Toyota Posts An INCREDIBLE 88.9% Sales Jump May - Lexus Lifts Off With A 74.4% Spike For Month

The analyst are ALREADY Expressing their disappointment with this.. they expected more.. WTH!

it's pretty simple really. remember the tsunami you guys have been blaming all of toyota's problem on? well, it destroyed sale in may 2011. did you expect sales in may of 2012 to be anything close to equal and not up massively?

pondo: i'm very consistent. the tsunami wrecked sales for several months after it happened in march 2011 (not for a year as toylex fans seem to think). so logically sales will be massively up when comparing may, june and july sales of 2012 to 2011. you'll see the same massive numbers in the next couple of months. look at the comparison to the month before rather than the year before for a trendline.

they should be expecting more given that may 2011 was a horrible month. and also that lexus is buying business. check this out: Researcher TrueCar.com revealed that when it comes to incentives, Lexus had a 37% increase while Mercedes-Benz had a 23% climb and BMW gained by 0.8%.

no, i said the tsunami wrecked sales for several months afterward. this is common knowledge. the two years of decline prior to the tsunami were due to a decline in quality in exchange for growth (as per mr. toyoda himself) and years of boring models.

Funny how a few weeks ago people were declaring Toyota dead.

Maintaining that type of momentum will be tough after a few months.

They are competing against extremely poor sales last year.

1) 009 was actually on your side, and
2) I'm not sure you understand the numbers.

There's a reason analysts are saying the ToyoLex increases are less than they'd hoped. The percentages are huge, yes, and those kind of growth percentages would be great normally, that is true. But last year was not "normal". Let's say I sold 100k widgets in May 2010, and in May 2011 my sales fell 50%. If I recover and sell 89% more in May 2012 than I did in May 2011, am I fully recovered? Did I have a super duper tremendous month? No. I sold 100k widgets in May 2010, and 50k widgets in May 2011, and even in my monstrous "growth" month of May 2012 I sold 94.5k widgets, which is less than I sold in May 2010 before the disaster.

The point being that these percentages are inflated by the disaster last year. ToyoLex SHOULD be posting enormous gains this year, it would be almost impossible not to. But don't get suckered in by the raw percentages, you have to actually put them in context. Lexus, for example, spent just about every month at #1 in luxury sales in 2010. In 2011, obviously, they tanked. Here we are in 2011 and for May they're up 74% versus May 2010. Sounds great, right? Time to bust out the champagne? Sure, until you realize that 74% increase was only enough to put them in the #3 spot for the month.

It's all about context.

another perfect example is VW. VW increased sales 28.4% vs May 2011, and they didn't have a disastrous May 2011. 28.4% may not look as cool in a headline as 88.9%, but in reality their 28.4% increase over a great month is more significant than Toyota's 88.9% increase over a month where sales were down massively from the year before.

Ok I can see what you're saying. Would it be fair then to compare Toyota/Lexus numbers for May 2012 sales against May 2010 (i.e. the last May before the earthquake/tsunami)?

Or would you rather compare Toy/Lex numbers for May 2012 against numbers for Feb 2011 (i.e. the month BEFORE the earthquake/tsunami).

Let me know...I can give you both comparisons. And you probably won't like it.

You can use either figures. I'm not knocking ToyoLex, just putting the huge percentage into perspective, something that is typically lacking in Internet forums. Here's another interesting tidbit regarding the growth figures:


The Mercedes sales were aided by a more aggressive incentives program, 23 percent compared to BMW’s 0.8 percent. Lexus had the most aggressive programbmw with 37 percent, an attempt to recover from last year’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Their sales for the month soared 74 percent to 21,463 units. From year-to-date, Mercedes reports an increase in sales of 18 percent to 106,364 units, giving the company a lead of 1,585 cars over BMW. In the same period of time, BMW’s sales increased 14 percent, same as Lexus (88,1110 units). Same as reported in April, the C-Class sedan (up 35 percent) and M-Class SUVs (up 66 percent) helped the strong sales. Audi continues to trail with 11,503 units, a 10 percent increase. After five months, Audi’s U.S. sales this year rose 14 percent to 52,494.

These percentages were in comparison to the same month the previous year, so will obviously report an unrealistic increase in sales given the company sold a lot less during the month of May of last year.

I think the issue here is more the reasons behind the low sales figures last year. As you mentioned, there are posters here with overly biased opinions. And this very-vocal group seem to think (or would like to believe) that the reason for the alarming dip in sales was due to the company's decline - that their core customers are leaving the brand for other manufacturers. This might be true. But there's no way I can prove or disprove this so I won't even defend or argue this issue.

What I can do is erase that period in which the company's inventory had been ravaged by the disaster, and compare today's numbers against their numbers pre-disaster(ie. as if it never happened). I thought that this would give a good indication of where the company stands relative to its competitors in terms of sales over time. And when I do this, I see a dramatic increase in sales - hardly proof of a company in "decline".

I don't think they are declining. But I also don't see 89% growth and think "oh my God, that's incredible!" because I take into consideration what happened in 2011. That was my point. I don't doubt Toyolex's figures look good compared to 2010, either, since most of the major brands are up 30% or so from 2010. I don't know what Toyolex's percentages are but feel free to share them.

Toyota Motors sold 162,813 units in May 2010. They sold 202,973 in May 2012. About a 24.7% increase. This percentage would have been higher had Lexus not actually sold less vehicles over the same period - 22,216 in May 2010 vs 21,463 in May 2012.

