Episode 918 – Yaris Production Moves, GM Expands in Russia, Yamaha Plans Low-Cost Bike
June 25th, 2012 at 12:02pm
Runtime: 9:24
Toyota will shift production of Yarises built in Japan for North America to France, the first time Toyota will export from Europe to North America. General Motors announced it’s boosting production in Russia. Yamaha plans to introduce a new motorcycle in India with a price of just $500. All that and more, plus John McElroy test drives the 2013 Lexus GS 350.
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Hello again and welcome to another episode of Autoline Daily. It’s Monday the 25th of June, 2012. I’m Craig Cole, filling in for John McElroy who is out of the office. Anyway, here’s all the news that’s fit to broadcast.
TOYOTA SHIFTS YARIS PRODUCTION
Japanese automakers are slashing exports from their home country because the strong yen is cutting into profits. Now Reuters reports Toyota will shift production of some Yarises from Japan to France of all places. Annually the company plans to export around 25,000 Yarises from France to North America starting next year. This marks the first time Toyota will export from the Old World to the New.
TOYOTA & BMW EXPAND PARTNERSHIP
And speaking of Toyota, German magazine Der Spiegel reports the Japanese automaker will expand its partnership with BMW. Last year the two companies agreed to swap diesel and hybrid technology. Starting in 2014, BMW will supply Toyota with diesel engines for the European market while Toyota will help BMW with lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. Now reports say the two companies have agreed to collaborate on new projects. Details are expected to be announced shortly.
AUTOLINE AFTER HOURS
And just a programming note here, in a couple short weeks we’ll be bringing you the second annual Autoline After Hours Fantasy Draft. With new players and more action YOU won’t want to miss it. The big day is Thursday, July 12 starting at 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Again that’s Thursday, July 12 at 6:00 p.m. Mark your calendars, jot down a little note or tie a piece of string on your finger because you won’t want to miss it.
GM EXPANDS IN RUSSIA
General Motors just announced it’s boosting production in Russia. The company’s plant in St. Petersburg will see its annual production capacity more than double from 98,000 units to 230,000 by 2015. The plant will build Chevy and Opel models including the all-new Astra. The manufacturing boost is part of a $1 billion expansion in Russia.
YAMAHA LAUNCHES LOW-COST BIKE
Speaking of expansion, Yamaha is looking to nearly triple its share of the Indian motorcycle market. Right now the Japanese OEM can claim about 3.5 percent of two-wheeler sales on the subcontinent, but it wants to reach double digits – 10 percent – by 2016. That works out to roughly 2 million sales annually. To hit that target The Wall Street Journal reports it plans to introduce a new bike with a price of just $500 – its cheapest model in the world. India is hugely important to motorcycle manufacturers. It’s the second-biggest market for bikes on the planet.
ANGRY BIRDS
Look out below, especially if you drive a red car! According to the British publication Daily Mail, scientists have determined that crimson-colored vehicles are more likely to be on the receiving end of bird droppings than any other color. Yes, they apparently get paid to research this stuff. In this study, 18 percent of red cars were found to be defiled, compared to just 1 percent of green ones – the least-soiled hue. Of course this isn’t a very scientific study, but still, it raises many questions. Do birds see red and think “danger!”? Can birds even see color? Also, why do our avian allies always seem to target shiny, freshly washed vehicles? The world may never know.
Coming up next, John McElroy reviews one of Lexus’ newest models.
LEXUS GS 350
(The Lexus GS 350 review is only available in the video version of today’s program.)
That new GS 350 is a pretty nice car and the hybrid version is an absolute rocket! The GS 450h is the first vehicle equipped with a CVT that I’ve actually enjoyed driving.
Anyway, that’s a wrap for today. Won’t you join us again tomorrow? We’ll see you then!
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Comments (46)
June 25th, 2012 at 12:26 pm
Oh well, Mademoiselle, there goes the stellar reliability of the Yaris, TTAC reports that Volvo CEO admits new cars are getting too complicated for some drivers, this weekend I was trying to back out of a space and some older woman with a new 5 series was blocking me, so when I got out to se why she was not backing up, I noticed she was fiddling with the shift paddles, she was frustrated and tells me the thing is not working, I said “Lady you have to shift to reverse down there in the gear shifter” She says, “no this is a new car, you use these to shift + is forward – is reverse.” WHAT? I was getting frustrated until some other lady interceded and finally got the car in reverse, I was astonished by the ignorance of some people with new cars.
