Toyota To Ask For 100k Vehicles From Subaru Plant

[Guest Josh]

TOKYO (AP) — Toyota Motor Corp. will ask Fuji Heavy Industries, maker of Subaru automobiles, to manufacture up to 100,000 vehicles at a plant in Indiana, the Asahi newspaper said Wednesday.

Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe and Fuji President Kyoji Takenaka will hold talks Dec. 5 to finalize details on the plan, under which production will begin in 2007, the paper reported.

Company representatives were not available for comment due to a national holiday in Japan.

Full Story: http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/michigan/in...st=newsmichigan

[Variance]

Toyota really isn't wasting any time utilizing their new partnership with Subaru.

[bobo]

I think the factory was the main appeal of the Subaru purchase, along with the hybrid battery technology.

[Cadillacfan]

Toyota is up to something and it doesn't look good.

[VenSeattle]

GM had more than twice the investment in Subaru and couldn't achieve anywhere near half of what Toyota is asking... Subaru was even against the 9-2x, though it was a very low volume vehicle for GM. Pathetic.

[Guest carpetbagger]

they are all Japanese so of course snubaru will roll over and do what toyota asks

[Guest Josh]

This seems to be hitting Japan hard too, at least initially:

TOKYO (Kyodo)--Toyota Motor Corp. (7203.TO) is likely to aim to farm out some 100,000 of its annual vehicle production in the U.S. to Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. (7270.TO), the Asahi Shimbun reported Wednesday, according to Kyodo News.

Specifically, Toyota will build an assembly line at a U.S. factory of Fuji Heavy to roll out Toyota vehicles starting in 2007, the report said.

Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe and Fuji President Kyoji Takenaka will hold talks on Dec. 5 to work out details - the first top-level talks between the two auto makers since they announced last month that Toyota will become the largest shareholders in Fuji by acquiring an 8.7% stake from General Motors Corp. (GM), it said.

The assembly line for Toyota vehicles will be installed at Fuji's wholly owned manufacturing unit in Indiana, the report said, adding Toyota will not make a capital participation in the Fuji unit.

There are currently five to six candidate models, and the number of models to be turned out at the Fuji factory will gradually be increased, the report said.

[ReD-DaWg-OnE]

This is an intersting idea... you farm out your vehicals to other people you can cut back easier and respond to market demand quicker. You won't suffer from any legacy costs because you don't employ the people in the plant. You just have to deal with the short term contract not 40 some years of health cares costs. They are on to something here...

[Imaj]

This seems to be hitting Japan hard too, at least initially:

[post="47329"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

how? you mean as in more production in the US and less in Japan :unsure:

[PurdueGuy]

That's kinda cool - that Subaru plant is about 15 min from me. I wonder if they'll have to expand the plant. They used to build the legacy/outback and an Isuzu or 2 out there. A few years ago they dropped the Isuzu part. Now they're building the Tribeca, as well as the legacy stuff (legacy, outback, baja, etc). Not sure how much capacity was left. *shrug*

[BrewSwillis]

This is an intersting idea... you farm out your vehicals to other people you can cut back easier and respond to market demand quicker.  You won't suffer from any legacy costs because you don't employ the people in the plant.  You just have to deal with the short term contract not 40 some years of health cares costs.  They are on to something here...

[post="47342"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

Yeah, like the installation of the UAW into their plants.

[jbartley]

yeh and i doubt if they rush for 100k the first year there is going to be the quality people will expect from toyota....

[Guest Josh]

"And when your walls come tumblin' down...." Toyota is setting themselves up in a bad, bad way.

[sciguy_0504]

"And when your walls come tumblin' down...."

Toyota is setting themselves up in a bad, bad way.

[post="47853"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

Could you elaborate?

[zbad1]

This is an intersting idea... you farm out your vehicals to other people you can cut back easier and respond to market demand quicker.  You won't suffer from any legacy costs because you don't employ the people in the plant.  You just have to deal with the short term contract not 40 some years of health cares costs.  They are on to something here...

[post="47342"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

You're right. Toyota is now the Temp Agency of the Automotive World. Use and abuse, and then cut and run as soon as things look grim.

[Satty]

Any ideas what vehicles Toyota wants to build there? The Prius makes sense, there is a lot of demand for hybrids, and being able to build 100k more would be good for Toyota. Also producing Scions there kind of makes sense. They're not super-high volume, so building one or two models here wouldn't artificially decrease sales numbers, and it would take out the hassle of having to ship the cars across the ocean.

[Sixty8panther]

Toyota is up to something and it doesn't look good.

[post="47218"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

Yeah, what Japanese Ntnl. Holiday is it? Screw American Workers Day? <_<

[91z4me]

I am intersted in speculation from our insiders at this point. Also I just want to keep tabs on this.