Toyota Australia to lift prices in January | Business

2nd December 2008

The Toyota Prius.

A WEAKER Australian dollar will force Toyota Australia to lift prices across its imported vehicle range in January, the company says.

The company said prices would rise by an average of 2.4 per cent, adding about $500 to a budget Yaris model but more than $3,700 to top-of-the-range Landcruiser Sahara.

The only models spared the price hikes will be Toyota's locally built Camry and Aurion cars.

Toyota's senior executive director of sales and marketing, David Buttner, said the price increases were forced by a dramatic fall in the value of the Australian dollar.

"The Australian dollar has weakened against the yen by more than 35 per cent in the past three months," Mr Buttner said on Tuesday.

"The current rate is more than 20 per cent below the long-term average of around 79 yen and we do not expect it to recover to any great degree in the near future.

"In the past year, there have also been steep increases in the prices of raw materials, such as steel.

"In the light of all these pressures, we believe the increase of 2.4 per cent from the start of the new year is extremely modest."

Mr Buttner said the locally built cars had been protected from the price increases as a strong show of support for the Australian manufacturing operations from Toyota's Japanese parent.

Despite uncertainty in credit markets, Mr Buttner said Toyota buyers could be confident that financing was available.

"Almost 85 per cent of Toyota dealers source credit through Toyota Finance, whose debt is rated Triple A by (rating agencies) Standard & Poor's and Moody's," he said.

"The rest of our network also has solid arrangements in place with large Australian or global institutions."


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