Toyota is predicted to release its first decline in annual global sales in a decade. With slowing demand for new cars worldwide, plus a deepening credit crunch in the US and global economic slowdown, Toyota has proven they aren’t invincible to economic woes.
Toyota is Japan’s largest automaker, and has been on path to take over General Motors as the world’s auto sales leader.
Auto sales have been down across the board in the US and abroad. Despite high demand in competitive markets such as among Orange Toyota dealers, the global financial crisis has kept consumers away from new car dealerships, including Toyota’s dealerships even despite fresh new models.
For quite some time, Toyota has been in a race with GM to become the largest automaker by global car sales. So far, Toyota has been on the right path, with a difference of 9.366 million vehicles sold to GM’s 9.37 million vehicles. The latest reports predict this year’s sales will be around 9.3 million vehicles.
Despite the grim prediction, a Olympia Toyota dealer notes that the automaker has fared better in the US than its domestic counterparts. Due to a robust lineup and fuel efficient compacts and hybrids, Toyota has had better luck in the US than GM’s brands.Volvo Dives into Plug-in Hybrid Technology
Volvo has been struggling amid slumping global sales, but that hasn’t stopped the automaker from diving into research and development. One such as product of its R&D efforts is a new plug-in hybrid that will be due by 2012. Volvo has committed itself to producing a high mileage diesel-electric plug-in hybrid, but it has yet to confirm its plans to sell the vehicle in the U.S.Lexus ES Still Critical to Luxury Brand Lineup
As one Lexus’ most popular models, there will be plenty of drivers that will be happy to see a revamped Lexus ES 350 coming to showrooms later this month. While it may not be a full redesign, the updating certainly brings needed enhancements.Euro Civic Type-R Teases U.S. Consumers
In the U.S., Honda is mostly known for producing somewhat conservative, economical cars. However, the image of Honda outside of the States is far more performance oriented. This is attributed to a range of models that can be had overseas, but remain unavailable here.