Toyota puts pedal-gate nightmare behind, revs back into black

Akio Toyoda, the much criticised President of Toyota Motor Co must have felt vindicated by the positive numbers in the latest fiscal year financial results. Not only has the company arrested any further losses, it even made 209.4 billion Yen in profit along the way! Compare this to the previous financial quarter results of a loss of 437 billion Yen. The results will give Toyoda-san a much needed breathing space from the pressure from investors as well as the rival factions within TMC controlled by past presidents Hiroshi Okuda and Katsuaki Watanabe, whom we have learned earlier would love to see Akio Toyoda removed.

Hopefully, Toyoda-san can now concentrate on realigning the company founded by his great-grandfather, which has now seriously veered far from the founding principles laid down by his ancestors.

“We are still in the storm, but even in the same storm, we see the sky starting to clear up in the distance.” - Akio Toyoda

More good news for petrol heads - rumour (according to US publication Road & Track) a cheaper, baby FT86 model is also in the plans. Set for release by 2012, a year after the planned debut of the FT86. RWD fans say Amen to prayers answered for a cheap, reliable, no-frills fun machine!

Hopefully, both the FT86 and it's little brother will not end up as a JDM / North American or European market only special. It was very clear that us on this side of the world are the ones who bank rolled Toyota during this difficult period.


Western analysts have been predicting much doom and gloom for Toyota following the pedal-gate scandal, and the over-exaggerated Lexus GX 460 issue. Some have been saying that the high promotional incentives for its North American cars will bleed the company dry. And that it has billions worth of law suits on its way, some are honestly valid as a results of the company's negligence but many are just plain opportunists. To a certain extent the predictions are true. But there is one a major problem in evaluating the assets / financial standings of Japanese companies - the keiretsus, an arrangement of inter-locking ownerships between major Japanese industrial companies and banks, which is often used to lock out foreign competition, much to the charging of WTO, as technically it is difficult to prove that keiretsus violate WTO agreements. If necessary, Toyota is able to raise huge capitals / fresh funds required to fund the business in ways that no other companies can, not even other Japanese companies. Certainly not Nissan or Honda. Toyota's keiretsu grouping is the most extensive in Japan Inc. Which is why I have been telling people the USD 16.4 million dollar fine by the NHTSA is nothing but mosquito bite to Toyota.