Toyota, G.M. hold talks

Press, 9 March 1982, Page 8

Toyota, G.M. hold talks

NZPA-Reuter Tokyo General Motors, the world’s larget car maker, and Toyota of Japan have started negotiations on the possibility of jointly producing small cars in the United States, a Toyota spokesman has said. Toyota’s president (Mr Eiji Toyoda) and . Roger Smith chairman of the American company discussed such a possibility in New York on March 1 and agreed that their companies would make further studies, the spokesman said. He declined to say which side had rhade the approach

for possible joint production. Toyota, Japan’s largest car manufacturer, failed to reach agreement last year on joint production with Ford of the United States. The Toyota spokesman denied a Japanese.press report which said Toyota was likely to-use an idle G.M. plant to manufacture 500,000 small cars a year and a letter of intent would be exchanged this month. “Nothing concrete has been decided yet,” said the spokesman. Last year Toyota produced 3.22 million vehicles, including 1.72 million sold abroad,

and plans to manufacture 3.38 million units this calendar year, including 1.73 million for export. The company, like ther Japanese car makers, faces import restrictions in its main markets such as the United States and West European countries. The 1981 exports were 3.9 per cent down from the previous year mainly because of Japan’s agreement to American demands voluntarily to curb over-all Japanese car exports to America to 1.68 million units in the 1981 financial year ending on March 31.