Toyota announces plan to sell 9.85M vehicles in 2008 | USATODAY.com
Toyota’s public announcement of its plans to go for General Motors’ jugular is bold. Even though it is a safe bet according to consensus, the announcement runs counter to the typically conservative Japanese way of conducting business. Â Whatever the outcome, the two facts in this story that ought to raise people’s eyebrows are
- the battleground between GM and Toyota is not the United States or Europe. The war is being waged in developing economies.
- the Corolla is considered a sub-compact vehicle in the US?
The former proposition follows from the economic woes that have received ample documentation in business pages all over the world. The latter is surprising because it was Toyota models like the Tercel, Echo and Yaris that were traditionally considered the subcompact models. The Corolla was always the compact model. Does mean that the SUV effect has been so dramatic that monstrosities like the Camry are now considered “compact” vehicles? So, the Yaris is a micro-compact? Or could it be that USA Today’s writers are still conspicuously error-prone?