Bon
Allscion -- an e-commerce website with news and accessories for your Scions
http://www.allscion.com/store



:clap: :clap: :clap:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123543506243454263.html

Toyota Motor Corp.'s incoming president, Akio Toyoda, has a sobering message for the giant company founded by his grandfather: It has gotten too fancy for its own good...

He is expected to focus, most of all, on abandoning kakushin, or "revolutionary change," current president Katsuaki Watanabe's term for changing the way Toyota designed its cars and factories. It spawned technological advances, but led to cars that were often costlier to produce.

The 52-year-old Mr. Toyoda is also working to fix a pricing strategy that put the company at odds with some U.S. dealers, who felt its cars were getting too expensive, according to people familiar with the situation. ...

Mr. Toyoda blames more than the recession, according to people familiar with the matter. He is sending the message that his predecessors worsened the problem by straying from core ideas of thrift and efficiency.

Among other things, there's a move away from technologically sophisticated in-car gizmos like a solar-powered cooling system designed for the new Prius. ...

Akio Toyoda has long preached a traditional Toyota practice called genchi genbutsu, a leadership maxim that boils down to get out of your office and visit the source of the problem. For the past year, Mr. Toyoda has been practicing genchi genbutsu to quietly collect evidence that the company had strayed, according to people familiar with the situation. ...

They say he was particularly concerned that Messrs. (Katsuaki) Watanabe and (Mitsuo) Kino____a placed strong emphasis on achieving two trillion yen in annual operating profit, a level it passed in the year ended March 2007. ... Driven by that profit objective, Toyota executives reasoned American consumers would be willing to pay a premium for a Toyota -- a change from a long-held strategy of pricing cars at a value. ...

Cliff Cummings, a veteran southern California dealer, warned Mr. Toyoda over a steak dinner with a dozen other dealers last March that premium pricing was the wrong way to go. Toyota had built an image of sturdy affordability, "but now they were wrecking it," Mr. Cummings says he told Mr. Toyoda.

Based on subsequent conversations with the younger Mr. Toyoda and other executives, Mr. Cummings says he expects the company to overhaul its pricing strategy."

i guess toyota is doing the "lean" process too.

if it means cheaper toyotas with the same build quality, than that'll be great because 15,000 for a ____ing yaris is ridiculous. it doesnt even have a RPM gauge inside a manual transmission hatch when the yaris sedan auto does.

Good to hear, all cars are way too expensive now. I remember when my pops told me he bought his brand new 92 toyota pickup for about $8k. One of the best/reliable vehicles I ever drove.

i guess toyota is doing the "lean" process too.

if it means cheaper toyotas with the same build quality, than that'll be great because 15,000 for a flippin' yaris is ridiculous. it doesnt even have a RPM gauge inside a manual transmission hatch when the yaris sedan auto does.

Man, I totally agree with that. Even worse--my neighbors paid $18k for a Honda Fit. Ridiculous.

I wonder if this low-price philosophy is already filtering down? A Toyota dealership near me is selling Corollas for about $1200 off plus another $2000 in rebates. That finally gets the price down to where it should be to start with.

Yeah I was pretty shocked to see the average msrp on a Venza is around $37000.

Yeah I was pretty shocked to see the average msrp on a Venza is around $37000.

ya, seriously. WTF? too pricey

Yeah I was pretty shocked to see the average msrp on a Venza is around $37000.

:rofl:

And I thought the $30k price tag for the Ford Flex was bad...

I kind of like the flex for the price. But overall the consumer will hopefully benefit from this approach to toyota.

However Toyota did bring us the Prius. I wondering if they will go away from be technologically advanced in their automobiles. I loved the features I got in the tC to start with. I chose the tC for the ipod adaptor with a stock stereo over the Mazda3.

Should be interesting to see the direction Toyota goes.

So is Kiichiro Toyoda's scion Akio Toyoda, planning to kill Scion?

I think Scion will survive. I'm not sure I agree with "leaning" things out. They need to continue to strive for new technology but they need to make it affordable at the same time. But I agree car prices have climbed and at least in the American market you were getting ripped a new one. $16k for a Cobalt, lets be realistic.

I think Scion will survive. I'm not sure I agree with "leaning" things out. They need to continue to strive for new technology but they need to make it affordable at the same time. But I agree car prices have climbed and at least in the American market you were getting ripped a new one. $16k for a Cobalt, lets be realistic.


Our local chevy dealer was doing BOGO on chevy products..

If you bought a chevy silverado at sticker price you got a free chevy cobalt!

^^^wow now thats an amazing deal haha both combined will be worth the price of the cobalt the day the owner drives home haha.

