No New Corolla Until 2008 CY

[Variance]

No New Corolla Until 2008 CY

Toyota Motor Corp. will push back the North American launch of its new Corolla from 2007 to 2008 in order to maintain quality, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) reported on Saturday.

Toyota, Japan's top auto maker, has been plagued this year by a rising number of vehicle recalls. In July, it recalled some 400,000 SUVs in the United States, its single-biggest market.

Read "Toyota delays N.America launch of new Corolla" @ Yahoo

[Flybrian]

OMG NO CHANGED 4 SIX OR SEVEN YEARS OMG LETS CALL SOME SORT OF LAW INFORCEMENT AGENCIE!!!!

[aaaantoine]

Hm... Wasn't this Corolla released for the 2003MY?

Coulda sworn it was released after the 02 Camry.

[FAPTurbo]

Any reviewer going to rag on this move? Doubt it...

Quality reasons, eh? Yeah right... I actually figured Toyota would just rather admit that their initial design was sucky, instead of admitting that they are having quality issues.

[prontostar]

sounds like toyota is getting too big too soon...

this iteration of the corolla came out in model year 03

[Supremus]

Now, if GM were smart, it would put a nice MCE'd Cobalt on the market in 2007.

[Paolino]

Maybe they're just saying it's to prevent quality issues--and in fact it's just to make it less fugly.

[ToniCipriani]

But you know what? People around are still going to whore about it and claim it's the best car. They're still going to sell because it's burned into their brains that if they need a car, they'll need a Corolla.

But in the meantime, GM should get their acts together and accelerate the development of the Cobalt redesign, and the new platforms. Don't wait.

[Dragon]

LOL

when pontiac delayed the solstice because of "quality issues" everybody helled HAZZAH, good for GM for wanting to make quality product.

but when toyota does it, they get ripped.

[FAPTurbo]

LOL

when pontiac delayed the solstice because of "quality issues" everybody helled HAZZAH, good for GM for wanting to make quality product.

but when toyota does it, they get ripped. 

202994[/snapback]

Actually... I read commentators' articles that made fun of the Solstice's delay, saying it's proof "GM makes unreliable vehicles"

[ToniCipriani]

But Solstice is a new model, with no immediate predecessor.

Toyota is laying back a REDESIGN of a current car.

Different stories.

[CARBIZ]

This is a disaster for Toyota, plain and simple. The Civic is its biggest competitor and the Civic is doing very well. The Mazda 3 has maintained its sales, even though it is a couple years old. The Cobalt is making good headway. To be seen as NOT having a leading edge vehicle in this market surely will be seen as another chink in the armour.

And all this doesn't bode well for their car market, in view of the flat Camry sales and the problems with the Avalon.

I am not gloating (no, not really!) but am glad to see that reality has hit Toyota. Perhaps being a formidable number 2 is better than a weak number one?

[Chicagoland]

The analysts say, 'well it shows Toyota is reacting to the new Civic'.

Next time someone claims that Toyota is perfect, remind them of this and other recalls.

[sciguy_0504]

This is a disaster for Toyota, plain and simple.  The Civic is its biggest competitor and the Civic is doing very well.  The Mazda 3 has maintained its sales, even though it is a couple years old.  The Cobalt is making good headway.  To be seen as NOT having a leading edge vehicle in this market surely will be seen as another chink in the armour.

  And all this doesn't bode well for their car market, in view of the flat Camry sales and the problems with the Avalon.

  I am not gloating (no, not really!) but am glad to see that reality has hit Toyota.  Perhaps being a formidable number 2 is better than a weak number one?

203013[/snapback]

The Civic is doing well, not very well. The Corolla still outsells it by a large margin in spite of its age and lackluster design and performance. Plus, the Corolla was delayed for a year. It's not like Toyota is refusing to redesign it and milking it for all it's worth until 201X, like other certain manufacturers. So this generation will live from 2003-2008. Five years, IMO, is no big deal.

