Toyota General Motors?

First their was Daimler Chrysler. Could Toyota General Motors be next? I don't think that anyone is really giving serious thought to that possibility, and I'm not even sure it is a possibility. After looking at the big picture, though, I'm beginning to wonder.

First, let me apologize for the lack of links on the circumstancial evidence I'm going to present. If I get the chance, I'll update this post with them. Okay, now Toyota has been working very hard to "Americanize" their operation for the U.S. market. They've opened plants in the U.S., and they've been very sensitive to the loyalty Americans have towards Detroit. A few weeks ago, around the time of GM's announcement of their huge quarterly loss, the CEO of Toyota mused that perhaps it was time that they help GM and Ford by raising their own prices and by working more cooperatively with them. He wouldn't do this out of the goodness of his heart, but because helping GM and Ford would alleviate any future American backlash towards Toyota. Then, a little while after that, it was announced that GM and Toyota are going to be working together on fuel cell technology.

Those two things, along with the GM stock acquisition by Kirk Kerkorian, that have me thinking about this. Toyota is very dedicated to be being the top foreign car manufacturer in the U.S., but their strategy actually seems to be turning Toyota into a very domestic auto manufacturer. But still, no matter what they do, they will always be the outsider here. Unless, of course, they can wiggle in on an exisiting U.S. automaker. Daimler Chrysler and SAB-Miller are two recent examples of this strategy. If you want to be a domestic company, you buy into it. It could also help solve GM's 24 karat gold benefits program, which may be the biggest reason GM is struggling along so. With any merger, those agreements with the auto workers union are going to become breakable in a way they cannot be if GM remains out their on its own. So their is benefit in both directions with such a merger.

It would be a high risk maneuver for Toyota. They would be taking over a company they have been grabbing market share from for a while now. They would also be assuming quite a bit of risk with bloated GM. But it would make them a "U.S." automaker, an advantage they can lord over all of their other competitors but Ford and Daimler Chrysler.

Links
Toyota fears U.S. backlash as General Motors struggles
General Motors, Toyota hold talks on cooperation

Correction
In graf 2, hybrid has been corrected to read fuel cells.