Michigan to Toyota: Keep Your Cars Out of Our Town
Japanese car maker Toyota had plans to shot a spot called, "Toyotaville" in the neighborhood of Cherry Hill Village in Canton, Michigan showing a Toyota parked in every driveway. That's not exactly the sort of thing you try to do in America's center of the automotive universe unless your an American car maker. Resident said "sorry, not in my backyard." The deal ended. One canton resident told the Canton Observer, "Maybe I'm just old-fashioned. I don't understand the excitement of Toyota in what is traditionally and what will hopefully continue to be Chrysler, Ford and GM country. Southeast Michigan, rightly or wrongly, was built on the automotive industry. I feel like there should be some loyalty to dance with the one that brought you."
Comments
Well, one "traditionally GM" city is welcoming Toyota soon. Detroit is Toyota's next site for a SUV factory. "Toyota" is just the company name. Toyota USA is like a second generation Japanese-American... a "twinkie" if I may say.
Even if the idea was all about shooting in the heart of GM-country, I think we can safely say that it's now out of the bag and dead as a doornail.
It's sad really, when people don't recognize quality over quantity. GM, Chrysler & Ford are all crap compared to the imports... it's amazing they stay in business, aside from the attitudes mentioned in this article. I really wish the North American consumer would wise up and notice that the "Big 3" aren't even producing most of their parts from this side of either pond... and are just as much "imports" as the European and Asian brands -- except that their design and QA departments are shit.
-kb