Featured Toyota? 'Unless Things Change, We Will Not Survive':

It's called "Planned obsolescence"; and it's happening in every sector of the economy. Anything that's built to last is lost future revenue; especially when your direct competitors can make a similar device for a third of the price.
Wages keeps going up with inflation and people are getting lazy and IMHO - dumber. Only 1 in 8 of the last people I trained, actually got it. The rest was too lazy and had no common sense. That one person that got it actually read and understood the supplemental material vs the rest of them relying on AI that almost always lead them astray and down the wrong path to repair something. When you don't understand how something is suppose to work; AI can't help you fix ANYTHING; when you ask it how to fix the do-hicky because the thingy-a-bob isn't turning.

planned obsolescence definition at DuckDuckGo

 

The level of skill required to assemble a car is pretty low compared to the level of skill required to repair one. And those endpoints keep getting further apart.

As with so many other things, it is becoming cheaper just to replace a bad one instead of repairing it. Toyota appears to understand that when the goalposts are being moved in that direction, their commitment to spare parts, repair service and possibly even repair info are suddenly questionable expenses.

It appears likely that their new Chinese competition isn't going to invest nearly as much into repairability. I predict some will be judged harshly for it, but that there will be enough of them overall that somebody will figure out the right deal, and Toyota is worried they won't last that long.

 

Once the current EV backlash by all the MAGAts ends again, moving away from fossil fuels will be way more aggressive than in the past and Toyota will for sure be doomed if they invest more in dismissing it than embrassing it; it used to be they had to dismiss it because of the momentum they had with parts makers. That's not going to be the case next time around.

 

From the article;

Toyo had a great run - especially & in part due to many of Japan's own tarrifs. They began to hammer gm/Ford sales & quality in the 80s. Now? We're supposed to feel sorry that China is beating them at their own price undercutting game? Don't hear Kia Hyundai crying about it. They had a chance to leapfrog Tesla at one time - but chose in stead to lie - saying no one wants EVs. Now Tesla sells what ~2 million/year? And others outsell their 1 & only plugin hybrid?
Now Toyota wants peeps to wait even longer for parts & service like mane of the others?
(sigh)
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How long will the brands who do build for the long term last? One of my previous cars is still able to have almost every part replaced by the manufacturer 25 years later.

But to maintain that reputation, its lowest cost model's purchase price inflated by more than 400% over those 25 years. And the all the bells and whistles version of their current lower cost model equivalent went to $200k used !!! No that isn't even the most sold most costly model, that is their low cost model.

Porsche.