On Aug 22, 8:04 am, "Leon"
Leon, as you know, Tundras are made about 25 minutes from my house here in sunny San Antonio.
Setting aside the time honored tradition of debate of who makes the best truck, I thought I would give you a look at what happened to their on a local level.
They shot themselves in the foot straight away by assuming that San Antonians would immediately park all other trucks and start driving Toyotas. So they made sure from the much ballyhooed opening of the plant that San Antonio was full of brand new Tundras.
Immediately, thanks to a new tool called "the internet", it was found that you could purchase a Tundra in Houston or Dallas substantially (according to our local news rag about 15% - 20%!!) cheaper without any type of rebate, deal, cash back or anything else from the dealer. All of those things were added in later no matter where you bought it.
Subsequent queries on "the internet" using buying services proved that indeed buying out of San Antonio significantly cheaper than buying in San Antonio. So mistake up #1 was trying to screw the local populace. Think about it; how could it be cheaper to buy the same truck that had to be freighted to Dallas in Dallas, rather than one that was literally taken 20 minutes to the dealership?
The local newspaper made a real stink about it, and the local dealerships were caught with their pants down as they obviously thougtht they were going to be part of the price bonanza.
The second big mistake was to think that folks would pay the difference. Sure, the Toyota is probably a better truck. But when I was thinking of a new purchase about '07, the difference in price was substantial. The new Ford would have cost me (after considerable teeth gnashing negotiations) around $24K. But the new San Antonio built Tundra would have been $34,900, with no negotiations.
That's 30 f'ing percent difference!!
Add in the financing on that difference, and it will knock you over.
There is also a perception here and in the surrounding areas that if you have a problem with your Ford, GM or Dodge truck that if you need parts in an emergency, you can find them cheaper and easier than if you are looking for parts for a Nissan or Toyota.
I would think that probably a large part of San Antonians are blue collar, and certainly a lot of folks I know are. They work on their own vehicles if at all possible. So if your starter or alternator goes out on Sunday, it is nice to be able to go to the local auto parts store and pick one up for a couple of hundred dollars and put it on. Much better than waiting at the Toyota dealership for a $400+ starter on Monday and missing a day of work after the purchase to install it.
Next, the Toyota guys admitted that they needed more offerings to take on the local truck market. They brazenly bragged that they would take over the truck market in Texas now that they had trucks made here.
But (mistake #3), they made no "work truck" available.
Most of us tooling around in our trucks don't need leather interiors, a six banger CD casette changer, remote starter/kill switch, dual climate controls, GPS navigation, 2 power points, deluxe wheel packages and fancy, eye catching metalized plastic knobs and plastic wood on the interiors.
So after these missteps, where did that leave Toyota? Last year, after only being open for one, they "retooled" and came up with a less well appointed truck. But since the idea was already in the heads of most that they were too expensive, it was too late to save the downward spiral.
So at the first of this year, they announced that sales were "disappointing", and canceled the planned plant expansion that was to take place to cover all the orders they had expected and taken for granted would happen.
Then they dropped their prices to be more in line with the rest of the market. Things didn't get better as their is now a perception that there was some "friggin' in the riggin" " and that lowering their prices as much as they have was the same as admitting they were trying to screw folks.
Then they got caught in the same hole as every other manufacturer. They have had a couple of recalls that didn't set well, and there have been some mechanical problems that have caused some of the truck's mechanics to be redesigned. (One of the problems for Toyota is that being local, if the paint chips on a truck the local "news defenders" send a team out to the plant to see of it is a trend.)
But now... to compound things they are trapped in the same stale market as everyone else in the car industry. They laid off a couple of hundred workers last month, and the plant has been shuttered since the first of August and will be until the first of October. Closed. Period. No work.
To their great credit, Toyota has seen fit to pay their workers FULL wages while sorting this out. It isn't altogether an altruistic favor on the part of Toyota; they have many thousands of dollars in training even the workers with even the most mundane jobs.
It is an interesting, ongoing soap opera here. Toyota isn't going anywhere. But lessons were learned the hard way, just like at GM, Ford, etc. The public will eventually get what they want. You can now buy a Tundra work type truck, for just a smidge over the Fords and Chevys.
But now they are all rowing the same boat, and folks around here in the trades are going with what they know, which is the big three American brands. There are no Toyota fleet trucks around here. I don't even know a company that buys them. So that leaves Toyota back with the lowly public consumer.
With that in mind, it will be interesting to see their next move.
Just a few thoughts...
Robert