Toyota is planning on halting production for eleven days in the months of February and March at plants in Japan. Due to falling sales in North America, and in Japan, many dealers are finding their lots filled with unsold cars, which has made further cuts in production mandatory.
December sales have been released this week, and Toyota was not immune to widespread sales declines. In North America, Toyota sales fell 37%, the largest decline in decades. To the disappointment of Albuquerque Toyota Dealers, the sales slide in December was also worse than even General Motors and Ford, who have both faced continuing declines month after month.
Already, Toyota had planned a production halt for a 3 day period, but with sales lower than expected, there still needed to be further constraints on output. Even with generous sales incentives, and even the availability of 0 percent financing for well-qualified buyers at dealers such Lexington Used Cars, sales continued to fall during the holiday season.
The production cuts will likely affect hundreds of thousands of vehicles, although the exact figures have not been supplied. The move is also similar to those taken by rivals such as Honda and Nissan, which have both had to adjust output based on dwindling new car demand.
With the New Year, Los Angeles Toyota Dealers remain optimistic about changes in demand. Meanwhile other dealers such as Oxnard Toyota expect more challenges ahead as the industry will require more time to recover.
Joe Kent is a writer for TK Carsites, an automotive website design and marketing firm in Orange, CA, that specializes in working with car dealers nationwide.
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