More Toyota jobs, this time in Alabama

One thing that has always irked me especially ever since adorning the Toyota emblem across my chest is the whole buy American ideology.  It’s not that I’m against buying American even, but rather I dislike how it is sent towards Toyota vehicles, because the truth of the matter is that Toyota is and has been for a long while one of the most predominant American-made vehicles in the automotive industry.  In fact, this is a big part of why Handy Toyota of St. Albans, VT is so proud of every Toyota Camry we sell to our Burlington area customers, because the Toyota Camry is actually the Most American Car based on its production location, percentage of American made parts, and sheer quantity on our roads.  Take that so-called domestics.

In all seriousness I get it:  Toyota is “made” in Japan, therefore it is not a domestic.  But regardless of all the previous information, one thing is abundantly clear:  Toyota Motors USA cares about US jobs.  Literally thousands of people from across our great nation are employed by Toyota, and for that we at Handy Toyota of St. Albans, VT salute you big-T.  And today we are happy to report that Alabama has just had a new I4 engine facility opened as part of the $147 million Toyota has recently dumped into US jobs.

How many jobs, you ask?  Try a grand total of 240, which isn’t half bad.  Am I stating that Toyota’s engine plant in Alabama is going to cure the job woes of this country?  Of course not.  But between this plant and the few that opened previously, I once again tip my hat to Toyota for putting a dent in that seemingly unwavering unemployment number.

The new Toyota Motor Manufacturing Alabama plant is actually expanding in a sense, as the new I4 engine facility is an extension of a plant that’s been in operation for over 10 years.  This new I4 engine, used in such vehicles as the Toyota Rav4, will help the Canadian effort to push out Rav4s and the upcoming Rav4 EV, the all-electric variant that is soon to release.

Said Alabama Governor Robert Bentley:

“Now, ten years [after Toyota Motor Manufacturing Alabama's (TMMAL) opening, we have] made a major economic impact in this region.  TMMAL is an enduring, reliable and dedicated partner in building healthy communities in Alabama which can, in turn, strengthen our nation and our world.” -Toyota In The News, “Toyota Kicks Off I4 Engine Production In Alabama.”  toyotainthenews.com, October 13, 2011.

Finally, take a look at what these new 240 jobs will have a part in building.  Who knows… maybe they’ll be building your next engine.

• Toyota’s I4 or 4-cylinder engines produced at the TMMAL factory:

Toyota Camry

1. Toyota Camry
2. Toyota Highlander
3. Toyota Rav4
4. Toyota Sienna
5. Toyota Venza
• Toyota’s V6 and V8 engines produced at the TMMLA factory:
1. Toyota Tundra
2. Toyota Tacoma
3. Toyota Sequoia

Chris Dugan
Handy Toyota
St. Albans, VT  05478

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The Prius Reclaims Its Thrown

As some of you may know, the recent earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan caused a problem for many Toyota dealers in VT and indeed the world.  Although Toyota vehicles made in North America such as the Tundra, Tacoma, Camry, and Corolla have been fairly accessible, one vehicle in particular is darn near impossible to find and conversely highly demanded:  the Toyota Prius.  Luckily for Handy Toyota our sales managers stocked up on quite a few models to allow us some breathing room as Toyota dealers and keep our customers in the Toyota cars they desire, but again around the country Prii are hard to come by.

What’s my point, you ask?  Astonishingly the Toyota Prius is still the highest selling hybrid for the month of June 2011!  In April only 4,876 Prius hybrids were sold, making it perhaps one of the lowest selling months in the vehicle’s history, or at least its popular history (in other words not counting the early years before the craze took hold of the global populace).  In comparison this is a 40% decline of sales in March, a month that was considered a flop in its own right.

As I said, however, June was a stellar month for Toyota’s flagship hybrid vehicle, earning a whopping sales number of 19,429 units.  With the state of inventory these days, I seriously don’t know how this was possible, but it seems there are other Toyota dealers out there that made the same call as Handy’s and kept stocking Prii anyways in the dire months of March and April when the hybrids in question were not selling.

But alas, fear not, as July was the first date Toyota has stated production of all vehicles will hit 90% with an anticipated return to full production levels by September.  For more on the availability of the Toyota Prius, check out our inventory by clicking here or simply fill out an online contact form.  You can also call our Internet Sales Consultants at 888-352-5749 extension 35 for details.

Chris Dugan
Handy Toyota
cdugan@handycars.com

I Reiterate: Toyota = American

For something like twelve months I’ve been desperately trying to convey this one simple fact: the stigma that Toyota is an “import” is wrong. I’m not discrediting the fact that Toyota Motors and their excellent Toyota cars, trucks, and SUVs are Japanese in origin, but the time when Toyota equals un-American is over. The biggest inclination of this of course would be CNN’s “Most American Cars” list, which you can see by clicking here, an article in which CNN described a list of ten vehicles that are “most American” by its makeup of parts, literal composition as in putting the vehicle together, and sheer volume in the United States. A I’ve said many a time, the Toyota Camry was number one, the Toyota Tundra truck was number eight, and the Swagger Wagon, the Toyota Sienna, was number ten. And though the Toyota Tacoma didn’t make the cut, I suspect it wasn’t far behind the number ten spot: 80% of the parts are put together in the newly designated Toyota Truck-land, San Antonio, Texas. Come on folks: it doesn’t get much more “American” than San Antonio, TX!

