Gas Prices: Who's to Blame?

[BigV]

Originally Posted by lookout123

They've probably already done the work that is necessary for it, but they are smart enough to only bring an auto to market when the consumer is ready to buy enough units of the product to achieve profitability.

If you feel that is stupid or unamerican more power to you. you're just one man who is only responsible for your own purchases. until more people agree with you that it is all about the technology, car companies will continue cranking out cars they think people will buy. That usually starts with outward appearance as a top priority. "what do engineers think of my car?" falls pretty low on the list.

Toyota to suspend production of Tundra pickup in some plants and cancel production of Tundra in one plant, which will then produce the Prius.

From here.

[lookout123]

Originally Posted by BigV

Toyota to suspend production of Tundra pickup in some plants and cancel production of Tundra in one plant, which will then produce the Prius.

From here.

Looks like damn good marketing to me. Toyota was well accepted in the cities but had a hard time cracking the more rugged rural markets in the US. They had tried several times with trucks and SUV's only to be rebuffed. Then they decided to put the factories for their new larger more powerful trucks in the US. In rural, rugged parts of the US where men are men, so are the women, and the sheep run scared. Ford and Chevy country to be more precise. What do you know? After a little while Toyota trucks gained some credibility as a viable work truck for the tough guys. People who work in the factories realize they aren't "jap crap" and they buy them. Then their friends do. And their wives liked the SUVs and cars. Success. Toyota overtakes GM for number of units sold and still remains profitable.

In other parts of the country smaller more gas efficient cars are doing quite well. Not a lot is spent on marketing them but word of mouth works wonders. Scion and the Prius get a foothold. What's this? A fuel crisis? Who could have seen that coming? There is no part of the US that a toyota seems out of place now. Markets that were cracked by big tough trucks now will be more open to smaller, more efficient vehicles. Sounds pretty smart to me.