June 25th, 2012 at 12:29 pm
I’m surprised Toyota would build in France for the North American market consumption. I thought the EU was probably the most expensive place in the world to build cars. Maybe the Asian companies have a quota of cars they need to build in the EU, based on the number they sell there.
June 25th, 2012 at 12:36 pm
#2 makes no sense, doesn’t Toyota have an empty plant in Miss that was supposed to build the Prius? why not move Yaris there, after all, the Prius C is built off the Yaris platform
June 25th, 2012 at 12:38 pm
CR did a quick review of the upcoming Elantra GT Hatch and from the looks of it, it’s gonna keep Focus models sitting in dealer’s lots for a long long time
June 25th, 2012 at 12:40 pm
#1,
I bet that lady with the 5 series really appreciates that she has the “ultimate driving machine,” NOT.
June 25th, 2012 at 12:43 pm
I could not believe my eyes when I see her flipping the paddles left and right, and so sure she was doing it right and the car had malfunctioned, I’m like she should be driving a Buick Regal or some other old folk’s car, not a Beemer. I was waiting for her to tell me that since I had an old car, I did not know how to operate a modern one. That should have been a YouTube moment for sure!
June 25th, 2012 at 1:57 pm
Bet her 4″ thick owner’s manual is still wrapped in the oem cellophane wrapper too. Scarey when the cars are smarter than the people driving them.
June 25th, 2012 at 2:41 pm
Pedro Question 6….I would not consider a Buick Regal an old person’s car….they have paddles also…cost a lot less than the BMW
& check out the LaCrosse an A-1 vehicle
June 25th, 2012 at 2:47 pm
I meant the Buick from the 90′s, not the current crop! Even those are too complicated.
June 25th, 2012 at 2:58 pm
Actually, that woman should probably be taking a bus or taxi, and not driving at all. It’s amazing, and sad, that so many auto illiterates are able to buy $60K cars.
June 25th, 2012 at 3:03 pm
Kit, you know how it is, they got the money and figure I’ll buy some luxurious car no matter what it is, in this case most likely she misunderstood the instructions given by the salesman and mistakenly believed the paddle shifters are there to shift the car forward, reverse or whatever, imagine she is doing 40 and downshifts to 1st, I don’t know if those cars’ computers overrule such bonehead moves.
June 25th, 2012 at 3:09 pm
TTAC report GM adding 3rd shirt to Texas palnt that makes full sized SUV’s. Forget about it, American’s love affair with big, gas guzzlers rears its ugly head every time gas starts to drop a bit. Subcompacts have no future here.
June 25th, 2012 at 3:16 pm
The woman in the parking lot is more indicative of the state of driver’s training than BMW complication.
The exhaust tips on the GS350 (imho) do not scream luxury, they just scream look at me.
The partnership between BMW and Toyota looks like it will produce many benefits for both companies as they each are leaders in the technology they are trading.
The Chevy Cruze recall involves cutting away the middle part of the plastic belly pan which collects oil. That portion of he pan is very close to the cat converter and exhaust pipe. Oil + high heat = BarbeCruze.
June 25th, 2012 at 3:19 pm
@ #11 All the auto-stick type cars have an ovverride feature to keep you from blowing up the engine and trans.
June 25th, 2012 at 3:38 pm
#13 C-tech I beg to differ on that point, she has been most likely driving for years but this is the first paddle shift car she’s ever driven and this moron salesman should have just told her to put it in D and never mind the paddles, let that be for those who know what the heck they’re doing and not for the uninitiated.
June 25th, 2012 at 3:43 pm
@#3 because the Corolla will be made there at the Mississippi plant
June 25th, 2012 at 3:51 pm
You guys are talking about one reason I dropped the Miata. Retrograde BMW owners. They think that the price of their car relates somehow to their abilities on the road, so they become Lon Chaney nostril nosed asphalt colored cataracts.
