Do Toyota's Recent Troubles and Sales Slump Remind You of GM?

While I haven't been blaming Toyota for all of the panic and fear around the faux unintended acceleration claims, this article about the auto maker's recent troubles did remind me of General Motors in the late '90s and then just before the bottom dropped out and it went bankrupt.

Hyundai's new Elantra may eat the Corolla's lunch.

The recent sales slide can surely be attributed to the fact that other than the Prius and some Lexus models, the rest of its lineup is pretty boring. This was equally true of GM a few years back when it let its passenger car lineup go stagnant while it focused on profitable, crude and oversized SUVs. Like a bad gambler, GM kept rolling the dice on SUVs and pickups and then could only watch as the market's tastes shifted back to cars as gas prices rose.

The revamped Hyundai Elantra that got a very good review from Autoblog this week makes the current Toyota Corolla look stodgy and plain. Add to the fact that it will probably be a better value than the Corolla and at this point the Korean brand has a better reliability reputation than Toyota, means things aren't going to improve very soon.

Of course, Toyota is still profitable and has new leadership that appears determined to reverse the current slide. But it takes years to refresh a model lineup and its possible the designs coming from Toyota in the near future may reflect the hubris and lack of inspiration seen recently.

While I think a GM-style debacle is unlikely, it may be a slow slide to a less-significant position in the market for Toyota.

What do you think?