Toyota to pinch pole postion

Newswheel staff :: 12 February 2005 :: Filed under Coupe, Saloon, Lexus GS, Lexus LF-A, Toyota, Europe & UK, US,

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Japanese giant drowns in The Economist’s outpourings

In an uncharacteristic display of corporate back slapping, the normally po-faced British journal The Economist has been gushing forth on all things Toyota.

The general gist of The Dismal Scientist’s spiel goes thusly: Toyota will be the largest car maker on the planet in two or three years’ time, overhauling current incumbent General Motors. A fleet of impressive factoids are wheeled out to back up this prophesy. Did you know, for instance, that Toyota makes more profit than the big Detroit three (Ford, GM and Chrysler) combined? Or that its productivity has grown sevenfold in the past 25 years, double that of the Detroit iron triumvirate? Well, now you do. And before any of you Europeans start getting smug, The Economist has news for you: only four volume car firms (one of them Toyota, naturally, the others being Honda, Nissan and Hyundai) make “real” money, none of them European.

TPS, ASAP!

What, then, to explain Toyota’s inevitable rise to world domination? TPS, or Toyota Production System, that’s what. A large part of TPS is the now famous “just-in-time” approach to manufacturing, combined with a process of continual improvement known as “kaizen”. As well as providing the foundation for Toyota’s success, The Economist points to the publication, in 1991, of an MIT paper on TPS as the turning point for US and European car makers, following which the industry rushed to embrace its wisdom and began to produce reliable, well-made cars for the first time. Owners of hewn-from-granite and still-going-strong Mercedes or BMWs built in the late 80s or early 90s might find this assertion interesting, but we digress. Along with TPS, strong corporate culture (the “Toyota Way”), flexible production lines, astute overseas expansion and nippy product development cycles are other suspects in The Economist’s case for Toyota.

The world according to Toyota

So, the future’s Toyota, but what will it look like? Well, at first glance there are reasons aplenty to be worried. For starters, Toyota’s strength through the 90s was pumping out impossibly reliable but terminally dull boxes (think Camry and Corolla) for Americans to mindlessly ply the highways with. If that’s the future, we’ll find another hobby, thanks. And while Americans might go for the synthetic perfection of Toyota’s luxury offshoot Lexus, Europeans palettes still prefer home grown vintages. In fact, if you live in Europe, you could be forgiven for wondering what the fuss is all about, such is the uniform blandness of Toyota’s offerings in the Olde Worlde.

Reasons to be cheerful

Mercifully, more recently Toyota has been responsible for more engaging  kit. The Prius and its hybrid drivetrain has provided a reasonably reassuring glimpse of the future of the car, while the staggering array of home-market Toyotas (60 at last count) proves the firm doesn’t lack creativity. Similarly, the new mid-sized Lexus GS luxury car has earned plaudits for its edgy lines (though we detect a whiff of dumbed-down, Bangle-era BMW in the frontal treatment and protruding trunk/boot appendage) and the Lexus LF-A concept certainly looks the business (and its test mule cousin seen banging in fast laps at the Nürburgring doesn’t look too shabby). But most of all, let’s hope The Economist’s claim that Toyota is more customer focused than any of the other big players translates into cars that don’t just go on forever but actually get you going.