Toyota’s inexorable rise continues, as its increasing customer base sings its praises. With a surge in US sales, the company has outsold Ford worldwide over the past six months, and with favourable consumer perceptions of the Japanese manufacturer growing, it is unlikely to stop there.
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Toyota, Japan’s largest vehicle manufacturer by unit sales, has been the world’s second largest company in its sector over the past six months and has overtaken Ford for the first time. The news comes as a result of Toyota’s continued surge in the US market, where it outsold Chrysler for the first time in August, thereby breaking in to the country’s ‘big 3’, albeit temporarily.
Imports in the US market are at an all time high of 25% in the lucrative truck segment, where models attract higher margins than in the car segment. For Toyota’s part, the introduction of a number of new SUV models has steadily increased its share of the market.
The main concern for the American manufacturers is the changing way in which consumers are viewing the big firms. Toyota and its luxury Lexus division has consistently scored well in satisfaction surveys, and there is a growing perception that the Japanese products are simply made better than their US equivalents.
Changing a brand image, and consumers’ perception of it, takes time, which means Toyota is likely to continue to outperform its rivals in the short to medium term.
The company is also performing strongly in other markets. In Europe, the combination of excellent durability and European design has finally created a breakthrough, and in the UK in particular, Toyota and Lexus are beginning to dominate customer satisfaction surveys as they have done in the US. The recent Top Gear motoring survey, with over 40,000 participants, placed the company’s Yaris model in second place, with the Lexus IS200 in fourth.
Despite Ford and GM responding positively to these market changes, with an improvement in their own product quality and reliability, the momentum is still with Toyota.
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