Are You A Bad Enough Dude To Drive A Toyota Tundra In Japan?

So far, the proposed opening up of car markets between countries hasn’t resulted in an influx of forbidden Japanese or European cars. Our government may be good at quickly announcing big projects, but the actual implementation historically takes a while. In Japan, at least, change appears to be moving at a faster clip as Toyota has announced a whole slew of products to be imported from the United States.

This will be one of the last Morning Dumps of the year, and many of you are enjoying time off with your family. With less of the usual news, it gives me a chance to write about an unusual mix of topics today.

While Toyota may be importing cars from the United States, that’s a sideshow compared to ongoing struggles in China.

Here’s a quote:

“If you’re Mary, you should be scared shitless of me, I agree with you because look, I don’t know Mary. I’ve been trying to get to know Mary, and this sounds horrible because it’s like I’m trying to date her. I’m not trying to date Mary, for the record, but I tried to get to see her.”

Can you guess who said it? That’s from Sergio Marchionne, the former FCA CEO who died unexpectedly a few years ago; it came from an Automotive News interview that formerly didn’t include that quote.

And, it’s the holidays, so let’s end on an up note with some background on what Ford CEO Jim Farley has been up to in his rare private hours.

Toyota To Send U.S.-Made Tundras, Camrys, And Highlanders To Japan

As part of his strange presentation at Fuji Speedway a few weeks ago, Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda drove around in a Ford F-150 while also promising to sell more U.S.-built products to his country. What those vehicles would inevitably be was a bit of an open question, given that Japan already sells a few of the same locally-built cars.

Wonder no more! The three vehicles that Toyota says it will import are the Toyota Highlander SUV, the Camry sedan, and the Tundra truck. The Highlander sort of makes sense, as it’s one step up from the RAV4 already sold there, but smaller than the Prado or Land Cruiser. Toyota used to sell the Highlander in Japan. Up until 2023, Toyota also sold the Camry in the country, although it wasn’t particularly popular.

The Tundra, though, is new. For all the talk of Japan not being a place for big American trucks, the inverse is said of small Japanese cars here in the United States, and people keep importing them for a reason. If I lived in Japan and had the money, I’d probably have a slew of small kei cars and trucks because they’re novel to me. Novelty is key, here, and I remember the first time Adrian came to visit, he rented the biggest truck he could get, which, IIRC, was a Tundra. Someone in Japan wants a Tundra.

Will they sell in large numbers? I doubt it, but as Automotive News points out, that’s not really the point:

Japan’s carmakers breathed a sigh of relief in July when Washington lowered U.S. tariffs on Japanese auto imports to 15 percent. Japan-made products had faced a 27.5 percent tariff, with Trump’s new 25 percent rate on top of the preexisting 2.5 percent duty.

Japan’s government and the nation’s automakers are hopeful about eventually negotiating a lower tariff rate. Bringing in U.S. product to balance trade is part of that charm offensive.

I am happy for our Japanese brothers and sisters, who get to enjoy some American-built trucks. In an ideal world, everyone would be able to buy cars from everywhere. I’m pretty sure that’s what John Lennon’s “Imagine” was all about. In that spirit, though, maybe send the Suzuki Jimny our way? That would really charm us.

Toyota Production Falls On Meh Chinese Sales

If there’s one car company that’s made it through the ups and downs of 2025 without huge disruptions, it’s Toyota. While I’m sure the automaker would not have chosen to fork out the billions in tariff-related charges it had to cough up, Toyota has enough production in enough markets to react to local issues.

That isn’t to say things are perfect, especially in China, where subsidies expired as Bloomberg reports:

Toyota and Lexus brand sales in China fell 12% in November, the company said, citing the end of trade-in subsidies in major cities as funds ran dry. The figures were released against a backdrop of diplomatic tensions that have been brewing between China and Japan since November, when Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made remarks about Taiwan that angered Asia’s biggest economy. China responded by warning its citizens against traveling to Japan.

