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Hyundai skips Tokyo auto show because of downturn

City of Industry, CA –(www.pressbio.com)– 09/30/2009 – Auto Manufacturers industry news provided by Financial News USA. TOKYO (AP) — South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co. said Tuesday it’s skipping the Tokyo Motor Show, joining a string of foreign automakers that have decided to miss one of Asia’s major auto shows.

Hyundai’s decision comes just three weeks before the biennial event opens to the media Oct. 21. The show opens to the public three days later. The organizers had already included Hyundai in a diagram of the booths.

“Hyundai Motor Co. will not be an official exhibitor at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show because of the global economic downturn, which has forced a more careful allocation of resources,” Hyundai said in a statement.

It defended its decision as “in line with other leading automakers who have canceled their participation.”

The large number of companies skipping the event is unprecedented for the Tokyo show and underlines the industry’s serious slump.

U.S. automakers such as General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. [Read the full article]

I recall when Chrysler killed DeSoto and Imperial, and when Ford ( F – news – people ) killed Edsel. Killing Edsel was a shame because the dealer organization had been built and, in time, sales would have grown. But Ford’s chief, Henry Ford II, was incensed at the initial failure of the car that bore his father’s name, and the Edsel division was destroyed. That was a half a century ago. More recently, General Motors killed Oldsmobile, and Chrysler killed Plymouth; and then this year, GM killed Pontiac and Hummer and promises to kill or sell Saturn. The excuse, usually, is that the company has too many brands and that it costs too much to develop new models all the time. Wall Street analysts often push the companies in this direction. There’s no question that it’s costly to keep all those nameplates up to date. But there’s always a price to be paid: The customers are gone. [Read the full article]

DETROIT — Toyota Motor said Tuesday it will soon issue a recall for at least 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles to fix a potential safety problem caused by a car’s floor mat jamming the accelerator. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, meanwhile, urged motorists not to wait for a fix. “This is an urgent matter,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “For everyone’s sake, we strongly urge owners of these vehicles to remove mats or other obstacles that could lead to unintended acceleration.” The impending U.S. recall, the largest in Toyota’s ( TM – news – people ) history, followed a horrific crash last month in San Diego in which a mat was suspected of snagging a gas pedal on a runaway Lexus, ending with a fiery crash that killed four family members. A minute before the crash, the driver called police to say the car had no brakes and the accelerator was stuck. [Read the full article]

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