Honda vs Toyota

One of the topics in the first assignment was a discussion on the decline of Honda and Toyota’s failure to dominate America’s sedan market. It was explained in the article entitled Honda Fails with Toyota to Dominate American Sedan Market: Cars from the website www. businessweek. com; that the dominance of the two major Japanese car makers among U. S. small car and family sedan car market is shifting. The Los Angeles Times has a similar article involving the same two auto makers: Toyota and Honda.
The article is entitled Honda, Ford Pass Toyota; the Two Car Brands Rank at the Top of a Consumer Report Survey on Quality. The article was written by a Jerry Hirsch. Hirsch explains that Toyota has been toppled as the leading top-quality automaker, with consumers now looking more favorably on Honda and Ford; this he states is from the Consumer Reports ‘2011 Car Brand Perception Survey (2011, p. 12). “A series of massive recalls over the past 18 months has tarnished Toyota’s reputations for quality” (Hirsch, 2011, p. 12).
According to Hirsch, the Consumer Reports survey ranked Honda first, Ford second, and Toyota finished third (2011, p. 13). Ford has moved up in public perception while Toyota has declined. The Ford brand has outsold Toyota’s line of vehicles last year for the first time since 2006 (Hirsch, 2011). The purpose of this research article was to report and explain to average consumers and businesses alike; that Toyota, a household name among many in the U. S. for reliability is now starting to lose its glamour; and why it is happening.

Three major and popular auto brands were studied in the report: Honda, Toyota, and Ford. The findings by Hirsch were both logical and sound. Both Honda and Toyota made headlines again due to the shortages of parts and cars coming from both automakers due to the recent earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan this year on March 11. In the article Toyota Curbs Parts Orders; Honda Cuts Production by an anonymous author in the journal Tulsa World; it explains that shortages of auto parts from Japan are hitting Honda’s and Toyota’s North American operations; Read about lean production vs mass production
Toyota wanted U. S. ar declares to stop ordering replacement parts made in Japan because it was worried about running out of them (Anonymous, 2011). Again Honda and Toyota, two major Japanese auto makers, were studied in this report. The purpose of the research was to explain why parts coming from Japan (particularly from these two auto makers) are in short supply. The findings are as Japan slowly regains recovery from this devastating natural disaster, parts and cars coming from Japan and made by Honda and Toyota as well as their subsidiaries will be in short supply and will take longer to get.
The researcher and author of the article is anonymous, but both the findings and the conclusion were sound and logical. Another topic that was discussed in the first assignment was surviving and thriving in competitive markets. In the book by Sheth and Rajendra Sisodia entitled The Rule of Three: Surviving and Thriving in Competitive Markets, based on extensive studies of market forces discuss dominated by big companies, small niche markets, and the middle companies which were likely to be nudged by both ends to the point of disappearance (2002).
A similar article about surviving and thriving by PR Newswire US entitled Pinstripe CEO Sue Marks Speaks About Surviving and Thriving Despite the Recession at BizTimes Milwaukee Corporate Growth Summit, targeted towards middle market CEO’s, presidents, C-level executives, and entrepreneurs seeking to accelerate growth (Anonymous, 2011). Marks is a human resources and recruitment outsourcing specialist, serial entrepreneur, and founder and CEO of Pinstripe, Inc. hich “designs, builds, and delivers high-performance talent acquisition and management solutions” (Anonymous, 2011, p. 5). Marks spent 25 years building businesses in HR, staffing and outsourcing shared best practices for accelerating growth in corporate culture (Anonymous, 2011). The findings and research by the author were logical and sound.
In The Wenatchee Business Journal an article by Michele Mihalovich, entitled Startups Surviving and Some Thriving discusses how several business enterprises in Washington including: Pro Active Business Solutions, Junk Gypsies Inc. , and Keen Climate Heating & A/C were able to survive despite the global financial crisis and other business challenges (Mihalovich, 2010). The findings and conclusion in this article were both sound and logical.