Hey everybody, The Economic Ninja here. We’re gonna talk about Toyota. Toyota is in a lot of trouble. Everything from losing market share in its stock to finding out that it falsified safety data to also it gets even crazier. But you know what? I’m just gonna dive right into the story and I am in a massive Toyota dealership. It’s a little awkward talking about Toyota but it’s really the entire car industry if you think about it. This car industry is completely collapsing in on itself and I did a video about a couple weeks ago about how a Toyota insider was revealing that they were dropping significant terms in let’s say talk about leases.

They were gonna slash the interest rate because the dealers cannot keep up with this inventory. Nobody’s buying right now at these higher interest rates right at the high prices still even though they’ve come down a ton. You know I remember during the pandemic where you were they were asking like 10, 15, $20,000 over MSRP. Those days are gone right? But the interest rate is still too much for people to afford these cars so Toyota had to make the decision Toyota USA to turn around and say hey we’ll carry some of this burden we’ll drop the financing rate super low on leases because then Toyota Corporation still owns the car right? They’re owning the car and they’re taking that means they’re taking a ton of inventory off the dealers plate.

Well check this out there’s two stories and it’s absolutely blowing my mind. It says right here Toyota this is out of CNBC lost over 15 billion dollars in market value last week after being caught falsifying test. It says Toyota shares have plunged more than 5% since May 31. The last trading day before the scandal broke on June 3rd shares of Mazda saw a larger loss falling 7.7% since May 31st. It says here it says that Toyota announced on June 3rd following the ministries investigation report that it will temporarily halt shipments and sales of certain models three models actually currently manufactured in Japan namely the Corolla Fielder, Corolla Axio and Yaris Cross.

I don’t even know if all three any of those are even sold in America but I’m not a big Toyota guy anymore. Toyota chairman, Toyota’s chairman apologized to the company’s customers and stakeholders acknowledging that seven of its models were tested using methods that differ from the standards defined by the national authorities. Well what actually happened was the way I understand it they were using souped up models during these testing phases so false all the way around right? Then it gets even crazier. Toyota just announced the closure of its largest auto parts manufacturing facility in Marion affecting 1,300 employees.

It says in a significant shift in the U.S. its U.S. operations. Hino Motors Manufacturing USA which is a subsidiary of Toyota has announced the closure of its largest auto parts manufacturing facility in Marion Arkansas. This move is set to affect approximately 1,300 employees by the end of 2027. The plant operational since 2006 has been a major production site for truck frames and axles not only for Hino commercial vehicles but also for Toyota. Well what does that tell you? It tells you that the auto industry is absolutely collapsing. When you have to close one of your largest manufacturing hubs, your manufacturing factories, it’s because you are not selling the vehicles.

This lot is absolutely insane. You can’t see but it’s like three stories of cars behind me. You can’t see the way the sun is. Absolutely mind-blowing how many vehicles and I do like Toyotas. I grew up owning Toyota pickup, a Toyota 4×4 you know similar to the one from Back to the Future. I grew up loving them and they’re great vehicles but I just need more power and bigger truck more power but you think about it and this has been such an amazing thing to watch the skyrocketing of vehicles when you could buy a vehicle and a few years later actually trade it in.

Trade-in value was more than you paid blows my mind. Talk about the most epic opportunity that’s now gone. Now think about the real estate market. Right now we’re in the exact same thing but like ten times bigger where Americans could actually sell their house or sell a rental and pay off their home or they could sell the home they’re in, move to another town, move to another state and more than likely in a lot of situations pay cash for a house. It’s never ever happened but that opportunity is about to be gone as well.

Most people have no concept in any kind of economic cycles whether it be a vehicle you know pricing cycle whether that be just yearly pricing cycles things that I teach in one of my classes or real estate cycles. Well the question is what are you planning to do about it? There are a lot of people that are losing their jobs. As a matter of fact we’ve already seen it during the pandemic when auto sales collapsed as the prices exploded. Dealerships didn’t need 10 or 15 or 20 salesmen anymore. They only needed one or two.

They needed a sales manager, finance manager and one salesman because nobody was showing up. Now obviously I’m here today before you know the place is open. The service center is open. They’re actually crushing it. It looks like they’re slammed but my point being is that they don’t need the employees because they’re not as many employees as they’re not selling as many vehicles and this is such an exciting time for me because as this crashes you know my list of cars. I want you to hashtag the car that you’re gonna have your dreams that you want to buy as this thing collapses.

But you know my six. GT40, 69 Camaro, Shelby Cobra, Lamborghini Huracan, Porsche GT3. What am I missing? There’s six. Oh yeah the Scooby-Doo machine, the mystery machine and that’s just because I just want to be able to pull up one day and go if it wasn’t for you meddling kids. Anyway point being is that everything’s going to crap in a handbasket and I’m super pumped and I hope you’re super pumped because if you’re getting ready for this you think this is exciting? Wait till unemployment goes up and watch the price of these cars and watch when we have a liquidity event in the banking system.

Oh yeah and then watch what happens in real estate. We’re all gonna be crushing it. I’m gonna crush it. You’re gonna crush it. And we’re gonna be like what’s that TV show from a long time ago? I see Billy crushing it. I see Jasmine crushing it. I see Jake crushing it and we’re just gonna all be crushing it. I hope you guys got something out of this. The economic ninja is out. [tr:trw].

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