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On Aug 22, 8:04 am, "Leon"

Do yourself a favor and at least test drive the Tundra.

Leon, as you know, Tundras are made about 25 minutes from my house
here in sunny San Antonio.

Setting aside the time honored tradition of debate of who makes the
best truck, I thought I would give you a look at what happened to
their on a local level.

They shot themselves in the foot straight away by assuming that San
Antonians would immediately park all other trucks and start driving
Toyotas. So they made sure from the much ballyhooed opening of the
plant that San Antonio was full of brand new Tundras.

I'll agree that the Tundra is more expensive, I paid $5000 more for a
similiarly equipped model as the GMC and I will have to say that I did not
even care for the looks of the Tundra. But then I drove one after driving a
Chevrolet and GMC. Comfort plays a major factor in what I buy. We very
often use the 4 doors for friends and other family members. The GM vehicles
still require the back seat riders to sit at a 90 degree angle and the back
doors move and shift enough that the driver can see that movement with a
simple quick glance while driving.



Immediately, thanks to a new tool called "the internet", it was found
that you could purchase a Tundra in Houston or Dallas substantially
(according to our local news rag about 15% - 20%!!) cheaper without
any type of rebate, deal, cash back or anything else from the dealer.
All of those things were added in later no matter where you bought it.

I suspect theat Gulf States Toyota may be more to blame for this.


Subsequent queries on "the internet" using buying services proved that
indeed buying out of San Antonio significantly cheaper than buying in
San Antonio. So mistake up #1 was trying to screw the local
populace. Think about it; how could it be cheaper to buy the same
truck that had to be freighted to Dallas in Dallas, rather than one
that was literally taken 20 minutes to the dealership?

Strange isn't it. By the same token how can I buy gasoline cheaper 85 miles
west of Houston than in Houston?


The local newspaper made a real stink about it, and the local
dealerships were caught with their pants down as they obviously
thougtht they were going to be part of the price bonanza.

The second big mistake was to think that folks would pay the
difference. Sure, the Toyota is probably a better truck. But when I
was thinking of a new purchase about '07, the difference in price was
substantial. The new Ford would have cost me (after considerable
teeth gnashing negotiations) around $24K. But the new San Antonio
built Tundra would have been $34,900, with no negotiations.

I can see your point. It's too bad you were/are not afforded the same
opportunity. Mine stickered with TTL drive out for about $35k, I drove out
for $28k less trade in. The GMC was quoted at $23k less trade in. After
driving the GMC and Chevy I did not want to buy a new truck. That changed
after driving the Tundra. After having GMC and Chevy trucks that I was
happy with the $5k more for the Tundra seemed well worth the extra
investment for me.



That's 30 f'ing percent difference!!

I hear you and don't blame you at all under those circumstances.


Add in the financing on that difference, and it will knock you over.

Yeah, I gave up financing some years back, tooo expensive.



There is also a perception here and in the surrounding areas that if
you have a problem with your Ford, GM or Dodge truck that if you need
parts in an emergency, you can find them cheaper and easier than if
you are looking for
parts for a Nissan or Toyota.

Well in defence of the imports you mention here, I'll mention again that I
made my living and retired after exclusively selling GM products and parts
for 18 years. You find parts for Ford, GM, and Dodge because they sell real
well, Why? They have a high failure rate. Why do you have to order
Toyota parts? Because they dont fail very often. A dealer or auto parts
store makes money on parts that sell over and over. My criteria for
stocking a part for GM at the dealership was to put it in inventory if it
sold 2 times in 3 months and that is being very pickey about when to stock a
part. The vast makority of parts that I stocked sold at least once a week
on average, many of those parts were several times a day and those were not
maintence parts.
When I still worked for the Olds dealer there was a Toyota dealer next door.
Our warranty parts pile waiting for the Olds servive rep to scrap varied
from 200 to 400 parts monthly. The Toyota dealer typically and 4 or 5 parts
by compairison.
I'll totally agree that American brand parts are easier to find but in
general that is not actually a good thing for all the customers.
When I was the GM for an AC/Delco wholesaler our only customers were GM
dealers and a majority of those customers were in Houston. We probably only
had 75 customers total and we absolutely refused to sell to any one unless
they were a GM dealership. We stocked alternators, starters, and AC
compressors by the thousands in only about 75 different part numbers total.
We turned that inventory 6 to 8 times a year. Basically our better
customers would buy 10-15 of one part number alternator on a weekly basis.
A mix of 45 to 60 alternators weekly to the same customer was normal.
I also was over an Isuzu parts department during the same time I was at the
Olds dealership. We stocked no starters or alternators at all, and sold 2
or 3 a year.



