The Auto Task Force Invites Foreign Automaker Toyota For Talks!

Great The Auto Task Force Is Meeting With The Foreign Auto Powerhouse Toyota! Lookout Tax Payers...Your Government Will Be Sending more tax dollars overseas!

Reported by MSNBC

Jim Lentz, President of Toyota Motor Sales in the US, will be meeting with the task force at the White House, reports MSNBC.

Both parties say that the meeting is to “talk” and “exchange views.” Whatever the reason, we find it more than appropriate. There is nothing wrong with meeting with the competition, so to speak, to find out more about the industry and help shape ideas that can make our domestic automakers more competitive.

Moreover, the panel is reaching out to all segments of the auto industry. They have been meeting with automakers, dealers, politicians and other auto industry leaders. We say kudos to that!

Chrysler News:Automakers' U.S. Sales Tumbled In Dec.Chrysler Hit Hardest, With 53% Plunge

Chrysler's U.S. sales plunged 53% from a year earlier in December and other top automakers' sales shrank more than 30%, as the industry finished off its worst year since 1992 on a low point.

Chrysler said Monday that it will offer additional discounts after sales sank to 89,813 vehicles last month. Ford's (NYSE:F - News) sales dropped 32% to 138,458 and GM's 31% to 220,030.

Toyota's sales plunged 37% from December 2007 to 141,949 vehicles, Honda's (NYSE:HMC - News) 35% to 86,085 and Nissan's 31% to 62,102.

Worries about rising unemployment, a deepening recession and the credit crunch have led consumers to put the brakes on auto purchases, driving Chrysler and GM to the brink of bankruptcy and likely sending Toyota to its first operating loss in 71 years.

"The main reason why we are where we are is because of consumer confidence," said Jesse Toprak, executive director of industry analysis for auto site Edmunds.com.

Consumer confidence fell to a record low in December, and jobless claims hit a 26-year high amid a recession that began in December 2007.

Also on Monday, Porsche said sales fell 25.5% in December to 2,154 vehicles, while Daimler's sales fell 23.5% to 20,848 vehicles.

Stocks opened lower on Monday and stayed there, reacting little to the expected plunge in auto sales. The Dow fell 0.9%, the S&P 500 lost 0.5% and the Nasdaq declined 0.3%....More

Toyota to suspend production for 11 days in Japan

Shino Yuasa / Associated Press
TOKYO -- Toyota is suspending production at all 12 of its Japan plants for 11 days over February and March, a stoppage of unprecedented scale for the nation's top automaker as it grapples with shrinking global demand.

The last time Toyota Motor Corp. halted production at all its Japan plants was in August 1993, when demand plunged because of a rising yen, and that was for only one day, according to the company.

A global economic downturn has hammered the auto industry in Japan and elsewhere, forcing carmakers to cut staff, lower production and delay new models. Major automakers in the U.S. had teetered on the brink of collapse until securing a multibillion dollar government lifeline.

"We are coping with a slump in global sales," Toyota spokesman Hideaki Homma said Tuesday. "Demand in the world auto market is so depressed that every model is falling sharply in sales."

Toyota said last year that it was stopping production at its 12 domestic plants for three days in January. But it decided on additional closures because of the global downturn. Toyota will stop output for six days in February and five days in March, it said.

Of Toyota's domestic factories, four produce vehicles while the rest make engines and auto parts.

Overnight, Toyota reported that its U.S. sales in December were down 37 percent on year, a worse drop than Ford Motor Co.'s 32 percent drop and General Motor's 31 percent slide.

Toyota last year suspended production at its auto plants in Alabama, Indiana and Texas for three months, and shut down output for two days in December at all its North American vehicle factories including five in the United States, one in Canada and another in Mexico.

Chrysler LLC also shut down its plants for a month in December, longer than the usual two-week break, while GM has said it would shut down a plant in Thailand for up to two months.

Toyota is also struggling in its home market, which has been stagnant for years. The sales drop has worsened amid a global recession.

Sales of new vehicles in Japan fell to 3.2 million vehicles last year, the lowest in 34 years, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said Monday.

Last month, Toyota said it was slipping into its first operating loss in 70 years, expecting 150 billion yen ($1.66 billion ) of operating losses for the fiscal year ending March 2009.

Toyota, which makes the Prius gas-electric hybrid and Camry sedan, expects 50 billion yen ($555 million) in net profit, down from 1.7 trillion yen earned the previous year.

Why Toyota wants GM to be saved

A GM failure would cause production problems, crush already weak demand and potentially open the door to low-cost competitors.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Detroit's Big Three aren't the only automotive companies that want to see the government step in with some much needed financial help.

Overseas automakers, most notably Toyota Motor, all endorse some form of federal aid to keep General Motors (GM, Fortune 500), Chrysler LLC and possibly Ford Motor (F, Fortune 500) out of bankruptcy.

The Senate killed an effort to get the automakers a stopgap loan last week and now the Bush administration has said it is looking at providing the automakers help from the $700 billion approved to bailout banks and Wall Street firms.

"We support measures to help the industry," said Toyota Motor (TM) spokeswoman Mira Sleilati. "We just want a strong, competitive healthy industry."

This may seem surprising at first, especially when you consider that much of the opposition to the auto bailout was from senators from Southern states home to auto plants operated by Asian auto companies, such as Alabama and South Carolina. But the Asian automakers insist they never lobbied against such help for the Big Three.

And this makes sense once you take a closer look at the dynamics of the auto industry and how intertwined the fates of all the companies are.

