Toyota is brilliant, their success as branding themselves as the “clean and green” car company and leading people to dismiss General Motors as some wheezing dinosaur of the rust belt is just about as big a marketing success as getting people to buy tap water in a plastic bottle. Furthermore they have done this while running nonstop advertising for the Toyota Tundra that highlights how big and powerful the truck is…
According to the EPA, Toyota’s average fuel economy across their product lineup is 22.8 MPG vs GM’s 19.4 MPG average. Take out the Prius, which skews the numbers up for Toyota and their average fuel economy starts looking a lot more sober.
Speaking of the Prius, Toyota recently passed the 1 millionth delivery after 11 years on the market, which sounds impressive until you realize that Toyota sells 9.3 million vehicles every year so in terms of altering their fleet makeup I think they have a ways to go. Personally, I signed up to get a Chevy Volt if for no other reason than it actually looks good.
In a reversal of recent trends, Toyota trailed GM in June with a 21-percent sales decline, reflecting a 31-percent drop in sales of its trucks like the Tundra pickup.
