Toyota Sales Spiral In November Down 33.9%: Lexus Basement Bound Down 34.7%

The Toyota Division posted November sales of 114,084 units, a decrease of 33.8 percent from last November. The Lexus Division reported November sales of 16,223 units, a decrease of 34.7 percent from the year-ago month.

Toyota Division

Toyota Division passenger cars recorded November sales of 68,013 units, down 31.1 percent from the same period last year. Passenger car sales were led by Camry and Camry Hybrid, which posted combined sales of 25,224 units. Camry Hybrid reported November sales of 2,174 units. Corolla recorded sales of 21,807 units. Yaris reported sales of 4,545 units for the month. The Prius mid-size gas-electric hybrid posted November sales of 8,660 units.

Toyota Division light trucks posted November sales of 46,071 units, down 37.4 percent from November 2007. Light truck sales were led by the RAV4 compact SUV with November sales of 9,260 units. The Tacoma mid-size pickup reported sales of 8,648 units for the month. Highlander and Highlander Hybrid posted combined sales of 7,887 units. The Highlander Hybrid gas-electric mid- size SUV reported sales of 907 units. Sequoia posted sales of 1,873 units for the month, up 51.9 percent over the same period last year.

Scion posted November sales of 5,275 units. The xB urban utility vehicle led the way with sales of 2,161 units. The tC sports coupe recorded sales of 1,728 units. The xD reported sales of 1,386 units for the month.

Lexus Division

Lexus passenger cars reported November sales of 8,941 units, a decrease of 40.0 percent from November 2007. Passenger car sales were led by the ES entry luxury sedan with November sales of 4,116 units. The IS entry luxury sport sedan reported combined sales of 2,749 units. The LS flagship luxury sedan reported combined sales of 1,272 units. The GS luxury sport sedan reported combined November sales of 721 units.

Lexus Division light trucks recorded November sales of 7,282 units, down 26.9 percent from the year-ago month. Lexus sales were led by the RX luxury utility vehicle, which posted combined November sales of 5,850 units. The RX 400h hybrid luxury utility vehicle reported sales of 624 units for the month.

TMS Hybrids

TMS calendar-year-to-date hybrid sales totaled 229,204 units. TMS posted November sales of 12,444 hybrid vehicles. Toyota Division recorded sales of 11,741 hybrids for the month. Lexus Division reported November sales of 703 hybrids.

david999 - 12/2/2008 1:15:24 PM

+1 Boost

Sales are tough for every brand, but the storm will eventually pass.

neutral - 12/2/2008 1:48:22 PM

-2 Boost

Toyota's sales are down because they:

-Failed to innovate
-Have terrible labor costs
-Don't make cars that anyone wants to buy
-Built gas thirsty vehciles like the LS460, Tunda, Sequioa, and Land Cruiser
-Make poor quality cars that fall apart

Now, obviously all the points stated above are bogus.... all I did was tailor the rash comments made of GM/Ford for Toyota.

Man it's easy to point fingers when someone is down.... now I guess I can see why so many people like to do it when the Big3 are having a hard time.

Toyota will be fine... they have the cash reserves on hand to withstand any recession for the next few years (lets hope it doesnt last that long).

Japanese Gov knows that Toyota is too important/big to fail and since the Japanese government is populated with responsible, logical people (take note US congress), they wouldn't let rash/stupid decisions and opinions get in the way of strategic economic security.

silver1 - 12/2/2008 2:27:29 PM

-7 Boost

Toyota/Lexus has the best selling car on planet earth. It also has the # selling Luxury Brand in the United States, amd also the world's most innovative car company.

rocker - 12/2/2008 2:40:00 PM

+2 Boost

"Toyota will be fine... they have the cash reserves on hand to withstand any recession for the next few years (lets hope it doesnt last that long)."

