Hiroshi Okuda of Toyota: Listen to Your Customers
To: Hiroshi Okuda, chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation
Recently Kyodo News reported that Toyota Motor Corporation’s chairman, Hiroshi Okuda, reported that Toyota was thinking up raising the prices of its cars sold in the United States as a way of helping its ailing U.S. peers. Faulty logic – Toyota needs to be smarter than this. All this tells me is that you want to jack your prices so you can make more money. Is that the message you want to send? You can do MUCH better than this if you want to help the American car industry.
What I want on my next car is a car that is reliable, inexpensive (don’t forget the Bush economy is in terrible, terrible shape), and doesn’t use much gas. The U.S. – right now – appears be led by people with a lot of interest in oil profits. If this is true, gas will be $4-$5 a gallon soon. This means I want a car that doesn’t use much gas as well as reliable and inexpensive. And I don’t mean an SUV.
Back in 1970 I had a Pontiac Firebird. The muffler went out at 30,000 miles. From what I read then, if GM had put a nickel’s worth of platinum in the muffler, it would have lasted the life of the car. In fact, Midas sold “lifetime mufflers.” GM put this muffler in so you would buy another at 60,000, 90,000, and whatever miles. Furthermore, the ads encouraged you to stay with GM parts. Shocks, water pumps, and everything else was made the same way.
Right now I drive a Toyota Celica that has over 120,000 miles on it. Best car I ever had. I’ve never replaced the muffler, shocks, or water pump. I bought it used (20,000 miles on it) with an unconditional warranty for 100,000 miles from a Toyota dealer. No American car will give me a warranty like that. The Celica gets 25 miles to the gallon.
Here is my point. You do sell your hybrid technology to your American peers. Unfortunately, however, the American cars don’t get the efficiency of the Prius. You only deliver 7000 Prius cars a month to the U.S. and can’t keep up with demand. You don’t make them in the U.S.. If you are serious about helping your peers, why not instead of raising your prices help these American companies to make a reliable, inexpensive, and efficient hybrids with good warranties?
Please listen to Your Customers, Mr. Hiroshi Okuda, or you will lose your market.