^^^wow now thats an amazing deal haha both combined will be worth the price of the cobalt the day the owner drives home haha.

:rofl:
lol, well said! How sad but true.....

I just heard a commercial on the radio that a local Nissan dealer is doing the same thing. Buy a Titan or Armada and get an Altima for $1.

I still think I paid to much for my Tc. maybe the next batch of tC will drop in price. or at least come fully loaded for the 17K price tag

Yeah I was pretty shocked to see the average msrp on a Venza is around $37000.

ya, seriously. WTF? too pricey
yeah no joke..compared to My Murano......crazy
at$13,900 the Cube is gonna be next

in canada buy a tahoe get a pontiac persuit for free
or buy dodge ram get a caliber for free
but mazda`s and nissans go for the same price as american 3 cars

Why would they kill Scion? They have a great thing going here. Bring in kids with Scion. If they get a great buying experience they'll pick up a Camry or something more family oriented in the future and hopefully pick up a Lexus for retirement. It's the perfect plan. (this is just what I assume)

They wont eliminate scion. Insted they will put the toyota name on scion cars and eliminate the overhead of a second company. High quality, low price. family cars, the XB should be their flag ship.

Yeah I was pretty shocked to see the average msrp on a Venza is around $37000.

ya, seriously. WTF? too pricey
yeah no joke..compared to My Murano......crazy
at$13,900 the Cube is gonna be next

yea, the cube is definetly a sweet little car. I can see lots of xB owners getting cubes

Very interesting! Nice to know toyota is getting abck to its roots hopefully!

BOGOs have been around here in the NorthEast for awhile now.

Just think, by the time the Scion iQ comes out, it could be 5 or 6 grand!

And if you want real proof that Toyota was marking up prices, just look at how much of a differnce between the RS1 & 2. I paid just over 800$ for my RS. The Solar Yellow had less, and was sold for 1500 more! The RSs were so popular that each offered less and charged more then the previous.

If the iQ goes for less than 10k, I'm grabbing 2.

Toyota's just trying to save face. It's just standard practices for any "regime change". Blame the previous administration.

They wont eliminate scion. Insted they will put the toyota name on scion cars and eliminate the overhead of a second company. High quality, low price. family cars, the XB should be their flag ship.

Doubt it, there's really not much overhead with Scion as they are already all sold thru pre-existing Toyota dealers, built in Toyota factories on pre-existing platforms, have no unique tech features, and most of all their advertising budget is only a fraction of Toyota's as they don't do any big market advertising (no network TV, no super bowls, etc.), they bill it as "underground" advertising, but in english that means waaaaay cheaper.

Scion is a perfect example of the shift that this article is talking about. They are built mono-spec (only variations being trans & color), and there are no terribly advanced features to design, assemble, or install. Plus, while I agree that cars in general have gotten too expensive (tho its not all due to car companies, raw materials like steel have been getting more expensive for years), compared to the rest of the industry, they are still great values when u consider the standard features. It sounds like they want to move toward the same idea for Toyota, less complicated features & variation in production should lead to lower costs and also even better reliability.

They wont eliminate scion. Insted they will put the toyota name on scion cars and eliminate the overhead of a second company. High quality, low price. family cars, the XB should be their flag ship.

Doubt it, there's really not much overhead with Scion as they are already all sold thru pre-existing Toyota dealers, built in Toyota factories on pre-existing platforms, have no unique tech features, and most of all their advertising budget is only a fraction of Toyota's as they don't do any big market advertising (no network TV, no super bowls, etc.), they bill it as "underground" advertising, but in english that means waaaaay cheaper.

Scion is a perfect example of the shift that this article is talking about. They are built mono-spec (only variations being trans & color), and there are no terribly advanced features to design, assemble, or install. Plus, while I agree that cars in general have gotten too expensive (tho its not all due to car companies, raw materials like steel have been getting more expensive for years), compared to the rest of the industry, they are still great values when u consider the standard features. It sounds like they want to move toward the same idea for Toyota, less complicated features & variation in production should lead to lower costs and also even better reliability.

X2

To add the cars use the same parts as other Toyota’s so there is no overhead in terms of added part suppliers or even part numbers. The infrastructure is already there for the Toyota side. When you buy a Scion you get financed from Toyota Financial Services, not Scion Financial Services. It is an efficient and smart way of doing things.

Yeah I was pretty shocked to see the average msrp on a Venza is around $37000.

:rofl:

And I thought the $30k price tag for the Ford Flex was bad...

yeah those are the ones are are fully loaded with everything. the starting price on a 4cylinder base is around 25k when it comes out and for a v6 base is around 27k. but umm yeah... the price is strong like bull lol