And the expected drop in quality
That's already happening. Please remember..
I used to work at a Toyota manufacturing plant that built Toyota vehicles. (Highlander, the last Sequoia was a Black color Limited trim model that was absolutely gorgeous... they were converting West plant go Lexus.. etc etc.)And other models. Whole car beginning to end 500 cars per shift 2 shifts per day.. so. Despite some chiding with one of our members positing that I "mopped the floors" (Ha! They would hardly ever be clean if they had me do that,) no, I got to see every stage of the production of the car, and supply the lines. The whole point and takeaway of that is that people that I delivered parts to.. used to tell me stories of what was going on at each stage.
The Toyota quality, they sell you on it, Orientation they tell you every step has been taken, checked, re-checked, and rechecked again. They tell the tale of a truck on a dealer lot with driver seat leather and passenger seat cloth and nobody caught it. You will never know if these stories are real. But. Fast forward 2022 when the guys in East Weld are telling you they are told to "Just shove it in so it doesn't stop the line," in regards to metal fabricated/stamped pieces.......
That is just as to the quality. I don't see it.
Their horrendously ugly front ends on the trucks that look like Homermobiles make me wonder how they sell. At least they have it sold before it is made....... but now, onto the wages.
As noted,
this article is about Toyota Japan. I forgot most of what I know about the complicated relationship Toyota Corporation (Japan) has with its independently owned manufacturing plants (TMMI, TMMTX, TMMKY etc) and then its dealer networks, but, also as mentioned, Toyota is not unionized. No UAW or any other union. So.. From what I recall of my time as a Toyota Motor Manufacturing plant employee, they feel like they pay their workers very well - and this leads to a basically Amazon type of environment.
There are production quotas, you will be worked as if you are a machine to meet them. Toyota calls this "Autonomation." What this means is.. We don't really need the machine, you will be the machine for us, Employee. (And they feel they pay fair. I would agree the money was attractive.)
At first.
Then.. well.. when you have to lay people off for every little thing. Those hiring bonuses and incentives go away pretty quick.
All this to say that.. People say that you buy a Toyota, you're sending the money back overseas? I don't see it.. we had suppliers of parts (most notably Denso) in Michigan, other suppliers.. Made there in America, this is true. A long way from the T100, T150, if anyone remembers those, I do.. complete oddball but made in the USA... So when you buy a Toyota, that was made here in the USA.. Where does the money go back to Japan? Also.. so they raised wages in Japan.. when I came in "recently" they had already announced "higher wages".. surely, somehow, somewhere, this will make Toyota products cost more.
Toyota was once great. I had a 1993 Corolla. Couldn't kill that thing. Until we changed the radiator............ but still. Overall extremely tough. A 1993 Corolla was
Made in Japan and in the 90s, Toyota had the most bulletproof quality control, even better than Honda with Nissan an honorable mention but squarely third. Nissan really is the Chrysler of the imports. (I didn't come up with that, Eric of South Main Auto did.) So when we now look at these new cars with their Takata airbags and other innards. Basically getting rushed through.......
It's. Not the same Toyota as of yesteryear. It certainly ain't Marty McFly's truck that was the second vehicle lead behind a DeLorean in Back To the Future.. or Paul Walker's Supra in 2001 street racing film.. or the Land Cruiser Pierce Brosnan drove in
Volcano or
Dante's Inferno I forget.
ALL of these are better Toyotas than you will get today.
So. I question what relevance this news has for us in the American market.
And 4Runner or LCJ is still made in Japan.. New Land Cruiser will NOT be offered for sale in the US, except as a Lexus LX600 And also as the underpinnings of a new Toyota Tundra. If we were keeping track of what is still made in Japan.
