Toyota’s Loss is Big, But Don’t Let Anyone Fool You
photo credit: Andres Rueda

In other words, Toyota lost a lot of money last year and they’re planning on losing a lot of money this year too. Considering the fact that Toyota hasn’t had an operating loss since 1950, this is a big deal. Toyota has taken sweeping action with tremendous production cuts, cost cutting measures, and most recently announcing that they’re going to fire half of their corporate management team.

However, before anyone starts worrying about “Toyota being the next GM,” here’s some perspective:

1) Toyota needs more balanced international production – too many vehicles are made in Japan. Did you know that the biggest single source of Toyota’s loss last year was the devaluation of the American dollar? Because many Toyota models are manufactured in Japan, there value is based on the value of the Japanese currency the Yen. When the dollar is strong against the Yen, Toyota can export vehicles from Japan for profit. When the dollar is weak against the Yen, Toyota loses money. When the American dollar nose dived following the credit crisis of 2008, Toyota started racking up huge losses.

The solution? Build more vehicles in the USA. Besides reducing Toyota’s exposure to currency fluctuations, increasing North American production is the right thing to do. Otherwise, the only way Toyota can limit their losses on currency valuations is to cut back on production (which is what they’re doing).

2) A Loss Is Inevitable. New vehicle sales in North America are down 36% industry wide YTD, and the best estimates are that sales will be down more than 30% in North America for 2009 when compared to 2008. Toyota is the largest automaker in the world – when auto sales drop this much, they’re bound to see a drop in profits.

3) Toyota’s horizon is long term – Toyota will never be the “next GM.” In 1998, GM attempted to address their labor cost issues with the UAW. The result? The UAW went on strike for 53 days until GM backed off of their demands for lower labor costs. GM failed to address their labor cost issues (again), ultimately setting the stage for a government bailout in 2008 (and a probable bankruptcy in 2009).

Yet in that same year, GM’s share price before and after the strike was nearly unchanged. GM President Rick Wagoner received a half million dollar bonus following the strike, despite the fact GM lost as much as $5 billion for the year. If you’re wondering how this could have happened, it’s important to recognize that at GM it’s all about the share price. No one on Wall Street was (or is) thinking 10 years down the road, so no one in GM’s board room was thinking about it either. Only when the company is at death’s door will major changes occur.

Toyota leadership, on the other hand, is completely focused on the future. When Toyota determined they were looking at a loss for 2008, they canceled all executive bonuses (which I had a problem with, for the record). Toyota is following that action up by firing half their management team – do either of those moves sound like something GM would have done in 1998?

Until Toyota starts rewarding execs and unions for multi-billion dollar loses, the comparison to GM is completely unfounded.

While Toyota’s recent loss is big, there’s no reason to question Toyota’s future. Toyota holds $30 billion in cash reserves, so they’re not going to have any trouble taking a loss in 2009 or 2010. When the market rebounds in 2011 or 2012, Toyota will be well positioned to compete with a full prodcut line-up, a slew of hybrids, and hopefully an updated Tundra.

Check out this list of available Toyota Tundra shocks

Is kind of like…

“Line-X!”
“Rhino!”

If you have just bought a new truck, there’s a good chance that someone (a friend, a relative, or a salesperson) has told you to buy a certain brand of spray-in bed liner “because they’re the best”. If you’re like us, you don’t like making this decision without doing a little research first (Not sure you want a spray-in? See a full list of Bed Liner Options). Here’s our analysis of the two biggest names in spray-in truck bed liners.

