Sometimes, no matter how many months a company invests in development or how many millions it spends on marketing, a new product can fall flat on its face. That's what happened to these new offerings, the biggest product flops of 2012.
The carmaker hoped findings from two federal studies would put to rest speculation about its electronics system as a source for unintended acceleration. But the results may not prove enough to give Toyota a leg up in its ongoing legal battles.
The Japanese automaker's bottom line is likely to have been hit by its many safety recalls, weaker U.S. sales and Japan's rising currency. Analysts forecast Toyota will report a quarterly profit of about $1 billion on sales of $56.2 billion.
Toyota managed to hold onto the title of world's No. 1 automaker last year, despite numerous safety recalls that took a toll on its sales. Toyota sold 8.42 million vehicles worldwide in 2010, enough to barely edge out resurgent General Motors, which rang up sales of 8.39 million.
Toyota Motor is reportedly suing what remains of the discarded assets of the "old GM," officially known as Motors Liquidation Co., for pulling out of the companies' joint venture in California, a manufacturing plant known as Nummi.
When Toyota Motor reports quarterly earnings tomorrow it will give investors the latest snapshot of how big a toll massive recalls and tepid auto sales are taking on the company's bottom line.
Toyota may have repaired most of the cars it recalled for unintended acceleration problems, but it hasn't repaired its stock price, and U.S. shareholders have filed a class-action lawsuit against the automaker for failing to disclose what it knew about the defects.
Toyota says complaints by its cars' unintended acceleration have dropped 80% compared to April, , as the world's largest automaker continues to make strides in repairing the nearly 8 million vehicles recalled in the U.S. to over sticky gas pedals and accelerators that get hung up on floor mats.
Toyota has asked a federal judge to dismiss hundreds of lawsuits over problems with unintended acceleration in its vehicles. The world's largest automaker says such complaints are based on anecdotes, and fail to identify specific defects.
The thrifty new small car replaces the underwhelming Chevy Cobalt, a model that had a hard time competing with the likes of Toyota's Corolla and Ford's Focus, new versions of which are due in coming months. A manual transmission model will have a 40-mpg highway rating.
Toyota Motor (TM) is voluntarily recalling about 1.13 million Corolla and Matrix compact cars to fix a faulty engine control module that can cause driveability problems, such as stalling.
With the recession and car recalls, Toyota had halted the plant's construction. But in a hopeful sign, it now says it will complete the facility, which will hire some 2,000 workers and supply the U.S. market with Corollas by the fall of 2011.
