Filed under: Government/Legal, Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, Toyota, Earnings/Financials


Toyota doesn't want one of the Detroit 3 to fail. Despite the fact that the Japanese automaker is a direct competitor and seemingly stands to gain long-term sales from the collapse of at least one of its American competitors, the reality is that it would be a major headache for the entire industry. The largest issue may be that a Detroit collapse, especially of General Motors, would take a number of key suppliers down with it -- suppliers that Toyota relies upon just as much as any other automaker.

Toyota, Honda and Nissan all call the U.S. market their largest, so these import car companies require the American economy to remain strong in order to keep sales figures and profits relatively healthy. The loss of hundreds of thousands -- if not millions -- of jobs would be a major blow to the already struggling U.S. economy and could also cause additional import backlash.

The last potential problem facing the Japanese automakers is a possible takeover of an American automaker by another competitor, likely from China or India, that could flood the market with low-cost cars. The last successful influx of competition came from Korea in the form of Hyundai and Kia, and Toyota isn't looking forward to losing market share to another set of automakers any sooner than necessary.

[Source: CNN Money]Toyota supports Detroit 3's pleas for bailout bucks originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.


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