4th Gen Tacoma (2024+)

Welp boys, my taco time has come. Picked up a very lightly used 2023 TRD OR DCSB yesterday. I may still stick around this thread to shit talk with everyone every now and then though

 

A pretty good review of what 60K will getcha with the Ranger, how ya think the performance and pricing is gonna compare to the Pro
https://youtu.be/cO77GpXo_EA?si=0JSnl1xcV6kvAt4r

 

TOYOTA USA SUCKS! Their fucking greed is sour as fuck. Sending work outside the U.S., allowing dealers to add market adjustments, shitty apr’s on loans when they could do a whole lot better with the bank account they have.

Japan should be building the Tacoma. Shiiiiit, we’d have a manual transfer case.

 

@Visa_Declined is going to be upset that you went with the goldfish bowl generation.

 

Starting up a second factory in Mexico should piss off buyers more than it seems to be. Maybe people just don’t care as long as they get something new and shiny? I think that the labor costs involved in building a car is only around 8% of the total cost. To move manufacturing to a country with cheap labor to save such a small amount of money is pure greed. Then to turn around and sell their vehicles for more money than the American union made vehicles is absurd. They are fucking us.

 

We (and by we I mean unions and politicians) only have ourselves to blame. High taxes, tons of regulation, union strikes and wage demands, titty-baby workers, the list can go on. It's surprising that anyone builds shit here anymore. At this point i'm just glad they're still at least made in the Americas. Lets face it, MOST corps are only after their bottomline. If people will pay top dollar for a Toyota, they'll ask for it. If no one bought them, the prices would come down.

 

Just because they are selling vehicles for more money doesn't mean they are making more profit. Toyota makes money by selling lots of vehicles for a modest profit. I imagine Ferrari, who sells much fewer vehicles, has a much higher profit margin.

TFL sems to have been the only one to break their diff/ADD. TFL also had a Colorado that bricked. A lot of people have Colorados that bricked. Toyota had to QC hold a bunch of Tacomas for a shutter harness issue. They identified it right away, it wouldn't leave you stranded, and appeared to be a quick fix. All 2023 Colorados without a sunroof have a roof that will buckle in a car wash. Chevy didn't catch that problem until 2023 production ended. No one got stranded but the fix, if paint/bodywork is also required, is not so quick.

Does that mean Toyotas are better built or have better QC - something people associate with Toyota and drives their sales (sales = profit)? Is paying a higher price for a vehicle that will probably be more reliable worth it?

I know, people will respond with "I drove my Chevy/Ford/Mopar for 200,000 miles without a problem" and "My Toyota broke the day I drove it home from the dealer", but in general and in my experience, the Toyotas have been more reliable.

 

You can sum up all of those words by just saying you are Toyota’s #1 Fan Boi.

 

Feel free to provide proof.

 

So I would pose the question...What should the profit margin be of an automotive business? 5%...10%...20%? What number would you be ok with as a consumer and what number would you want as a shareholder?

 

I would be willing to bet that a vehicle made in Mexico has a higher profit margin than if it was made in the US. That’s why they are building them there in the first place. Cheaper labor, cheaper land/building, less taxes, etc.

 

And the proof they are making more profit? Anything expensive has a high profit? Really?

 

Just providing the yang to your yin.

 

You describe how the cost of some elements of making a vehicle could be lower. Depending on the total cost and price, they could be making less profit than Chevy/Ford.

For example; if they spend more on advertising, the vehicle cost would be higher and profit would be lower. But their business model may be more total sales with less profit per vehicle = more total profit.

Just because you don't like a product or it's price, doesn't mean the manufacturer is greedy unless you just like to talk turd.

 

I agree with most of what you say but your thought process stops before realizing the "why" of it all. Those plants are in Mexico to save what you call a little, is only one aspect and method of their attempt to improve profits. But greed is not the overriding reason for it. Consider that the government has continually added new regulations requiring more expenditure from car companies to comply. Add to that increased taxes. Add to that increased costs of Union contracts. Then to top it all off, the insane mandate for auto companies to make cars no one wants (EVs) that costs the companies billions in losses every year. And THAT is why I believe new ICE vehicle prices have spiked so much. My belief is that companies are artificially raising prices on gas cars to partially offset the costs of EV production as well as placating the government by making gas vehicle prices come closer to EV prices which they hope will entice some buyers to get an EV instead. I still remember when there was no such thing as a rebate. Then rebates started decades ago and intensified year after year. Reminded me of the old gas wars of 50 years ago. No one complained about lower profits then. Bottom line is, the free market works. Companies would be thrilled to get government off their backs and make vehicles people actually want. They would all be in the black then and those plants would soon close and reopen back here again. So I agree with hating on greed but I'll have to admit that at this time, in these circumstances, the companies are stuck between a rock and a hard place. And now the America Last crowd wants to force car companies to run gas vehicles out of existence all together. How would any company survive that. We would soon look like Cuba with old vehicles being rig patched decade after decade with nothing new being made or driven. Face it. These days car companies are not being run by the car companies. They've been hijacked.

 

Yeah OK. They must have just wanted to move manufacturing to Mexico to give the poor people jobs. They are great humanitarians.

 

I would believe that if other manufacturers weren’t building vehicles in the US, Japan, and Europe and selling them cheaper.

 

Ranger Raptor starts at 57k. Not sure what Toyota is going to do with the Pro or TH really. Not sure why anyone would buy an OR in the mid 50's when a Ranger Raptor is literally right there. Nevermind a "Pro".

 

Net profit margin by manufacture for 4th qrt 2023

Ford -1.14%
Nissan .94%
Mazda 4.59%
Honda 4.7%
FCA 4.89%
GM 4.89%
VW/Audi 5.54%
BMW 6.96%
Hyundai 7.78%
Toyota 11.28%
Ferrari 19.27%
Tesla 31.5%

Every one of those except Tesla and Ferrari make vehicles in Mexico. *Tesla plans to make model 2 in Mexico. Do you think those numbers are fair?

 

No kidding. I got an email today from my local Toyota dealer about two SR5s they have for sale. One is $42K and the other is $46K. WTF.