A FRIEND of mine has been a Camry owner for the longest time. When I told him recently that Camry is the most consistent choice of the sophisticated and discerning car folk hereabouts, he showed a prompt, proud smile.
“And let me add that your Camry happens to be the best-selling US car for 15 years running.”
“Oh, great!” he exclaimed. “I didn’t know that.”
“Now that you know, how does it feel owning a Camry?”
“I couldn’t be happier,” he said. “That’d be the first thing I’d tell my wife and kids the minute I get home.”
In the recent North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan (I’ve been to the biennial Tokyo Motor Show 12 straight times since 1993 but not even once to the Detroit event), the Camry made a big splash once again.
4×4 Innova
WOULD you believe that Akio Toyoda, the president of Toyota Motor Corp., unveiled in the Detroit show the eighth generation of the Camry?
Toyota made a distinct change in its motorization approach to lure American car buffs as Toyoda emphasized the “American character” of its new cars in the US.
But that has been a global thrust of the world’s No. 1 carmaker for years now.
On home shores, plans are afoot to reconfigure the Innova, Toyota’s consistent best-selling multipurpose vehicle, into a 4×4 in another high-impact maneuver aimed at revolutionizing further the local auto industry. But more on the new Innova later as I segue to Detroit.
Sportier Camry
TOYOTA’s new American version of the Camry is built in a factory in Georgetown, Kentucky, employing 7,000 workers.
The new Camry rolling off the road in 2018 is a sharp deviation from its conservative looks. It now looks sportier than its predecessors, but its new safety features have earned rave reviews as they are meant to stop the car and prevent accidents.
Said the New York Times News Service and Bloomberg News on the new Camry: “The Camry, the top-selling passenger car in the country [US], spearheaded our Americanization story. It is built for Americans by Americans.”
The news service stories further quoted William D. Fay, the general manager of the US Toyota division, as saying: “The new Camry illustrates how much of an American company Toyota had become. Over the last three decades, it has built 10 assembly plants in the US and has added engineering operations that develop many of the cars and trucks it sells here. The company’s US work force alone totals 136,000.”
Toyota’s $10-B investment
IF only for the record, Toyota plans to invest $10 billion in the US over the next five years. This appears like Toyota’s oblique way of dodging newly elected American President Donald J. Trump’s threats to effect huge tariffs on companies bringing cars to the US that are made in Mexico. Not only Mexico as Trump is allergic to car companies manufacturing units in Mexico and then exporting them to the US. The new American Chief Executive is also keen on giving an eye on imports, like those built from Europe and Asia.
The booming US market has made good business for the car industry, as America set a second consecutive annual sales record of 17.55 million vehicles sold in 2016—with foreign car manufacturers being also part of the so-called lucrative American Pie.
China in Detroit
ENERGIZED and inspired by this prospect, Guangzhou Automobile Group, one of the largest carmakers in China, displayed its sport-utility vehicle in Detroit that it hopes to start selling in America possibly in 2019.
“We believe the American consumer will be interested in this car because of the styling and driving experience,” said Qiujing Wang, the company president. “We believe the trade door will be open to Chinese products. And the only condition to entering the US market will be quality.”
If the US can be in the China car business through Warren Buffett as investor at BYD, why can China not also penetrate the American car market?
In business, as in politics, nothing is impossible.
PEE STOP Celebrating their wedding anniversary are the inseparable May and Ramon Uy, whose garage is a veritable showcase of Isuzu, Toyota and Lexus models. Best wishes and may God be with you always…Whatever happened to the past administration’s feasibility study on the proposed Mega Manila Subway? Supposed to be undertaken by the Department of Transportation and Communications, the study has vanished into thin air. Let’s pray and hope that the P120-million budget for it did not also disappear, or was not stashed away?…Happy birthday to the month’s most famous birthday kid who is none other than Ramon S. Ang, the San Miguel Corp.’s top honcho all these years. Cheers!
1 comment
Just asking. Is Al Mendoza an employee of Toyota Motors Phil. or George Ty of Metrobank.?