This Just In: The Sky Is Not Falling!
Enough already! Just about to finish our daily perusal of the usually spot on postings driving AutoBlog when we came upon a story by Chris Shunk that . . . well, frankly stunk.

Why the stink? To read the post on our current Tundra customer incentives (aka as "rebates" per Mr. Shunk or "financial merchandising tools" by our own marketing group) is to break down in tears for all of the bad luck, bad publicity, plain old bad news that has befallen Toyota and our new Tundra full size pickup truck--if it were only true.

So let us clear the air.

Our Tundra is doing just fine. So is our assembly plant. And our customers tell us they are quite pleased with their vehicles. Our sales pace is where we want it to be, and we still plan to achieve our 200,000 unit objective.

Has one of the most important vehicle launches in Toyota's history gone off without a hitch? Of course not. We've had to adjust our product mix based on consumer demand and we quickly addressed a camshaft issue on some of our units, making sure any affected customers were properly and promptly handled. Not perfect. But then those familiar with our company's history might recall that shortly after what many of us feel was the most important product debut ever--Lexus--we recalled Lexus. The auto company with highest reputation in the world does make mistakes, but it's been our practice to learn from them and improve.

As for those Tundra "rebates", we believe it's important to our Tundra buyers that we couple a great product with competitive pricing. The AutoBlog post is correct in noting the extreme competitiveness of the full size pickup truck market. But it's also a market in decline--as much as 30% in some parts of the country.

Our sales strategy includes keeping pace with the market and with the competition, and as one astute reader of Mr. Shunk's piece notes, buyers in this market have grown accustomed to "cash on the hood." Unfortunately, we're seeing many would-be Tundra purchasers driving into our dealerships in vehicles with negative equity as high as $5,000. And so it is our hope that in providing a variety of "financial merchandising tools" to our dealers, we might ease the burden a bit on some of those trades.

If all of this is "bad news" for us, it's certainly a bonanza for those consumers looking to enter the full size truck market or trade up to a Tundra. We're proud of our entry into this crowded segment but know its going up against some other great products offered by our competitors, who we hope by now know we're serious players.

It's certainly not doom and gloom for Toyota or any other truck maker for that matter. But it is an endurance race, and the consumer is the ultimate winner.