Unsold Imports Piling Up

[AAS]

From hybrids to SUVs, unsold cars pile up in U.S.

LONG BEACH, California (Reuters) – From pricey luxury sedans to popular hybrid cars, automobiles made overseas are stacking up at ports and parking lots around the United States as supplies far outstrip demand amid the nation's worst auto market in more than 25 years.

At the Long Beach port near Los Angeles, Toyota Motor Corp vehicles including Prius hybrids, FJ Cruiser sport utility vehicles and Lexus IS 250 luxury sedans are being stored on a vast construction site that will one day be a new container terminal.

The site became a gigantic parking lot when Toyota and Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz asked the port for space to store thousands of vehicles that dealerships have not been able to take on due to sluggish sales.

"It's unusual that they would be here longer than a few days, but that's the situation now," said Art Wong, a spokesman for the Port of Long Beach. "They can't move it through their pipeline fast enough so they are asking for additional space while they keep their vehicles here more than a few days, and in some cases more than a few weeks."

The port has not counted how many additional cars were being stored, but Wong said Toyota has leased an additional 23 acres of space while Mercedes-Benz has leased about 20 more acres.

Original article can be found here.

[A Horse With No Name]

This might be far worse than anyone peviously thought...be interesting to see how other governments help their automakers.

Chris

[balthazar]

Prolly some artificial reef projects that could go forward were there -say- 43 acres of 'reef material' donated for free...

[gm4life]

Everyone even "perfect" Toyota is hurting...

[balthazar]

G4L - that's just not possible; toyota is the perfect business model, the Midas of the industry, never a failure, never a hesitation, ever to be the role model for the rest of the world. No doubt recent considerable sales decline numbers are the result of information sabotage, when in fact toyota has set new 'BEST EVER!!'s. The truth will come out.

[siegen]

G4L - that's just not possible; toyota is the perfect business model, the Midas of the industry, never a failure, never a hesitation, ever to be the role model for the rest of the world. No doubt recent considerable sales decline numbers are the result of information sabotage, when in fact toyota has set new 'BEST EVER!!'s. The truth will come out.

Toyota is the "image" of a perfect business model, or facade I should say. I think the news outlets and mags just gloss over the fact that Toyota relies heavily on fleet sales and incentives, and it has gotten worse and worse over the last 5-10 years. Toyota has pumped large quantities of their profits into marketing, and have grown and overexpanded too fast. At first news outlets attributed the recalls, cost overruns, and other problems to "growing pains", but now it should be clear as day to even the glossy eyed people. Toyota is off 13.7% year-to-date, while Honda and Nissan are off 5.8% and 9.5% respectively. Toyota is closing the gap with Ford even (down 19.7%), and it appears to just be falling apart more and more every month for Toyota. 0% financing didn't even so much as slow down the fall.

Honda has always had a better run business, among the japanese. Slow and steady wins the race. Toyota got greedy and it's going to cost them, I hope. I want to see GM and Ford pull things together, overhaul their businesses, and reclaim some of the lost ground against Toyota. I just hope they can manage it in time.

[toesuf94]

Toyota Press release: " with BEST EVER inventory levels, Toyota continues to offer the Toyota buyer it's BEST EVER choice of new cars, SUV's and pick-ups, particularly in the L.A. basin."

I really hate Toyota...anyone see a repeat of the "accidental" fire at the storage warehouse where Chrysler had all those cars piled up?

[daves87rs]

Interesting..the only automaker selling cars around here in Honda....

[HarleyEarl]

Honda's sales have dropped a huge 31.6% in the US. They just pulled out of F1.

Ford's drop was slightly less.

And for some reason Canada is bucking the trend in total sales. Here, auto sales year-to-date have been up 2%.

Edited December 8, 2008 by HarleyEarl

[Z-06]

Is the port making money from this stock-piling or has it been asked by Senator Shelby to offer incentives for providing the space?

[DBeaSSt]

Oh, I feel just so badly for those poor import manufacturers......

NOT!

[Robert Hall]

Toyota Press release: " with BEST EVER inventory levels, Toyota continues to offer the Toyota buyer it's BEST EVER choice of new cars, SUV's and pick-ups, particularly in the L.A. basin."

I really hate Toyota...anyone see a repeat of the "accidental" fire at the storage warehouse where Chrysler had all those cars piled up?

I remember something that happened in the '80s, about the time the first S10 came out, GM had a stockpile of unsold LUV pickups...I think they ended up crushing them..

[coders11]

Yet here in Lansing outside LGR there is space for thousands of cars but all the caddys go on thier merry way. Maybe we can lease the space to Toyota to make a few extra $$$ and the media can come take some pics outside one of the most modern auto production facilities in the world.

[A Horse With No Name]

I remember something that happened in the '80s, about the time the first S10 came out, GM had a stockpile of unsold LUV pickups...I think they ended up crushing them..

They also crushed a shipload (shipload, NOT $h!load) of new LUV trucks when whey were spayed accidentally with salt water and started to rust, IIRC.

Chris

[A Horse With No Name]

The truth will come out.

+1

Chris

[Robert Hall]

The truth will come out.

The truth is out there.

[A Horse With No Name]

The truth is a major shake up in the auto industry has been coming for a long time...glad to see that the pain is being "shared"

Chris

[balthazar]

>>"...At first news outlets attributed the recalls, cost overruns, and other problems to "growing pains..."<<

'Growing pains' are experienced by new companies, encountering business challenges or major changes for the first time. toyoda has been around since the 1940s; that BS 'growing pains' line doesn't hold a single drop of water.

[Robert Hall]

Article today on CNN on this topic.

Toyota: 160 acres of cars at Long Beach port

[GMman]

GM and Ford (and Chrysler) need to be capitalizing on toyota's failures. Chevy has just started putting out commercials that directly compare/contrast their vehicles to toyotas and I like 'em. The friggin' nightly news isn't going to report that toyota has chinks (no pun intended) in it's armor. I don't know why the American companies wouldn't expose them through direct comparisons. Lord knows the japanese capitalize everytime American companies hit a rough patch.

[A Horse With No Name]

I do think Ford an GM will capitalize on this, as you said.

Too bad Chryco is a few years away from being in really buff shape. A three pronged threat to Toyota would be nice.

Chris

[GMman]

A three pronged threat to Toyota would be nice.

Chris

So true brother....so true.