Number One Crapbox distributor
I really don’t understand why Toyota is the number one car manufacturer in the world, other than the fact that they make cheap deathtraps that they market in the third world to people who can barely afford the $9 thousand price tag price on crapbox cars that an American (or a Japanese) buyer wouldn’t look at twice.
On my trips south of our border, I’ve had the occasion to rent and borrow from relatives their various versions of Toyota’s finest. Remember when you could “feel” the floor boards in cars? Remember the tinny sound those imported Japanese cars made when you slammed the door shut? Well, those cheaply made crapboxes still exist in the third world – in fact if you’re nostalgic for those tiny little pickup trucks Toyota used to market here, you can pick up a 2008 version down there.
Toyota’s strategy for selling so many cars in the third world? Cheap spare parts compared to American spare parts. My brothers-in-law all own one of the countless versions and all tell me that the only reason is the price of spare parts. They all admit that American cars are more dependable and easier to fix, but down there, people actually BUY cars and those cars have to last ten or twenty years.
I rented a 2006 Toyota Camry in Panama last year and it was nothing like an American market Camry – except it’s shape. The doors were paper thin, the engine sputtered whenever the vehicle came close to 60/mph. You could almost feel the road through the floorboards. The same with my brother-in-law’s brand new Yaris this last year and the Nissan we rented two years before.
So, even though they may be selling a product in the US somewhat equal to the American equivalent, they can sell it cheaper here because they sell those crackerboxes on wheels in the third world, then steal marketshare in the US on the backs of those brown people.
Another thing I have against Toyota is the fact that next to the pill pushers of Cialis and Viagra, Toyota dealers are my biggest spammers.