In respect to Lexus sales, it's more like stabilizing, since they have been lagging behind their German competitors for awhile. The question is if they could maintain the existing sales volume, or momentum, instead of focusing on this astronomical, nominal growth percentage. It also means that Lexus has something right now that's garnering consumers' attention.

On a side note, something to cheer Lexus/Toyota fans. BMW has posted less than 10 percent growth, which is still rather impressive given their sales volume. Being the best selling model for May, the 5 series sales has been less-than-impressive since its redesign. It says a lot about a company that uses lots coupons to attract badge whores, not enthusiasts, to buy - or I should say LEASE - their cars.

impressed with the lexus GS sales but i must admit, i dont like the exterior styling at all.. especially the cheap/ dated looking rear

GS sales are down again this month. now under 2k units. that's impressive?

you seem to find meaningless numbers that sound good. the '550%' is comparing the non-existent last year sales of the GS (which measured only 200 to 300/month) to this new one. the GS is now 3 months on market and sale peaked at just over 3000 the first month and have now fallen to under 2000. a 3-month old model with massive sales drops is a DISASTER.

at this point in the launch cycle, the F10 5-series was selling 5000 units/month at a 20%+ price premium over the GS.

my mistake. 5-series sales last month were over 6k not 5k. so triple GS sales at a higher price.

Didn't Toyota have a higher increase than Hyundai last month and, year over year, the tsunami hadn't hit yet.
Just means Toyota's new products are being well received and now we know why Hyundai is forced to rollout 96 month financing across the border, they're left hunting for customers who really can't afford a car.

Only real comparison is by raw volume. Toyota I think was hitting close to 200,000 units a month before the tsunami.

"The new RX with the Spindle Grille is packing the showrooms with buyers"

sad that a new grille and some new door handle is enough to pack the lexus showroom. lol

Sales wise the GS is a disappointment. Everyone keeps comparing it to last years sales. Big mistake. When a vehicle nears the end of its generation, naturally there is a drastic drops in sales which explains the low sales last year. Why? Obviously the consumer is going to wait, knowing a better version is on the horizon. Also, BMW and Audi introduced competitive vehicles in this segment which attracted consumers.

The prior GS was pushing 3400+ units a month in its prime. When Infiniti introduced the M there was a direct correlation between the M's rise to 3000 sales and the GS's drop in sales. But, the GS was still selling around 3000 units a month.

The fact that the GS started far below the 3k mark and followed it up with a drop below 2k this month is not good. Especially when you consider this GS is the sportiest to date.

actually currie's facts are spot on. and the fact that sales of the new GS have dropped from over 3000 to under 2000 in the third month is a disturbing trend. how do you explain this sales drop while the more expensive competitors sell higher volumes?

Lexus and Mercedes-Benz increased incentives 37 percent and 23 percent repectively, compared to BMW’s 0.8 percent gain, according to researcher TrueCar.com.

Hate to ruin your tirade with actual facts, but Mercedes has been the top incentive spender for quite some time, and they just increased them massively again. As did Lexus.

BD: $1000 or so difference in incentive is meaningless when the BASE MSRP of a comparable mercedes or bmw is considerably higher and many thousands higher when comparably equipped. math is a tough one for you, i know.

BD: guess again!

"Researcher TrueCar.com revealed that when it comes to incentives, Lexus had a 37% increase while Mercedes-Benz had a 23% climb and BMW gained by 0.8%."

That $7500 was only on 2012 750 hybrids, a car that

a) dealers don't even have, and
b) is being discontinued for 2013 in favor of a much less expensive 740 hybrid.

But hey, let's act like that $7500 that is only available on one discontinued car that there are none of anyway applies across to board to all BMW models and hope that everyone is stupid and doesn't catch it. And let's pretend that the other brands don't do/aren't doing the exact same thing. Like Benz, for example, who is currently waiving up to 8 payments for current Benz lessees to get them into new vehicles, and had over $18k in dealer cash on the last year of the previous generation of S-class models when the current generation came out. Yes, $18k in dealer cash. Or Lexus, who outspent everyone but Mercedes last month to rekindle sales from last years disaster. Let's pretend those didn't/aren't happening. It's just BMW!!!

Whatever misinformation helps your argument, right? No need to let facts get in the way of a good rant.

Lexus keeps their prices low by using Toyota parts. You know down DEEP BD those engines, brakes, hybrid batteries, etc. come from the Toyota mothership. True question is, how much would a truly independent Lexus auto cost and would people pay the difference. Think of the big picture, not just the incentives.

black: incentives for all the premium brands are very similar...usually within $1000 of each other. the $7500 incentive was on the LEFTOVER 7-series as the refreshed 7 just launched. average incentives are less than half that for the brand.

always distorting FACTS.

and it's amusing that you focus on incentives and not MSRP which is thousands and thousands higher on any of the german cars compared to lexus. lexus builds massive discounts INTO THE MSRP. do explain. and use some hard numbers like sticker prices and then apply your discounts.

pondo: the 328 is not "45% of bmw sales." actually, all 3-series sales (coupes, sedans, convertibles, 328, 335) total 22% of bmw sales. i know how you hate facts, so here you go...

http://autospies.com/news/BMW-Sales-Rise-7-3-In-May-Mini-Settles-In-With-A-6-1-Increase-For-Month-70924/

The new ES will produce a big jump....

really? brand new models cause sales to rise? thanks for the enlightenment.

Looks like someone at Toyota and Lexus forgot to carry the 2 and a math error resulted in this astonishing "sales increase."