Here are some things you should know about both brands:

1. INSTALLATION IS EVERYTHING. If you have a good installer, you’ll get a good liner. Find a good installer by asking your local Toyota dealer, RV dealer, off-road club, or by asking for references.
2. All spray-in liners fade when exposed to a few years of sunlight.
3. Be careful with color-matching. Unless you pay extra to protect the liner from UV, it will fade much faster than the factory paint and your liner and your truck won’t color-match after a couple of years. At least if you stick with black it will only fade to dark charcoal.
4. The mix used for either a Rhino or a Line-X is basically the same. There are some differences, but one isn’t substantially better than the other.
5. Both companies now offer nation-wide lifetime warranties on their products.
6. Expect your installation to cost somewhere between $300 and $400 dollars. Anything more should include extras like color matching, additional surface spraying, or special UV protectants. Anything less than that could indicate the installer you’re using is making a shortcut somewhere.
7. If you have any doubts about your installer, inspect their spray booth or spray area. If it’s dirty or messy, you should find someone else.
8. Add-on coatings should be considered appearance-enhancing only. Before paying your installer for extra UV protection, etc., consider do-it-yourself options like Armor All, Just Once, and 303 Protectant.

Now, in no particular order, the individual products:

Line-X

Line-x is applied “hot” using a high pressure system. Because Line-X is applied at high pressure, it tends to be thinner (about 1/4″ thick). Thinner is better when it comes to looks — a thin coating tends to follow every contour of your truck’s bed and preserves the factory appearance. One other aspect of the thin coating is that Line-X liners usually have a very rough surface that sparkles when new. Some people dislike the rough Line-x surface — it can be hard on the knees and it can damage your cargo (finished wood surfaces and Line-x liners don’t mix, for instance). While you can request that the installer reduce the roughness of the finish, this will also result in a surface that’s less glossy. Finally, because Line-X uses more polyurea, it is stronger and more tear resistant than Rhino.

Rhino

Rhino is applied cold with a low-pressure system. Because of the lower temperature and pressure, Rhino liners are thicker (3/8″ of an inch) than Line-X. The increased thickness of a Rhino gives it a softer “rubbery” feel, and the liner’s surface isn’t as rough as Line-X so it’s more gentle on knees and cargo. Rhino’s thicker coating also aids in sound deadening, and the surface seems to “grab” objects better than Line-X. But all of these benefits don’t come without sacrifice. Thicker material also means a poorer finish — Rhino material doesn’t follow the contours of a truck bed nearly as well as Line-X. The cold application also means longer curing times and a greater possibility of “runs” in the liner surface. Finally, it’s not uncommon to see inconsistencies in Rhino liner thickness, meaning some parts of your truck bed are more protected than others.

Informal Polls

While informal polls are far from scientific, they do give a good sense of what the online truck enthusiast community thinks about these two products.

Readers at TundraSolutions were asked to vote on the best spray-in bed liner, and Line-X won 252 votes to 60.

Readers at GMFullSize voted in a similar poll, and the tally is 65 in favor of the Line-X over 11 in favor of the the Rhino.

Finally, readers at FullSizeChevy.com also favored the Line-X over the Rhino, 255 to 79.

The Winner Is…

Line-X comes out ahead for a few reasons — Line-X liners are usually better looking than Rhino, are stronger, and Line-x installation quality tends to be higher (after all, Line-x offered a national warranty on their product years before Rhino). But that’s not to say that Rhino doesn’t have some compelling features. We really like the rubbery feel of the Rhino liner, and we think it is a better finished surface (at least as far as feel goes). In fact, if Rhino had the same reputation for quality as Line-X, this would have been a much more difficult decision.

Recently, in an effort to match Line-X, some Rhino installers have begun using high-pressure systems that will produce a better looking “Line-X” type surface. Rhino is also moving to match Line-X in other areas, from color matching to UV protectants. Rhino is also working on improving installer quality. We expect that the differences between these two will become smaller as time goes by.

As we’ve said before, the most important aspect of any spray-in bed liner is the person installing it. Make sure you find a reputable Line-X or Rhino dealer, and you should be happy with either.

Check out this list of available Toyota Tundra shocks

1) No Bed Liner. It’s cheap, it’s easy, and it could work out just fine. But while you may not ever intend to haul anything that would damage your truck’s bed, you never know when a situation will arise and you will be forced to put something back their that damages the paint job. If you’ve got scratches in your bed, your options for adding a bed liner later get more expensive. That’s because before you add any sort of removable liner you’ll need to re-protect the bed (i.e. re-paint) so that any moisture that gets caught between your bed and your liner won’t cause your bed to rust. If you’re leasing your truck, this might be your only option.