I would think that probably a large part of San Antonians are blue
collar, and certainly a lot of folks I know are. They work on their
own vehicles if at all possible. So if your starter or alternator
goes out on Sunday, it is nice to be able to go to the local auto
parts store and pick one up for a couple of hundred dollars and put it
on. Much better than waiting at the Toyota dealership for a $400+
starter on Monday and missing a day of work after the purchase to
install it.

True. But my 97 Chevy had to have 2 water pumps, 2 intake manifold gaskets,
1 alternator, 1 wiper circuit board, 3 upper heater hose assy's, 2 AC blower
motors, and both tail light circuit boards replaced in 10 years/80K miles.
And I thought that was pretty trouble free for a GM vehicle. Don't get me
started on when I was the service sales manager for Oldsmobile....




Next, the Toyota guys admitted that they needed more offerings to take
on the local truck market. They brazenly bragged that they would take
over the truck market in Texas now that they had trucks made here.

That seems to be working pretty well in Houston but being built in Texas
probably does not really matter, not all of them are built in Texas.


But (mistake #3), they made no "work truck" available.

True


Most of us tooling around in our trucks don't need leather interiors,
a six banger CD casette changer, remote starter/kill switch, dual
climate controls, GPS navigation, 2 power points, deluxe wheel
packages and fancy, eye catching metalized plastic knobs and plastic
wood on the interiors.

So after these missteps, where did that leave Toyota? Last year,
after only being open for one, they "retooled" and came up with a less
well appointed truck. But since the idea was already in the heads of
most that they were too expensive, it was too late to save the
downward spiral.

I can certainly see that happening.



So at the first of this year, they announced that sales were
"disappointing", and canceled the planned plant expansion that was to
take place to cover all the orders they had expected and taken for
granted would happen.

I'm betting the economy in general is affecting sales more than anything.




Then they dropped their prices to be more in line with the rest of the
market. Things didn't get better as their is now a perception that
there was some "friggin' in the riggin" " and that lowering their
prices as much as they have was the same as admitting they were trying
to screw folks.

That would appear sto be ture... I recall VW dropping the prices of their
cars several thousand dollars when their new models came out. That left a
bad taste in the previous model owners mouths.


Then they got caught in the same hole as every other manufacturer.
They have had a couple of recalls that didn't set well, and there
have been some mechanical problems that have caused some of the
truck's mechanics to be redesigned. (One of the problems for Toyota
is that being local, if the paint chips on a truck the local "news
defenders" send a team out to the plant to see of it is a trend.)

And probably more recalls than you will ever know. Most manufacturers will
perform recalls that may not be announced, usually done when yo come in for
ohter warranty work or for normal service. I recall the Ford Focus having
in excess of 100 before the car was even sold during it's first year of
production.



But now... to compound things they are trapped in the same stale
market as everyone else in the car industry. They laid off a couple
of hundred workers last month, and the plant has been shuttered since
the first of August and will be until the first of October. Closed.
Period. No work.

To their great credit, Toyota has seen fit to pay their workers FULL
wages while sorting this out. It isn't altogether an altruistic favor
on the part of Toyota; they have many thousands of dollars in training
even the workers with even the most mundane jobs.

It is an interesting, ongoing soap opera here. Toyota isn't going
anywhere. But lessons were learned the hard way, just like at GM,
Ford, etc. The public will eventually get what they want. You can
now buy a Tundra work type truck, for just a smidge over the Fords and
Chevys.



But now they are all rowing the same boat, and folks around here in
the trades are going with what they know, which is the big three
American brands. There are no Toyota fleet trucks around here. I
don't even know a company that buys them. So that leaves Toyota back
with the lowly public consumer.

With that in mind, it will be interesting to see their next move.

Just a few thoughts...

Robert