Correct but the point being Toyota didn't cancel orders with suppliers, including chips, when everyone else did. This gave them a production cushion that allowed them to get ahead a bit. Now that they've exhausted that cushion, we should see them begin to have the same supply backlog everyone else has.
No Maverick sales were reported for August. Tough month for Ranger, but year-to-date is up 3.9%.
I don't think there are any sales yet of the maverick. My point is that some people that would go with the ranger because it is smaller than a f150 will want to order the maverick because it is even smaller. It is of course not going to be the only reason for the drop in numbers and maybe/likely not a large reason. It was just a suggestion
Besides the chip thing. They cut back Ranger production to produce more Bronco's. Which is great from my POV. Less Rangers at dealers the higher chance I can sell mine.
Same here in the north. Rangers only appear in "everything" ads and on rare occasions on dealer ads but that has been awhile. We are inundated with Ram and Dodge Charger ads, in-between the GMC ads. Toyota does everything ads.
You are correct and I unfortunately do not remember that episode of Seinfeld. But you're absolutely right especially when you factor in subliminal messaging in the advertising.
Toyota invented Just In Time ordering nearly 50 years ago. But their version is complete and accounts for predicted shortages as best it can with redundant suppliers and caches to tide over during shortages. When the system was adopted here, most of that was slowly discarded one feature at a time to boost quarterly profit statements. As I understand it, they've been hit by chip shortages, too, but to a lesser degree. They didn't cancel their orders with all suppliers for a given chip and give up their place in line.
Honestly, I don't think they had a clue as to how chip foundries in east Asia operate, or the business environment they operate in. It almost felt like they were treating the chip suppliers the way they do their local (Canada, USA, Mexico) manufacturer-suppliers that might fold without their automaker contracts. Chip & board makers have long enough lead times, varied enough customers and high enough demand that any one or three medium-large customers like Ford can drop out and the foundries and factories will still be running at capacity. Someone else will just take their place in line, and that's exactly what happened.
they kinda don't for a real world perspective...