Well Toyota’s Americanism has reached another milestone in yet another breadbasket of our great country, this time in the land of country how-do-ya-do’s, Kentucky. The year was 1976, and America was in the middle of an arms race with Russia, the economy was in full swing in the pre-Reagan but well past World War II boom, and things were looking good. The college town of Georgetown, KY, already doing well one would suppose because of the school, decided it was ready to take a step forward and open an automotive powerhouse. Who do you suppose they chose? (Well of course you know as this is Handy Toyota’s blog, but suspend your disbelief for a moment or just skip to paragraph three.) Ford? No. Chrysler? Nah. Peugeot? Yeah, right. No my friends, they chose Toyota, and in came the as of now most American car company there is.

Today, Kentucky is the number three automotive giant in the United States thanks in part to the Toyota plant in question, closely following Ohio and Michigan, the latter of course being the Mecca of the U.S. automotive industry. “I don’t think any of us realized the impact on communities all over the state,” said Larry Hayes, Kentucky’s economic development secretary of the countless jobs the Toyota plant has allowed for, including over 100 automotive part suppliers in the state. Rick Hesterberg, a spokesman for Toyota, followed this up by saying “we consider suppliers to be our business partners, because they are so integral to the quality of our vehicles and the satisfaction of our customers.”*

So I’ll say it for the tenth or perhaps twentieth time, although certainly not the last: when you think Toyota, you must remove that negative, non-American connection, because the truth of the matter is that Toyota Motors, Toyota vehicles, Toyota parts, and Toyota service keep a pretty hefty chunk of our nation working. And as far as this lowly writer’s concerned, having a good, well-paying job is what it means to be American and the definitive property of the American dream.

Chris Dugan
Handy Toyota
cdugan@handycars.com

*Quotes Source: Toyota In The News, “Toyota Celebrates 25 Years In Kentucky.” toyotainthenews.com, May 5, 2011.

The New (and Unimproved) Craigslist

For the past 12 months I have been aggressively posting vehicles to Craigslist.  Surprisingly we gain a large amount of website visits accordingly, although to be honest I’m not sure who is looking for brand new Toyota vehicles via Craigslist, but incredulous or not, it happens.  Regardless of whether my surprise is marked by logic or ignorance, I was shocked to find the most absurdly under regulated website on the internet to up the ante when it comes to legitimate business being done on its pages.

Here’s what happened:  I logged on and posted a new 2011 Corolla just as I have six times a day for the past 365 days.  Actually, let me backtrack a bit.  For those almost 2,200 posts, each has been different:  Corolla, Prius, Tacoma, and so forth, never with the same pictures, text, etc. (obviously of course).  Regardless, I could post a Tacoma with a V6 engine of the 2010 variety and then post a 2011 Prius (assuming this coincided chronologically which, for the sake of truth, it does not) with a 1.8-liter hybrid engine, and Craigslist would say it was too similar.  Too similar?!  How so?!  They are completely different cars with different pictures and features!

BUT… I can’t respond to any of your requests for information on said Tacoma or Prius because every time I open an email from a Craigslist response I get “I’m from Nigeria and you’ve won the lottery!” or “Click here for cheap Viagra!”  And that’s okay, right Craigslist?  Apparently so.

To get back to today, as I said I posted my 2,200th vehicle and moved on to a 2011 Prius II.  I followed the same, 2,200-time-honored tradition of post, click, type, post, etc., and a gigantic disclaimer popped up discussing everything that could or couldn’t be done on Craigslist… as of the five seconds interlude mind you.

Not only did this enormous disclaimer come up, but you also have to enter in an email address twice before posting.  Never mind the fact that you had to sign up with an email, enter said email, enter a password, and confirm that email address every couple of days, and forget momentarily that every four posts results in a necessary re-entering of one’s phone number (meaning after a while if you don’t have a zillion phone numbers like Handy’s you’re officially out of luck), no, this next precaution was needed to weed out–apparently–the legitimate business from the smut peddlers and scam artists the world over.  As a final act of salt-in-face-throwing, Craigslist then requires you to receive an email, click the link in the email, and choose publish, delete, or edit once more.

So I get it Craigslist, you’re finally trying to weed out the bad guys from the good ones–seriously, I get that.  But is the rigmarole really worth it?  Have we at Handy’s sold even a single Toyota part via Craigslist?  I doubt it.  Are the scammers still going to find a way through your ordeal?  Absolutely.  My point is you’re ruining the idea of your site for those of us who use it for actual business.

Please Craigslist:  simplify the process.  I’ve already gotten spammed 110 times since my last post, and I’ve still yet to make a penny from your site.  Why I continue, I don’t even know…

Chris Dugan
Handy Toyota
cdugan@handycars.com