I can go on all day.
June 25th, 2012 at 3:51 pm
#16 I suppose Toyota figures the Yaris will never reach the sales numbers of the Corolla in the US, so they don’t need to build too many of them.
June 25th, 2012 at 5:06 pm
ANGRY BIRDS
To Craig Cole,
Can you please tell me if that “scientific study” says on which car models they tested this theory? ’cause – to be fair, if I was a bird and saw a Opel Vectra right under me, I probably do the same.
Also..
BMW & TOYOTA sitting on a tree K I S S I N G… or YARIS! The Ultimate Driving Machine.
I swear if I ever hear of a BMW version of the Toyota Prius, I’m liable of Going Postal. Just for the record.
June 25th, 2012 at 5:10 pm
Pedro, to quote General Ackbar in Star Wars “It’s a Trap!!” Anyone naive enough to thunk that gas prices will stay where they are or lower after November is in fantasy land. As soon as the election is over prices will start climbing again no matter who wins. So if they want to buy those 10MPG dinosaurs they deserve to get burned for not having learned from the last 4 times this has gone on in the last 4-6 years.
June 25th, 2012 at 5:16 pm
I just read on AW that they will be adding a third shift at the Grand Cherokee plant, for people who apparently think this “cheap” gas is forever.
June 25th, 2012 at 5:25 pm
Maybe birds don’t target red cars to poop on,rather people with dark cars park under trees to keep the cars interior cooler.
For a foreign car,I do like the dash in the Lexus John described.
#18 pedro,say what you will,but I am starting to see more Yaris than Coopers. From yesterday: Ya know,I don’t see many full size conversion vans! Can you recall how rust would form around all the windows after the first year? When I had the upholstery shop in college,After-market guys would cut holes in a van/car for windows or sunroofs with a sabre saw,then screw in the trim moldings without preping cut edges with primer,paint or even a sealant!
June 25th, 2012 at 5:25 pm
This BMW/Toyota technology swap seems to make more sense than most such arrangements. BMW has good small diesels, and Toyota (and Ford using similar systems) has the best hybrid technology. I doubt that any of this means that BMW will be making Prius-like cars any time soon, but if it means they will replace their current, substandard hybrid system with a better one patterned after Toyota’s power splitter setup, that will be a good thing.
June 25th, 2012 at 5:49 pm
I surmise Toyots’s reason to move Yaris production to France is cuz they already make the Yaris there. Their motive would be to maximize the plant’s utilization in cosideration of the Euro. mess. IMO GM is in a different situation. Russia seems to be a better choice and a future alternative/bargaining chip once union contracts expire.
June 25th, 2012 at 6:02 pm
Yep, those vans were rust prone, but I remember they were very popular even with their hefty weight and horrible gas mileage, but people loved to buy them so they cold take their long weekend trips and their annual vacations on them, re the improved gas guzzler sales, don’t look at me, man, I have always owned 4 bangers, even my vacation rentals are always 4 cyl vehicles.
June 25th, 2012 at 6:15 pm
Toyota will be creating a new market with the French-built Yaris, people who want to put a car in French car shows. Soon, in addition to the Renaults, Peugeots, Citroens, Simcas, Talbots, smarts, etc., there will be Yarises.
June 25th, 2012 at 6:26 pm
I didn’t realize they still made “conversion vans,” but they do. A few week ago I saw a fellow GM/Delphi retiree at a store, and he had just bought one. He went to northern Indiana to order it, built on a Chevy van. That industry was concentrated in northern Indiana during its heyday, and the remaining builders are still there.
June 25th, 2012 at 6:26 pm
Kit if anything, this move will hurt Yaris sales, with France’s reputation for unreliable cars, and the price of the new Yaris, more buyers will pony up a few more bucks and buy an American-made Corolla, specially its new redesign.
June 25th, 2012 at 6:44 pm
Just spent some time at the JD Power site and most new Chevy models have only two points out of five in reliability, Cruze has 2 Sonic has 3, only one better than the horrible Aveo, so where is the improvement? according to JD Power there is none. Even the Scion xB and Journey,2 cars I’m familiar with did poorly, I wonder who is getting all these bad samples.