You can’t win them all.

What Sergio Marchionne Really Said

Former Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) CEO Sergio Marchionne is one of those rare executives who could both talk a big game and deliver on it. When he spoke, he seemed to have an endless stream of data and blunt witticisms to pull from out of thin air. I always thought his aversion to notes was because no one who smoked that much could possibly have felt comfortable around paper.

He died tragically and unexpectedly, and the company has really never been the same since. Near the end of his life, he was searching for a partner to merge with, accepting that FCA couldn’t make it alone (eventually, FCA would combine with PSA to form Stellantis). His first target was General Motors.

In an essay, the great Larry P. Vellequette from Automotive News remembers a two-hour interview on the subject with Marchionne, and includes this bit that didn’t make it into the reporting:

He spoke in personal terms about the logic of combining GM and FCA. He salted his language with cursing and innuendo and obtuse phrases, and it all made perfect, logical sense as we listened intently and tried to keep up.

“The benefit is the company [FCA], it’s not Sergio,” Marchionne said, referring to himself in the third person. “Sergio has got a lot of value and a lot of faults.”

“But if you’re Mary [Barra] or [former GM CFO Dan] Ammann or somebody …” one of us interjected.

“If you’re Mary, you should be scared shitless of me, I agree with you because look, I don’t know Mary. I’ve been trying to get to know Mary, and this sounds horrible because it’s like I’m trying to date her. I’m not trying to date Mary, for the record, but I tried to get to see her.”

I think Barra knew what was up when she avoided Sergio, as GM is now way more valuable, and Stellantis has survived in the “mediocrity” that he warned of in the original interview. I miss him, though.

The Work Ford CEO Jim Farley Does When He’s Not Working

There’s a lovely duo of stories over at the Detroit Free Press about Ford CEO Jim Farley’s involvement with the Pope Francis Center in Detroit, which works to address homelessness in Michigan.

The campus opened in September 2024. It is a center that provides housing and comprehensive services to men experiencing chronic homelessness. The goal is to get those men to permanent housing.

Part of that process requires helping many of the men move past addiction. That’s where the Chris Farley room comes in.

The room is named after Farley’s cousin, the late comedian Chris Farley, who died from a drug overdose in 1997 at age 33. It is the room where residents attend nightly alcoholic anonymous and narcotics anonymous meetings as well as classes that teach job skills, conflict resolution, emotional intelligence and financial acumen.

“Chris would be so happy,” Farley said of that room. “The way he dealt with pain was laughter so if he was here, he wouldn’t be serious. When he had problems, that was how he dealt with it and I think that’s part of the reason why it didn’t work. You need real hard tools” to overcome addiction.

According to the articles, Farley is often there in his free time, with no cameras or entourage. The reason behind his publicizing it now is to raise more awareness and funds, especially in the face of cuts likely to come from the current administration.

The second article is about a gift given to Farley from one of the residents, Alan Webster:

Webster grew up in Michigan attending Riverside High School in Dearborn Heights. It was in the third grade, he said, when he learned he had a gift for art.

But he never got much direction from adults as to what to do with his talent. Webster tells Farley his parents divorced when he was 12 and he said, “I never really had a father figure in my life. He was a bad alcoholic.”

I see, I see,” Farley said. “Addiction is a big part of all of our lives.”

It’s at this point that McCabe tells Farley that the Pope Francis Center had a gift for him, explaining that the center purchased one of Websters works of arts: a model of a Ford Model T pickup truck.

You should go read the article and see the handmade model, which is amazing. In my church, we say “God’s work, our hands,” and it’s always encouraging to see people living that mission.

What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD

This is an all-day stream of Vince Guaraldi Trio’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” It’s still the season.

The Big Question

What’s the best gift you gave or received this year?

Top photo: Bad Dudes/Toyota/DepositPhotos.com