IRV'S SHEET: Setting the Record Straight (We’re Not Number 1. . . Honest!)

Here's something you can take to the bank: Sometimes, even honest, reliable folks will misinterpret facts and make them into something they're not.

Case in point? Several recent media reports suggest that Toyota is using sales numbers to declare itself "Number 1" in some unspecified, undeclared (at least not by us) sales war with the good folks at Chevrolet.

At issue is how we count sales of our Scion brand as opposed to how we market Scion. We count - and have from the very beginning - Scion sales as Toyota sales, even as we've marketed Scion to its own discrete demographic.

Regardless of marketing concept, Scion is a brand within a brand. It is, in fact, available only at Toyota dealerships. Scion components have "Toyota" stamped all over them. There is no such thing as a separate Scion dealership or franchise agreement. Want a Scion? Gotta go visit a Toyota dealership to find one. Until now, nobody has questioned this.

We don't do this to make Toyota appear to be the best-selling brand. That isn't our style. In fact, when asked about our surpassing Ford earlier this week as the number two auto company in the US, our response was the same as always: "Who cares?"

The fact is, there really isn't much tangible value in bragging about our sales position relative to that of our competitors.

Still, various analysts, reporters and auto execs routinely classify or interpret industry data in a number of ways. Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc.(TMS) has consistently tracked and reported sales of Scion products through its Toyota division.

Industry followers regard Scion as either its own brand, a brand within a brand, a line within a brand or even a division of TMS. So is Scion a make? A marque? A brand? A line? A division? Each observer will decide for his/herself.

To be sure, as a competitive auto guy working for a big auto company in a highly competitive marketplace, of course I care about our performance versus competitors. But customers don't buy cars based on sales rankings. We don't have a scoreboard, and we frankly don't care much about who's leading. Our focus remains on serving our customers and bringing the right products to the market at the right time.

For the record, here are the numbers, which are taken from Edmunds.com:

TOYOTA DIVISION VS. CHEVROLET DIVISION, 2007

Chevrolet--> 2,265,641
Toyota (with Scion)--> 2,291,648
Toyota (minus Scion)--> 2,161,467
Chevy vs. Toyota with Scion--> 26,007 (Advantage: Toyota)
Chevy vs. Toyota without Scion--> 104,174 (Advantage: Chevrolet)

You decide. What matters is selling as many great cars and trucks to as many people as want them. That's what we will continue to do. And that's something else you can take to the bank.

~ Contributed by Irv Miller, Group Vice President, Corporate Communications

Comments

[guy]

Ok, first of all i hate toyota(mostly their trucks)I don't expect you to post this but it's a different point of view, please keep reading. OK i get very frustrated when your company tries to display toyota as an AMERICAN company, it isn't, get over it! Just because you make cars here doesn't mean your american. If i take ford and start selling their cars in Mexico, does that make Ford a Mexican car NO! Gosh, u try to americanize everything. I remember your first commercials started and you played IRONMAN in the background, WOW, nice try, now your messing with our past, which you clearly didn't have any part in!I'm sorry but that's how it really is. I don't want to take pride in american products that arn't american! aah, that feels beter!

[Bakemono]

Well said. Its nice to hear that Toyota cares more about putting out quality vehicles than sales numbers.
With the recent quality problems that Toyota has had, Id really began to wonder if beating GM was more important than putting out quality cars and trucks.
Hopefully you are able to get the issues with the Tundra and Tacoma ironed out and we will quit hearing all this talk from the media and on internet forums about how quality is slipping at Toyota.

[John Reynolds]

OK, I have sat by and watched that commercial where the woman is on the phone with a guy she suppossedly has a date with, and she is looking out the window. She says she can't see him, and he says he is a NEW Camry. But she doesn't see him. Then suddenly he starts to pull away and Oh, she sees him, and proclaims what a great looking car. Well you really should consider dropping this ad or redo it. But because if you really listen to the message here, it means your car is just like all the others on the block, until it starts to drive away, and then and only then can you see it. She actually should see it and jump out the window, down the drain spout to get in it, that would work better. Nice try, but you really need to redo this one.

[Road Master]

Expect the unexpected Guy!

So glad you're feeling better, too--And thank you for your comments to Open Road.

[StandardDetroitTalk]

I understand where [guy] (Jan 2008) is coming from in saying that Toyota isn't an American company. He's right. Toyota is an international company, just like GM, Ford and Chrysler.

Even though Toyota is moving towards greater and greater production inside the United States (opening up U.S. plants, and giving Americans well paying jobs during these hard times), the fact still remains that the top tier of management is in Japan. Toyota has plants all over the world, and does a good deal of its R & D in California and in the Detroit area, but that makes it a multinational/international company, not 'an American company'.

When you examine this and realize that GM is in yet another round of U.S. plant closings and layoffs ... and that GM is simultaneously opening plants at a fevered pitch in China (opening plants in one country, while closing in another? That's almost like exporting jobs!) ... and that GM *literally* strips out stamping machines and line equipment, puts them into container ships, and sends them to shiny new plants in China which often produce the exact same cars ... and that GM (like Ford, Chrysler, Toyota and Honda) owns plants all over the world ... well, of course, GM isn't an "American company" either.

I'm sure [guy] know this, and probably just forgot to mention it.

So I guess I agree with [guy] 100%:

Just like [guy], I'm tired of seeing GM's advertisements with cowboys, tractors, cheerleaders and American flags.

Who are they trying to kid? Gm is an international company, like Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda and (now) Tata.

It is silly for GM to try to pretend to be from "America's farm country". That doesn't even square with the myth that GM is a "Detroit company". I've seen scores of GM plants, and I've never seen one in America's "farm country". (But you might see some GM factories in Chinese farm country now.)

Toyota (and GM, Ford and Chrysler) should drop the charade, and play up their international operation as a point of pride ... ... ...

Imagine a video montage of engineers in Japan and Germany; Factory Workers in the U.S. and Canada; Marketing people in England and India; etc ...

... the voice over says: "Gathering the most impressive team of developers, safety and efficiency engineers, physics researchers, assembly specialists and other experts - meant going all over the world to amass the best collective talent of all humanity.

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