For the first time in years, the Toyota and Lexus make meeting would have been standing room only on Friday.
Would have been, that is, if local police and fire officials had allowed all the dealers in who wanted to attend, instead of leaving many standing outside in line while the doors closed to a packed house.
Toyota executives told Automotive News they had requested NADA move their make meeting from Sunday to Friday of convention weekend, after attendance in previous years had dwindled to fewer than 200.
That plan worked and then some, with the meeting’s 450 chairs completely occupied even after nonspeaking Toyota executives in attendance were asked to leave to make room for more dealers.
Even then, a handful of dealers and others were still standing in line after the doors were closed, having to wait for someone to exit before they could go in. At least some of those in line abandoned the effort.
Inside the meeting, dealers asked no questions and cheered when executives credited them with Toyota again finishing 2022 as the nation’s top-selling brand at retail, said Steve Gates, chairman of the Toyota National Dealer Advisory Council.
Dave Christ, head of the Toyota brand, said dealers were told about the brand’s important launches this year, including the redesigned and continually hot-selling Tacoma midsize pickup. He also said that Toyota remains completely committed to the franchise dealer model, including newly named Toyota Motor Corp. CEO Koji Sato.
Christ also noted that he expects brand sales to increase in 2023.
Toyota, which has an in-house digital retailing system called SmartPath, has no interest in following other automakers to incentivize consumer ordering, Christ said. The automaker wants its “dealers to be the primary — if not sole — contact for the customers.”
Said Christ: “We don’t want to be in the business of taking direct customer orders. We feel like that relationship needs to stay with the dealer.”