60 Minutes
March 24, 2005 7:40 PM

Toyota woos Net crowd

By
John G. Spooner
Topics
Media
More than 50 percent of Toyota Scion's contact with customers occurs via online chat or e-mail, Jim Farley, the company's chief, said at the New York International Auto Show on Thursday.

Scion t2B
Toyota Scion's t2B concept car

"We're listening," he said during a news conference to introduce the company's latest concept car, the t2B. The boxy-looking auto was created to combine the attitude of the company's boxy xB with the upscale interior of its TC coupe, Farley said. Toyota broadcast the unveiling of the car online.

The company, which caters low-priced, customizable cars like the TC and xB to young people, relies heavily on the Web, e-mail and chat to reach those customers.

Having seen the company's online configurator, most customers know exactly what they want when they walk into a dealership. The company also offers no-haggle prices, which eliminates bargaining on-site. In addition, Toyota Scion advertises on gaming and lifestyle Web sites, which further suggests the company may be savvy when it comes to the Net crowd.


Add a Comment See all 11 Comments
by USAID-Iraq November 22, 2009 2:02 AM EST
Marshlands - From the American people: Between 1991 and 2003 the Mesopotamian Marshlands, one of the largest wetland systems in the world, were nearly destroyed by Saddam Hussein?s regime. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) mobilized an Iraqi and international team in February 2004 to convene in Basrah, Iraq to design an action plan for the marshlands restoration program. The program, led by the Iraqi Ministry of Water Resources (MOWR) in cooperation with USAID and other donors, worked to restore the marshland ecosystem through improved management and strategic re-flooding. Additionally, the program worked to provide social and economic assistance to Marsh Arabs including health, education, and rural development. Re-flooding efforts since 2003 have increased the marshlands from 1/10 to 1/3 of their original size, making the wetlands the largest in the Middle East. USAID expanded agriculture and agribusiness to diversify production, improve livestock and dairy production, and restock fish populations in the marshlands. Among these activities USAID established 72 demonstration farms and 30 alfalfa farms in the marshes to provide livestock feed and released more than 225,000 fish fingerlings to restock the local fish population.
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by ramtackett November 19, 2009 9:37 AM EST
Enjoyed the piece. Curious, Mr. Pelley, what your sources were for the following:

"Near the marshes, the Sumerians erected a temple at the city of Ur, known as a ziggurat. The Sumerians thought the marshes were so important they wrote a story about them."
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by michigander62 November 17, 2009 1:12 PM EST
CBS 60 min why are you just hearing about this? Back in 1994 the rest of us knew this when Clinton was refusing to protect people who helped us prosacute the war in Iraq. Oh I forgot you left wing president was in office and you didn't want to hurt his game plans?????
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by giorgia_eranio November 17, 2009 4:19 AM EST
The important is that local communities will have their lives improved, and the New Eden team has been making great efforts to involve them in this difficult proces of merging traditions and a new life in the Marshes
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by bubbadubba November 16, 2009 3:37 PM EST
Great, another pork project in Iraq paid for with my tax money while people in the US suffer.
Great, just great.
When will it ever end?
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by big_B41 November 16, 2009 11:21 AM EST
this (the story) wasn't about rewriting history or claiming that the marshes were in fact the "undisputed" birthplace of mankind... it was about a civilization and culture that existed in harmony in the marshes in a very inhospitable corner of the world... the people who live along the Mississippi and in NO... they are not living in harmony with anything... we channel and try and control the mighty river for our purposes... people build houses (with foundations) on areas that routinely flood when the river swells... we live with the river as long as it "behaves" and we control it... these people live with the marsh in harmony... they don't try and control it, rather they live with it. the sad part is, the culture of these people has been forever changed, even if the marshes are restored, the people have been changed by the outside world they were forced to live in and now they are bringing the outside world back to the marshes with them.

On it's face, this was a fascinating story, about a people and place" that 90% of the worlds population had no clue about, and it changes people perception of the Arab world (for the better).
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by thesevenveils November 16, 2009 5:13 PM EST
You can take man out of the cave but you can never take the cave out of the man.
by Turbidite November 16, 2009 9:05 AM EST
This story is really old news for those of us that care to remember. Upper and Middle Iraq also suffered terrible droughts due to the damming of the rivers in Turkey. When Iraq complained to Turkey the gates were opened and flooded large areas of Iraq, towns and all. Israel is currently choking passage of water from Lake Tiberias, River Jordan and River Yarmuk to the West Bank Palestinians resulting in loss of arable land, crops, sanitation and increased disease. Take a look at the Google Earth images along the West Bank demarcation line to see the green, irrigated lands in Israel versus the sharp boundary of arid waste on the Palestinian side. See the video of B'aqa and the settlers tearing up Palestinian irigation lines while being protected bythe IDF (BBC video news). This terror weapon continues to be used against civil populations.
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by Justice10K November 15, 2009 11:00 PM EST
This is an example of the media wanting to put out a story as the truth without researching all the facts. You reference the Bible when you accept the Iraq Marshlands as being Eden and the cradle of civilization because it?s between two rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates. If you would read Genesis 2:10-14 you would see the river that flowed out of Eden parted into 4 heads: Pison, Gihon that comprised the whole land of Ethiopia (which is 1,000 miles from Iraq and across the Red Sea), Hiddekel and Euphrates. Based on the Bible, Iraq's Marshland can't be Eden. Also the Bible states that there were every type of fruit tree in the garden. The Iraq Marshlands does not appear conducive to growing a variety trees that are good for food.
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by doctorj2u November 15, 2009 8:28 PM EST
I wish Mr. Pelley had shown the same compassion towards his own citizens of the delta of the Mississippi River after Katrina when he reported we were beyond help as we struggled to re-create our lives and culture. Why are the Iraqis noble and we are disposable? No Scott, I have not forgotten your treason.
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by maiingan November 17, 2009 11:54 AM EST
The differences are that most of the homes destroyed by Katrina were below sea level; those that weren't were barely above it; the lands of the Marsh Arabs don't get hit by those hurricanes, and there's no tradition of building levees to support buildings below sea level - just those floating islands. These differences are important; people who keep trying to live below sea level, or even near it, in a delta subject to powerful hurricanes, whose land is sinking from tectonic forces (the Michoud Fault) as well as being starved for sediment, are just asking for trouble.
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