Regarding the Sept. 7 Kyodo article "Strong yen forces Toyota to end Camry exports to U.S.": The stronger the yen becomes, the more such news will appear from all exporters of Japan.
I am an admirer of Toyota Motor Corp.'s high-quality product lineup as I have stayed in Japan and used them. But since I live in India, I also condemn Toyota and other international brand makers from Japan for the policies they follow in India.
Simply put, those companies are not very keen to look at the Indian market seriously, as they focus too much on markets in either the United States or China. As a result, Indian auto lovers pay 3.5 million rupees — close to ¥6 million — for a Camry. This price is more than two times higher than the price in Japan.
Toyota will blame the Indian government's import taxes for preventing users like me from buying imported models in India at the same price as in Japan, and then they may cite the recent economic partnership agreement, etc. But my questions to Toyota and other companies remain:
Why can't they build such good-quality cars in India? There are world-class parts makers here, too. Why do they embrace the age-old technique of selling complete knock-down (CKD) assemblies only and fetching premium prices for them?
Another example: The Volkswagen Beetle is sold at 2.4 million rupees here, and at that price, I hate to even look at it.
Indian consumers want better cars built in India, not dumped on them at a higher price.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.