Seems like Toyota is hell-bent on doing everything bigger than GM. Bigger trucks, bigger sales…and today, an even bigger quarterly loss.
Earlier this week, GM reported a nearly $6 billion loss in the first quarter, one heck of a kick in the pants for a company that’s flirting heavily with bankruptcy. However, suddenly GM doesn’t look so bad, thanks to Toyota’s recently announced $8.2 billion loss in its first quarter…heck, Ford’s quarterly loss of $1.43 billion almost qualifies for an “only” by comparison. On top of Toyota’s quarterly loss, the company also posted a warning that the future is pretty dim; this year the company lost $4.4 billion, but expects to lose $5.5 billion next year and sell 1 million fewer vehicles.
The reason, of course, is the slumping world economy and the fact that everybody pretty much stopped buying cars, especially in the U.S. and Europe. Of course, overall Toyota is in much better shape than its Detroit rival since it has had decades of profits, as opposed to the mounting losses at GM. Regardless, there must be at least a little bit of schadenfreude going on over at GM’s Renaissance Center today.
