their mode of thinking for what the markets demands were. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to have the knowledge or skill to pull it off very well, and the entire product line seemed to suffer for it.

For Toyota, I suppose it all came down to making more money. Quite sad, really.