June 25th, 2012 at 6:52 pm
@#29 Just goes to prove not to believe everything you read,but rely more on friends and those you meet. I mean…for CR to drop ford way down the list just because of the radio and/or interface is crazy. Esp. when the rest of the car,the part you depend on most is very good.
June 25th, 2012 at 6:57 pm
People purchase brands not countries of origin. If you asked a Yaris owner where his car was built you’d get a blank stare and, “Japan?”
June 25th, 2012 at 6:59 pm
Hey, the BMW 5 got low points cause some woman could not shift into reverse by using the paddle shifters, LOL.
June 25th, 2012 at 7:01 pm
#31 Currently they do! though my 98 NUMMI built Corolla and 95 Prizm have been more reliable than my Japanese built Camry. but then again, Japanese cars reached their peak in the 90′s.
June 25th, 2012 at 7:25 pm
#28,
I suspect they will be building US-bound Yarises in France, mainly to efficiently utilize a plant which is in an EU country for “local content” purposes. They will need to maintain decent quality, or the decision will come back to bite them.
June 25th, 2012 at 7:29 pm
Gee,pedro. It took me a few minutes to remember you were a Japanese car guy,but it never struck me,until now,that you have a real fixation for them. And that’s fine with me-don’t get me wrong. Add to your household a set of ginsu knives,futon beds and a case of saki and you’ll think your in Japan. And don’t forget to let your Shih Tzu out twice a day! Just fun’in!!
June 25th, 2012 at 7:30 pm
#30,
As far as I’m concerned, Ford deserved to take a hit for crappy operator interfaces. CR is not the only source to find them lacking. Ford seems to understand, and is making improvements, even as we speak.
June 25th, 2012 at 7:34 pm
#32,
BMW should build only manual transmisdion 1, 3, and 5 series. That should weed out all of the dingbats who buy them.
June 25th, 2012 at 7:39 pm
#35 I am a quality and reliable car guy, don’t care where they come from or who makes them, bottom line is I was let down by GM twice and Chrysler as well (never owned a Ford) so I found Toyota and I’ve been there ever since. Do like sushi and enjoy buying and restoring Japanese electronics from the 70′s, when quality meant something.
June 25th, 2012 at 7:41 pm
@ #37 But Kit that will only leave the “boy racers” with excessive red mist to drive them around. This will certainly drive up insurance rates and they will ask for a government subsidy!
June 25th, 2012 at 8:00 pm
#37 just because one crazy lady got her paddles confused with her shifter is no reason for BMW to drop autos, you know how many sales they would lose?
June 25th, 2012 at 8:05 pm
#38 pedro,you know I was jus pok’in ya with a stick–and to get the expected responce. Can’t argue with anything reliable and affordable.
#36 Kit,I agree Ford was deserving. Yet Ford has been making the correction by offering to send the device to the buyers home or at the dealer before the report was written. C&D chose not to include the Fusion in their Sonota,Accord,Camry…. comparo until the new model arrived and to give a more accurate review later. There is no reason why CR couldn’t have been just as objective. IMO,CR never had a passion for any of the US brands and this is just another cheap shot.
June 25th, 2012 at 9:15 pm
012345, that you Papageno?
June 25th, 2012 at 9:42 pm
#39-40,
Yeah, I wasn’t serious. BMW would lose nearly all of their U.S. sales if they sold only manual trans cars.
June 25th, 2012 at 9:59 pm
#41,
CR’s reliability survey is where Ford took a hit in the most publicized way. It would seem that the survey respondants mixed “unreliable” with “I don’t like it” when responding. The two things shouldn’t be confused, but, in any case, Ford has needed to do some work, which they have.
As far as Ford’s dual clutch transmission, I understand what people don’t like; it is difficult to drive smoothly at parking lot speeds, but I thought the full throttle shifts were great, both up and down. They are quick, and rev-matched, and therefore smooth.
June 26th, 2012 at 12:52 pm
Consumer Reports likes to “punch the big guy” every once in a while to get some free publicity.
August 1st, 2012 at 2:03 pm
GM got a plant in russia giving them jobs that`s another reason people can`t find jobs!!
and then people fault obama for the economy, RIGHT !!!!