Toyota Predicts Sales for 2011
Toyota is expecting their sales for the 2011 year to rise by around 13% because of several factors including the rising sales of the pickup truck, which Toyota says has always been a good seller for them. The specific numbers for this sales increase is around 12.5 million to 12.9 million total vehicles sold in the United States alone. This year, Toyota is expecting to sell around 11.4 to 11.5 million total vehicles.
However, those close to Toyota have pointed out that the customer confidence that was once held in Toyota has diminished with the recent brake recalls, accidents, and injuries because of these defected brakes. It has a lot of people questioning whether Toyota has let their quality slip beyond fixing, thus many loyal consumers turned to buying domestic brands. As many of these domestic brands were offering top dollar for what they termed to be the unreliable and dangerous Toyota, spurring on their own sales at the expense of Toyota.
Toyota has since fixed the recalls that they had with over eleven million Toyota's that were recalled in the United States alone. In fact, they have increased their safety standards to make sure that this incident does not repeat itself. Toyota believes that before this incident that 55% of those that were buying new Toyota vehicles were returning customers and loyal to the brand, after the incident this percentage lowered to the lower 40% range. However, on the upside, this year has shown that of the new vehicles being bought in recent months, over 50% of those being purchased are Toyota's which just goes to show that the brand is making a come back to its status before the incident.
In addition to an increase in sales for the 2011 year, many people are forecasting that because of the strong value of the yen right now that Toyota vehicles could face a price increase on the lot. However, Toyota says that prices will remain competitive with consumer demand.
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