First off, in the interest of full disclosure, I have a car for sale. If this blog entry helps me sell it, fine. So there. Here’s the deal:
I have a 2007 Toyota Highlander listed on Craigslist. It’s loaded, the Limited model with 4WD and V6. It has virtually everything on it that Toyota offered at the time. I even got the pop-down DVD player in the back for my kid. Beautiful leather, great stereo, heated seats — all the goodies. And to top it all off, I’m offering it way below book value, several thousands below. It’s a lease and time’s up. I really don’t have time to mess around, so I’m selling it cheap. I lease because it’s something my accountant advises. I don’t know why. That’s why I use him. He knows more than I do. About taxes anyhow.
How could this car sit quietly on Craigslist at such a bargain price? At first I was confounded. Then my wife made me understand: It’s all the trouble at Toyota, recalls and such. (I’m slow to catch on sometimes.) Even though this model is not affected by the recall, it’s stigmatized. Can things at Toyota be that bad? Apparently so.
It was mere months ago that the American car industry was hanging by a thread. (Actually, I suppose it still is.) Like most of us, I know many people who long ago swore off American cars in favor of the Japanese models. Hell, the last American car I owned was a 1968 Mustang convertible. It was white with black top and burgundy interior. I loved that car. Sold it for more than its original cost. My first car, not surprisingly considering my age, was also American. It was a 1962 Dodge Dart — Slant 6 engine, three on the tree, as we said in the old days. (That meant the gear shifter was on the steering column, instead of the floor.) That too was a good car. But it’s been a string of Japanese models since the Mustang, with the exception of one BMW in there somewhere in the late 1980s, which I indulged myself with and never regretted one bit. The only thing on that BMW that was no good was the air conditioning, which the Germans didn’t take all that seriously until a few years later.
How could Toyota fall so low so fast? I’ve not kept up with all the details, but best I can tell they bought something, something important like a piece of the accelerator system, from the Chinese. Ironies of ironies. The Japanese bought from the Chinese. And the Chinese failed them. With my lease winding down fast, what to do? American cars still don’t seem quite the answer. Not yet.
A while back, when gas was at its highest, I considered buying a scooter, just to run errands and jaunt around town. My wife talked me out of it. Said I was being silly. Too old. Looking back, maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea after all.