Looking though Autospies over the past week, I noticed a lot of articles regarding Toyota's recent successes and the prospect that there will be a public relations backlash when they become number one. The first question I would like to ask the Autospies community is will Toyota actully hit the number one mark or will GM stop them. For the first time in a while, GM did show a small percent increase in sales. They may merge, collaborate with Chrysler, etc.
The second question I have is will there be a backlash. In Southern California, I do not feel anyone would care that Toyota is number one and GM is second. Most people just look at what the car has to offer and at what price. What about the rest of the country and world, would they care?
Toyota may be a Japanise car company, but Lexus was created in Southen California. The RX is built in Canada, the Camary is built in the Midwest (please correct me if I am wrong). What difference does it make that its corporate headquarters are in Asia? GM designed all of the new Saturns in Europe (Opel) and builds cars all around the world and brings them to the US. In this new global economy, does it really matter where a companies headquarters are located? Does Toyota really need to worry about a backlash, apart from its company becoming so mainstream that it is no longer "cool" to own the car. By too cool, I am refering to the Prius example. Initially, owning a Prius was "cool". It was not a common car, it was green, and it was different. I think the same can be said about the IS. When I go to work, Starbucks in Newport Beach, I see 5 ISs drive by me and 3 other ones parked in the parking lot.
It would be nice to get peoples oppions on this issue. Please do not turn this into a flame war. Lexus/Toyota are great, reliable cars. BMW/MB/Audi are great cars also. The new GMs are almost, if not at the level of the former.