GM and Ford had piles of cash at one time also. Fear uses money. Current state of the WORLD economy will put a strain on every type of business and industry. Nothing will be spared but in the end when it is over, we should/hopefully have a strong economy and business model.

ghosthunter - 12/2/2008 4:09:41 PM

-2 Boost

you better respect a auto manufacture that sold the most cars worldwide. after all, toyota still makes a lot of profit despite the recession, it makes much more than other manufactures.

and please don't make me laugh when you point out the following

-Failed to innovate
Toyota hybrid technology is far ahead of any other car manufactures, i fail to see how they fail to innovate. its engines are also some of the best for the price. you cannot find many engines that output 2GR-FSE in a per L basis.
-Have terrible labor costs
as if you have any solid evident for that one. as far as i know, toyota is doing okay with its labor cost.
-Don't make cars that anyone wants to buy
and it is one of the largest auto manufacture in the world, and one of the most profitable company in the world for many years. come on..., common sense please?
-Built gas thirsty vehciles like the LS460, Tunda, Sequioa, and Land Cruiser
I'd like to see how those cars are more gas thirsty than other cars in its class. besides, you sounded like toyota only sales those 3 car. by ur logic, you should also say the entire BMW sucks because its X6 average 14 mile per gallon.
-Make poor quality cars that fall apart
i think it sounds more like a vw than a toyota. are you sure you are not a cave man who just get revived? i mean, even a cave man knows toyota quality is pretty good. they may not be excellent, but certainly better than average.

neutral - 12/2/2008 4:51:57 PM

-1 Boost

ghosthunter,

read my entire post, im being sarcastic. Im just trying to point out that everyone jumps on the "bash detroit" bandwagon, regardless of how stupid the allegations are.

Willis - 12/2/2008 7:32:30 PM

+2 Boost

Silver1,

Give me a break with your "Toyota is the most innovative car company in the world" BS. They're not.

LexusKindaGuy12 - 12/2/2008 2:00:14 PM

+1 Boost

the bottom line is that when you have a car sales year like 2007, best for lexus in a while, the ultimately consequence is a downfall...a huge downfall in this case because of the recession

kpaxx - 12/2/2008 3:01:45 PM

+1 Boost

Yaris still selling well. Good price! good fuel economy! Go figure!

But it looks like the new corolla ain't selling so well..I would not expect it to be in the negative!

Hyundai - 12/2/2008 7:58:45 PM

+3 Boost

I do. And, I own an 04 Corolla. The current gen is basically the most innovative-voided car in its class - coming from one of the most rich auto companies in the world. People expect more from Toyota, but they are crap lately, basically ripping people off based on their reputation.

neutral - 12/2/2008 9:36:08 PM

0 Boost

Hey,

The evil of success.... is complacency. Toyota knows that so long as the car is a decent car with no real problems, people will still come back in droves. I was looking at the new Camry both in person and on edmunds.com. People on edmunds actually seemed to start complaining about things like that, and quite often were saying how their older toyotas were built better. Honda seems to avoid complacency more than toyota. Big3 have busted their chops in the past decade to make up for the wanton complacency from the late 60's-90's.

Either way I look at it, toyota builds a good car. What upsets me is how americans buy toyota thinking its 10x better than anything domestic companies build.

nice thing for the domestics is (if you can call it nice) that they have a benchmark to shoot against in the mundane, everyday car segment. Sorry toyota, being the biggest puts you square in the crosshairs of everyone. GM knows it, Exxon knows it... Like the old saying goes, getting to the top isnt the hard part, its staying on top thats hard.

thomasr - 2/3/2009 5:25:11 PM

+1 Boost

Bad sales attitude is one Lexus problem. I walk into a dealership with cash in my jeans pocket and can't get someone to come over an help me in an empty showroom. I go to another dealership because I still want to get my wife an ES 350 as a surprise gift and nobody shows any interest in a guy wearing jeans I guess at this point. Well, I left

Kthorn - 2/3/2009 5:48:42 PM

+1 Boost

Inexcusable, but it's likely to happen just about anywhere...