Toyota Wants More Partnerships - But Are All Of These Collaborative Efforts Going To Hurt Quality?

Agent009 submitted on 8/8/2012 Official Bell & Ross Timestamp: 2:52:21 PM

19 user comments | Views : 4,384 | Category: New Cars | Source: | SOURCE: wardsauto.com

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Toyota used to be “the lone wolf and tried to do everything ourselves,” but that strategy is changing, says Jim Lentz, president and CEO of Toyota Motor Sales U.

S.A.

Speaking at the Center for Automotive Research’s Management Briefing Seminars here, Lentz says the future of the industry is bright, but collaboration is essential for all players to be successful.

“The challenges we face are far too great to go it alone,” he says. “Companies are increasingly joining together to build better cars, develop better in-car connectivity and reach for sustainable mobility.”



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Toyota Wants More Partnerships - But Are All Of These Collaborative Efforts Going To Hurt Quality?

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Agent009

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User Comments

LexSucks

What Quality? Give me a break. Toyota partnering with BMW will not bring down Toyota's quality. Are you serious?

— LexSucks (View Profile)

Posted on 8/8/2012 3:18:36 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

LexSucks

And if anything... on the flip side, if BMW were to use Toyota parts, then BMW's quality would go down.

— LexSucks (View Profile)

Posted on 8/8/2012 3:20:10 PM | | Votes: 0   

LexSucks

So Toyotas are better than BMWs? Is that what you're trying to say? What are you trying to say?

— LexSucks (View Profile)

Posted on 8/9/2012 9:05:14 AM | | Votes: -1   

LexSucks

What exactly are you implying then? I tell you what you are implying. You are implying that Toyota builds better quality vehicles than BMW. But you are smart enough to know not to say such madness directly.

So I'm going to ask you and the guy that never replies to me (although he just did again) 2 simple questions:

1) Do Toyota Build better quality vehicles than BMW?
2) Are Toyotas better vehicles all around than BMW?

These are simple questions that require a simple “Yes” or a “No”.

But I’ll bet my life that you guys will either:
1) Not answer my questions
2) Attempt to answer the questions but not commiting to a “Yes” or a “No”.

— LexSucks (View Profile)

Posted on 8/9/2012 2:23:54 PM | | Votes: -1   

LexSucks

"Does Toyota makes Lexuses? Yes. Is Lexus quality consistently rated higher than BMW's? YES. So to answer your question, in theory Toyota builds higher quality vehicles than BMW."


- Only an American can be so stupid.

— LexSucks (View Profile)

Posted on 8/10/2012 9:40:34 AM | | Votes: -1   

LexSucks

"in theory Toyota builds higher quality vehicles than BMW"?

- What about freaking reality?

— LexSucks (View Profile)

Posted on 8/10/2012 10:34:09 AM | | Votes: -1   

Yonder7

Serious ?...

— Yonder7 (View Profile)

Posted on 8/8/2012 3:59:11 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

MorePower

O9, I hope you work for Toyota, because this thread is quite insulting to all automotive enthusiasts. No one company makes a perfect car, let alone an entire model lineup.

Toyota's overall quality is no better than Ford's, Hyundai's or even GM's.

— MorePower (View Profile)

Posted on 8/8/2012 4:04:17 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -1   

GG123

I don't think Toyota should partner with BMW.

— GG123 (View Profile)

Posted on 8/9/2012 8:22:49 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 3   

Willis

Thank the lord you ain't running Toyota.

— Willis (View Profile)

Posted on 8/9/2012 9:50:22 PM | | Votes: 1   

cyberlancer

This is a perfect marriage. BMW decision to abandon rear wheel drive vehicles and build front wheel drive means they need a partner who knows how to do that. Toyota could not design an interesting car if you gave them a 1000 years to try and they need someone to show them how to design a pretty car.

— cyberlancer (View Profile)

Posted on 8/10/2012 1:48:28 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

DieselRules

Most people know the myth of Toyota quality is a marketing campaign from the '80s, won in a battle against Detroit garbage. But North America is the only place that bought into it. Key to their campaign was denial of defects and a refusal to perform safety recalls regardless of how many people got killed. Service staff were coached to say "we've never seen that problem before!" even if EVERY car had the same defect (like the Camry master cyclinders around 1990) and make the owner feel like its their own fault that their car is a POS.
I commend Toyota for stepping up and putting the customer first in recent years. Hard for a Japanese company to do, rather than "Save face".
But the reality is that all cars of built to amazing standards these days.
JD Powers rating is simply an inverse count of how many things can go wrong.
Simple appliances go at the top. Luxury cars at the bottom.

— DieselRules (View Profile)

Posted on 8/11/2012 2:10:02 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

DieselRules

RE: 'Toyota used to be “the lone wolf and tried to do everything ourselves,” '
What utter BS! Toyota is an assembler of parts, and never did anything themselves that required complexity or expensive engineering. When other manufacturers were fielding twin-cam engines in the 80's, Toyota's Celica GTS-16 had heads made by Yamaha because Toyota had neither the technology, nor the interest in spending $$$ to develop it, in-house. Toyota spend $$$ on "how to build it cheaper" and they are world leaders in that. Which is good. It conserves resources and reduces weight and fuel-consumption.

— DieselRules (View Profile)

Posted on 8/11/2012 2:23:54 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

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