Ominous news for Toyota

[taliesen]

OK, no mention of F1 here, but as a very high-budget/low result team, this can't be good:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/22/news/co ... /index.htm

[Manu]

to me unfortunately, they are the next to leave F1. Big budgets, no result( a bit like honda too )

[f1m]

Honda is also having a tough time selling cars... I may be able to get a really good deal on a new Accord Coupe in 2009!

Hehe...

Eric

[iamf1]

You have to read it the right way though. Or should I say the share holders have to.

It is statements like ......will loose $1.7 Billion....... that actually cause companies to go bankrupt. The important line is .........they expect to make a net profit of $500plus million this year. That is NET profit not gross.

I think the press should make it read .......due to the World economy Toyota will not reach forcast profits. Don't scare shareholders into bailing out.

It's what happened to Triumph motorcycles years ago. A statement was taken out of text and shareholders bailed, and Triumph went out of business.

Mac

[jaykay]

Well it depends.... they really lose that money in the operational business ( making and selling cars ). Due to other sources of income they end up with a profit. That is however less than a tenth of what they expected.

It's almost a bit of a relief that Toyota isn't immune to those troubles either just like all the other manufacturers. Unlike the miserable three ( formerly known as the big three ) Toyota is sitting on so much money, they could buy the american car makers and watch them sink plus Formula 1 for fun. No reason to run away as a stock holder unless you haven't learned from the last couple of months and expect a return on your investment of say 15% plus:-)

[lumpulus]

Actually Honda is have a hard time selling CERTAIN cars, not all. Civics and Accords are still selling just fine.

Toyota really never accomplished much in F1, and no where near as much as Honda has over the years.

[jaykay]

Gotta agree on that:-) Toyota is a bit of a mystery in those terms for me. I have the impression that they did well in formulae where throwing a lot of money at it made a difference but when they got to F1 everybody did...so it didn't help anymore.
There's a great logic btw thinking....oh, we didn't make it in LeMans....so let's go F1, that should be easier
Their corporate behaviour or decision making in terms of motor sport involvement also seems a bit strange. I just finished reading Mike Fuller's IMSA book and it got again to Toyota dropping AAR out of the blue. Dan Gurney still seems to wish them all the bad he can think of for that episode and in the book about Honda in Cart Toyota also didn't fare to well image wise

[lotus79]

I would think the best thing for Toyota to do is drop the f1 team like a cold turkey out of the freezer. Their Tundra plant is located here where I live. They have consolidated production of their pickups at the plant and it seems they are always having a "kaizen" day in lieu of production. Most recently the plant actually closed for 3 months and produced no trucks while everyone (2000 employees) did the kaizen thing. Good luck when the economy improves and the price of gasoline goes right back up over 3 bucks a gallon which is what most oil and gas analysts believe is going to happen.
Gerald

[rubenswebber]

Toyota need to concentrate on supplying engines to Williams. Drop the team, it's not working. Just imagine the amount of money spent so far for what, 4 or 5 podiums.

Move Trulli and Glock to Williams, let Kazuki test somewhere in secret far far away from cameras and move Rosberg on. Let cologne make the drivetrain and let Williams engineer a car around it. The culture at Williams is too good not to get better results.

[Manu]

I 'd also think that F. Williams and Head need to open up a bit and not , as it's written everywhere, act like they decide everything , like with BMW. SO having the toyota engine is great Bu tI 'm not sure they's accept to be "directed" by toyota...
And Trulli should retire. IMO.Cool driver, nice and charismatic but .....