2) Rubber Bed Mat. It’s old-school but it certainly deserves consideration. There’s no disputing that a heavy piece of rubber will protect the bottom of your truck bed from gouges and scratcheswhile at the same time providing a surface that has more friction than the factory bed. If you’re considering adding a rubber mat, make sure you purchase one that is fairly thick. Thin rubber mats (anything less than 1/4″) tend to “roll-up” when you’re loading the bed, making them sort of hazardous. You should also make sure that the mat you buy has a knobby bottom surface so that moisture doesn’t get trapped under the mat and lead to premature bed rust. Finally, we like mats that are pre-cut to fit your truck. Those mats you have to trim yourself never fit right and they tend to be cheap anyways. The best feature of a nice rubber mat is that it will only cost you $75-$100.

3) Plastic Bed Liner. Plastic bed liners (or “drop-ins”) fit OK, install quickly and easily, and do a nice job of protecting the bed from most kinds of damage. Plastic bed liners are especially nice if you need to slide items in and out of your truck. Plastic also won’t scratch anything you put in your bed (like furniture), and it washes out quickly and easily. The biggest disadvantage to plastic drop-in liners is that whatever you have resting in your bed can slide around at any time. Plastic is slippery, especially when wet, and we’ve seen big loads shift (even when they were properly tied down). Also, it seems like a lot of moisture and gunk accumulates under the plastic liner, requiring you to remove it and clean the bed periodically. Plastic drop-in bed liners can cost as little as $250 or as much as $400.

4) Plastic Coatings. We’ve all seen the ads — send in $49.99 and they’ll send you a gallon of special “truck bed paint” just like the pros use. Get out your roller and paint brush and you can install your own “spray-in” like bed surface on a Saturday afternoon. Bulls#&t. Unless you have experience applying this stuff, you’re probably going to screw something up. Worse, it doesn’t always bond properly to the bed, meaning big hunks will flake off at the least helpful times. While we don’t want to condemn all of these products, we haven’t ever seen it work. Proceed at your own risk.

5) Spray-In. This is by far the most popular option, and for good reason. It’s the best looking and most durable bed liner there is. The bed is sprayed with a special polyurethane “paint” that protects the bed from scratches and chemicals. The coating is permanent, the texture is rough (which keeps things from sliding), and the material is nearly indestructible. In fact, unlike every other option listed here, a spray-in liner will last forever.

Lots of companies offer spray-in bed liners, but the top two are Line-X and Rhino. While you may hear lots of differing opinions about the two products, it’s fair to say that they’re basically the same stuff. However, the installers are not the same. In fact, any stories you hear about a bad Rhino or Line-X liner have more to do with the person that installed the liner than the product itself. The best way you can make sure you get a good spray-in liner is to find out how long the installer has been in business. If you have any doubts about them, get references and check them out. Your local Toyota dealer is also an excellent place to get a recommendation for a good installer. You should be able to get a quality spray-in liner with a lifetime warranty installed for $300-$400 (under rail). Over the rail should add about $50. There are other names out their in spray-ins, and we’re sure that some of them are just fine, but they’re not usually any cheaper than Line-X or Rhino so we don’t recommend them.

6) Carpet Liner. The carpet liner is usually a strong outdoor carpet with a thick rubber or vinyl backing. They’re surprisingly strong and they have the benefit of being soft. They’re especially popular with people that are going to add a camper shell to their truck. The biggest advantage to them, in addition to being plush, is that they’re removable. If you like the idea of being able to see your factory finish whenever you want to, this might be a good option for you. Cost is about the same as a good plastic bed-liner, about $350. The only thing we don’t like about these is that they don’t seem to stay attached, but that probably has to do with the way they’re installed.

You can also add plywood to your truck bed, and there are some cool commercial roll-up systems that literally unload your truck for you (like Load Handler).

Have an opinion about Tundra bed liner options? Share it!

Check out this list of available Toyota Tundra shocks