Here's why Toyota, Honda Motor (HMC) and other Asian auto manufacturers clearly believe they are all better off with GM and Chrysler surviving than if they go out of business.

Collateral damage
The overseas automakers, who between them produce more than 3 million vehicles a year at U.S. plants, all worry their production would be hurt if one of the U.S. automakers went under. That's because a Big Three failure would likely lead to widespread bankruptcies in the auto parts supplier industry.

Erich Merkle, lead auto analyst with the consulting firm Crowe Horwath LLP, said there is much overlap between the automakers' suppliers. Since most parts in an automobile have only a single supplier producing them, the disruptions in production will be severe and prolonged.

"It could take months for a Toyota to work through that and resume normal production," he said.

Merkle said the current network of auto suppliers, manufacturers and dealerships have worked well for the overseas automakers, who have posted steady gains in their U.S. market share during the past few years.

Besides sharing suppliers, many dealers sell both U.S. and overseas brands. So the failure of a U.S. automaker could hurt the overseas manufacturers' dealer network and their sales as well, Merkle said.

"There would be a severe disturbance in the force," he quipped.

Economic shockwaves
A collapse of one of the Big Three would also probably cause an even more severe hit to the U.S. economy. That would further eat into demand for U.S. auto sales, which hit a 26-year low in November.

"The U.S. economy would be in shambles," Merkle said. "The robust U.S. economy that Toyota and the others depend on would suddenly not be as lucrative."

The overseas automakers agree that the last thing they need is for the U.S. economy to slow further. The U.S. is the largest market for Toyota, Honda and Nissan (NSANY). All are expected to report lower U.S. sales this year for the first time ever.

"We want to get the economy back," said Michael Stanton, CEO of the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, which represents most of the Asian automakers with plants in the U.S. "Everyone is hurting at this level of sales. Everybody is either cutting back or shutting down."

The latest cutbacks came Monday when Toyota announced it was putting plans to open a new plant in Mississippi on hold indefinitely, even though it is about 90% complete. The plant was set to start building the first domestically produced Prius in 2011.

While the overseas automakers would be certain to eventually pick up more U.S. market share if a U.S. automaker stopped doing business, Merkle said the need to sell off the inventory of the failed automaker at fire sale prices would depress all prices in the industry in the short-term....More

Sen. Richard Shelby Is Protecting Foreign Automakers, Gives Huge Tax Breaks!

Senator Richard Shelby has been attacking the America Auto Industry and Trying to Stop the Bridge Loan. He has great reason to cripple the America Auto-industry, he has all the foreign automakers in his home state of Alabama. Like Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai Motors!

Here are your American Tax Dollars at work, Undermining America!

In 1997, the state of Alabama granted huge subsidies to Mercedes in exchange for a plant that would employ 1,500 people. What were the details of this huge incentive package? $300 million in tax breaks, $253 million in direct incentives, $60 million in Alabama taxpayer money to send fellow Alabamans to Germany for training, and a promise to buy 2,500 of the new Mercedes SUV’s at $30,000 each. Based on just the initial $300 million grant alone, those 1,500 jobs will cost Alabama taxpayers $200,000 per job. Apparently Alabama, not Mercedes, will be paying those salaries for years to come. With deals like these, it’s no wonder foreign automakers have stepped up production in the U.S. We’ll even pay their workers’ salaries for them!

All using your tax dollars! Nice Job Senator Shelby, he has help facilitate similar deals for Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai Motors!

Billions of US Tax Payer Money to foreign companies!

Remember just because a vehicle is assembled in America it doesn't mean they are using American made parts, 80% are from foreign supplies and 90% of the profits are shipped back to a foreign country!

A dollar spent in the United States is said to circulate around the economy 7 times!

So all those billions of dollars you have given to foreign companies are not circulating in the American economy, it is in Japan and Germany!

So if you are struggling to make it and you are driving a foreign car, you might be part of the problem! You certainly aren't helping make higher paying jobs driving foreign cars.

Undermining America!

Thank You Senator Shelby For Helping Foreign Countries Destroy the Middle Class in America!

General Motors denies asking Toyota for help

DETROIT (AFP) -- Struggling U.S. auto giant General Motors Corp. dismissed as "pure speculation" a report Wednesday that it had asked Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp. for help to revive its business.
According to the report, GM sounded out Toyota on the possibility of GM chairman Rick Wagoner meeting with Toyota's leadership in Japan soon, but Toyota declined the offer, Japan's Kyodo News quoted unnamed sources as saying.
GM was believed to have asked for assistance including the purchase of its assets to help it raise cash, the report said.
GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson said the two companies held talks "on a regular basis" as part of their joint venture operating a manufacturing plant in California for the past 25 years.
Any suggestion GM and Toyota were preparing to expand their cooperation was "pure speculation," he said.
The Japanese automaker also denied it had been approached by GM, saying in a brief statement: "There's no truth in the report."
GM, which lost $15.5 billion in the second quarter, has shed tens of thousands of jobs in recent years.
Earlier Wednesday, GM reported its worldwide sales fell 11.4% in the third quarter from a year ago to 2.115 million vehicles, leaving the U.S. automaker behind Toyota as the industry leader.
The Detroit giant, struggling in the face of tough economic conditions in North America and fierce competition, remained behind Japanese-based Toyota, which reported sales of 2.236 million vehicles in the quarter.
GM, the longtime global leader, fell behind Toyota in the first quarter of 2008.
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