Toyota's secret plan to counter VAG+FCA

"El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!" (lightningzone)
07/22/2014 at 16:29 • Filed to: what if

Alright, with Fiat and VAG (secretly) planning a merger, the auto industry should be ready to receive powerful shock waves. Radical moves would be required from all the players in the industry to achieve greater economies of scale, to compete against the new titan. Toyota, the current leader of the industry, would be the first to cook up a plan against VFCAG.

So, Toyota would increase its stake in Subaru, to at least 60% or would buy the company as a whole, than it would buy Mazda, or merge with it.

Mazda and Subaru would slot between Toyota and Lexus, price wise, but would have totally different, opposing personalities. Kinda like Hyundai and Kia, but a bit more premium. Subaru would take the refinement and luxury area, with some sporty halo models and Mazda would take care of the sportiness and fun to drive area.

Finally, Toyota would buy its long time partner, Lotus, rescuing the struggling brand, from its current, incompetent owners. Under Toyota, Lotus would become a Ferrai and Lamborghini rival, with best in class lightness and highly powerful engines.

Of course, Toyota could also buy long partner, Yamaha, to counter Audi's Ducati brand and BMW bikes.

Note: There is nothing official in what I said, just a little "what if?" question, answered by myself.

Note 2: The above graphic is not meant to be a good one, it is a graphic I did in MS Paint, to prove to a coworker that you don't need hours and complicated programs that nobody heard of, to put your idea into a graphic. Took me about 2 minutes.

DISCUSSION (13)

dinobot666 > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!
07/22/2014 at 16:50

I thought Japanese law prohibited the full buyout of other companies, or something along those lines. What I mean to say is that Toyota cannot buy Subaru outright, at least that's what I'm to understand.

AM3R > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!
07/22/2014 at 16:54

I can't help but feel like Mazda and Subaru should be switched.

Both are fairly "sporty" but with Subaru having the BRZ, WRX, and STi they offer a more performance oriented lineup. I don't associate Subaru with luxury.

Mazda on the other hand, the Mazda 6 looks very much (to me) like an Infiniti. They have a luxury car look to them which IS sporty but to me shows that the Mazda is a more "upscale" car even though that isn't exactly the case.

El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! > dinobot666
07/22/2014 at 16:59

Abenomics, dude.

The Abe administration even modified, half of decade old, defense laws, I'm sure that he would make an exception for Toyota.

Kinja'd!!!

El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! > AM3R
07/22/2014 at 17:25

Sportiness is in Mazda's DNA, their normal models feature best in class lightness and manuals in more trims than other competitors. They are also considering to go RWD with most models. Subaru on the other hand, is about AWD, reliability, confidence and comfort. It is just a coincidence that Subaru has now more sporty models than Mazda(those sporty, halo models featured in my plan), but in a few years Mazda will have the Miata, RX-7, rumored 4 door coupe based on the RX-7(possibly called RX-9) and Mazdaspeed/MPS version for two or three models, besides the RX models.

El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!
07/22/2014 at 17:33

Half of century*, sorry.

AM3R > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!
07/22/2014 at 17:37

Yeah mazda is definitely growing a more Sporty image and I'm a BIG fan of the cars they are putting out right now and I'm excited to see what they release in the future. IMO I still see them a little more luxurious than Subaru, but Subaru is moving more towards luxury with each facelift/new generation.

In a few years, I'll be completely wrong and look dumb haha but for now this makes sense to me.

El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! > AM3R
07/22/2014 at 17:45

The quality of the materials and built quality would be about the same for Subaru and Mazda, as the graphic shows, better than the avg. of the Toyota interiors but not as good as Lexus interiors.

Manuél Ferrari > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!
07/22/2014 at 20:34

If the secret VAG/FCA merger happens then I think your plan would need to include Honda as well. VFCAG would be so massive and far-reaching that Toyota would need the Honda brand in their stable as well.

They could market the mainstream Toyota cars as the "comfortable" economy cars and the mainstreamm Honda models as the "kind of sporty" economy cars. For example they could continue to sell both the Camry and Accord instead of killing one of them off. But in other areas they could kill off a competitive product when one of the brands is making the clearly better product. Maybe over time the Honda badge would be killed off, but it could be retained at first.

Having both Acura and Lexus could actually work. We all make fun of Acura but some of their models actually sell pretty well. Acura could be the FWD "kind of luxury" brand that's a bit cheaper and more boring. Lexus could focus more on RWD/AWD and try to go upstream more to really compete with the super sedans from Audi and Maserati.

El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! > Manuél Ferrari
07/22/2014 at 21:16

Doubt it, Toyota and Honda will never get together, they are totally incompatible and too alike in the same time. I'm rather seeing Honda forming another power pole, together with SuzukI and Mitsubishi, McLaren and maybe SAAB, presuming they will be able to buy it from the Chinese.

And we would have Honda as a mainstream brand, Suzuki and Mitsubishi slightly upmarket, to compete against Toyota's Subaru and Mazda, Acura and Saab going against BMW and Mercedes, and McLaren, obviously against Ferrari.

Manuél Ferrari > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!
07/22/2014 at 21:23

I knew it would probably never happen and that it would be fraught with issues if it did. But thought I'd throw it out there anyways as the VAG/FCA merger also seems so unlikely and fraught with issues. There would also be many products that are too alike.

Oh you brought up something good - Toyota should try to buy McLaren regardless of whether they got Honda or not. They could use Lotus to compete with Alfa/Porsche and McLaren to compete with Ferrari/Lamborghini.

Eazy-O > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!
07/23/2014 at 07:26

[...would have totally different. opposing personalities. Kinda like Hyundai and Kia...]

Hahahah :D Surely you jest?

PriusGuy > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!
05/29/2015 at 16:50

None of these ideas make a lot of sense. It’s just pure overlap with existing Toyota Motor brands. This would be an expensive way to buy scale. And it doesn’t help them at all in China. There are better ideas for Toyota.

-this space for rent- > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!
02/10/2016 at 15:39

Isn’t this how GM became huge, then terrible, then not so huge?