Akkam’s Razor

As reported in the Freep via Autoblog:

Toyota Motor Corp. officials are concerned the company may be expanding its manufacturing operations too quickly in the United States, according to a report in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal.
The report says some board members believe Toyota needs to slow the construction of new plants in the United States in the face of difficult market conditions, rising costs and quality issues.

Advertisement Toyota, which has 13 plants in North America, has been rapidly expanding in recent years with U.S. sales increasing at double-digit rates. Toyota opened a truck plant last fall in San Antonio and a Camry plant this year in Lafayette, Ind.

I've always cheered the home team, and have always had enough perspective to know that it's not just that the Big 2.X (Is Cerberus - potential suitor for Daimler-Chrysler - a US Company?) are building cars nobody wants.  Toyota has been the company that can do-no-wrong in most pundits' eyes, even more perfect than Honda.  But there's a handful of things, both said and unsaid, which  contribute to Toyota's worsening dilemma:

• The strong-yen versus the weak-dollar advantage [explained, PDF] (It's been said that the imbalance results in a $2700-8820 [PDF, slide 17] per unit advantage for non-domestically produced vehicles).
• The threat of unionization (The UAW has set up shop by the new Tundra plant, capitalizing on a leaked memo which stated that wages were growing faster than profits, and that $300m in concessions were needed in the short-term).
• The potential for weakening US demand. (See concerns overage consumer sentiment, the housing bubble, and inflation).
• The lagging performance of the new full-size Tundra - including broken camshafts, crash test ratings, and fuel economy - resulting in rebates ranging from $500-3500, which Toyota was hoping to avoid.
• Ongoing quality concerns, including an increased incidence of recalls.
• Less than stellar performance on the recent round of annual industry awards.

If these trends continue, no number of US plants built to provide political cover will assist an increasingly troubled Toyota.