[Northstar]

The Civic is doing well, not very well.  The Corolla still outsells it by a large margin in spite of its age and lackluster design and performance.  Plus, the Corolla was delayed for a year.  It's not like Toyota is refusing to redesign it and milking it for all it's worth until 201X, like other certain manufacturers.  So this generation will live from 2003-2008.  Five years, IMO, is no big deal.

203030[/snapback]

Actually the Corrola doesn't outsell the Civic. Combining the Matrix and Corrola gives you a bigger number than the Civic, but the Civic still beats them in retail sales combined. In addition, I'm pretty sure the Corolla has some better incentives.

Finally, 2003-2008 is 6 years.

[sciguy_0504]

Actually the Corrola doesn't outsell the Civic. Combining the Matrix and Corrola gives you a bigger number than the Civic, but the Civic still beats them in retail sales combined. In addition, I'm pretty sure the Corolla has some better incentives.

Finally, 2003-2008 is 6 years.

203068[/snapback]

Can you provide some evidence? Not that I don't believe you but I'd like to see some hard numbers for comparisons sake.

5 years, 6 years. Still not a huge deal to me.

[Northstar]

http://www.fleet-central.com/af/t_pop_pdf....06/cars_web.pdf

[Cadillacfan]

The reason why this is such a big issue is because Toyota is known for having industry leading product cycles that only span 5 years or less, and very short product development time for most of its vehicles.

Now that the Corolla is taking such a long time to develop, this puts a ding in Toyota's armor and can cause investors to question the management's outlook for the future.

Toyota's being very careful with the new Corolla. The compact segment is not the same as it was when the current generation Corolla hit the market. There are more automakers re-entering in the market with highly competitive vehicles and it appears that Toyota wasn't sure on how to approach the segment and have the Corolla stick out with so many highly competitive vehicles taking the spotlight.

GM should really take advantage of this with the Cobalt refresh and the Saturn Astra. All they need to do is pile on the options and price them competitively and advertise the hell out of them when the Corolla comes out.

[sciguy_0504]

http://www.fleet-central.com/af/t_pop_pdf....06/cars_web.pdf

203104[/snapback]

Thanks. Interesting site.

[ToniCipriani]

GM should really take advantage of this with the Cobalt refresh and the Saturn Astra.  All they need to do is pile on the options and price them competitively and advertise the hell out of them when the Corolla comes out.

203125[/snapback]

Or do a refreshed Cobalt Poker Run where the to-be new Corolla is to be intro'ed... Just like what they did with the Challenger.

[ketch]

The analysts say, 'well it shows Toyota is reacting to the new Civic'.

Next time someone claims that Toyota is perfect, remind them of this and other recalls.

203016[/snapback]

Already did on edmunds Intrigue board, where some jamoke was going on how bad Amercan cars are and how great his Camry Hybrid was (a soul-less no character boring car if there ever was).

[thegriffon]

Both the Japanese-design E12A was intorduced in August 2000 and the Thai E12G was introduced in 2001. The E12G was unveiled in the US in January 2002. Orininally on aregular 4-year changeover, that blew out to 5 years with the introduction of the E12 A in late 2000. The Japanese market E14 has increased that even further, now a little over 6 years. BTW the new-generation E14A is slightly bigger than the original 1982 V1 Camry, and the E12G is already bigger than the 1986 V2 Camry.

Note the product change cadence:

E8 A - 1983 new fwd model (coupes stayed on the old rwd platform)

E9 A - 1987 new body

E10 A - 1991 full change

E11 A - 1995 new body (last coupes, supplanted by smaller Celica)

E12 A - 2000 full change (same platform as 1999 Celica)

E13 A - 2002 Corolla Matrix (E13 B Pontiac Vibe)

E14 A - 2006 new body

E15 B - 2006 Auris

Edited October 26, 2006 by thegriffon