Toyota Share Now Dropping

Toyota, one of the strongest automakers in the world, is now feeling the impact of the recession.  On March 23, Bloomberg reported that the Toyoda family, who owns the majority of Toyota stock, is going to lose $429 million because of stock instability.  Stock price has dropped, and Toyota is expected to lessen the dividends paid to their investors.  This is going to hurt many of the US investors in Toyota, but even the founding family is being hit.

Obviously, no car company is immune to the recession.  When the economy suffers, people become more careful with their money.  This results in fewer new car purchases.  As consumers shy away from the new car lots, investors move their money into different areas.  Unfortunately, this makes the problem worse.  

Since Toyota is not a US based company, the government has not offered any aid.  However, until this report, Toyota was viewed as the strongest car company and was believed to emerge the strongest.  While this still may be the case, we can see that even the mighty Toyota Motor Corp. is being hurt.  

If we are to learn anything from this story, we must realize that no matter how strong a company may look on the outside, there is still the possibility of weakness.  We see this everywhere from AIG, Lehman Brothers, and the major automakers.  And while the automakers are merely victims of the recession and are not in this situation due to unethical practices like AIG or Lehman, they are still being hit hard economically.