Originally posted by: Dr Smooth
Originally posted by: B00ne
Originally posted by: spidey07
That is my prediction.
American manufacturers have shot themselves in the foot.
1) Can't compete with imports. This can't be argued. At any given price point imports have many more and in the mind of consumers "better" choices.
2) Conditioned buyers to expect 0% or huge rebates - lead to squeezed profit margins and in ford's case profits in the red. People refuse to buy without these incentives.
3) Lost the battle in consumers minds. People just don't associate american cars with quality.
4) Unions - stupid high school dropouts demanding WAY too much in pay, benefits and retirement. Foreign country's labor is fractions of the cost. More erroded margins.
The only thing keeping them afloat now is the scant diversification of each corporation and soon that will be unable to sustain the losses and the cash will be tight (it isn't right now).
So long Detroit. We'll miss ya.
For whatever reason cars from the US manufacturers are the way they are, but GM and Ford are the two biggest motor companies in the world. Their brands here in Europe (maybe AUS as well) are quite capable to compete, Japanese manufactureres only have a small portion of the market share...
So if they have a recipe for success here, why should they not be able to cook like that in the US?
Where do you live? Are there barriers, quotas or tarrifs, keeping the Japanese from competing in your country?
I am in Germany, and no there are no quotas or tariffs keeping the japanese away, but the jap. cars lack, thus they cant compete.
Japanese cars usually just copy innovations from european manufactuerers as well as design(elements), they might be cheaper at first but low resale value and comparatively expensive repairs make them less desirable I guess.
Btw imho their market share was way higher in the beginning of the nineties, when german manufacturers lost it a bit, but then there was an innovation explosion, and the japanese just cant keep up, and their design was bland (starting to change now (mazda6))
What is keeping them from selling more now, is that most of them do not offer a diesel lineup or the exsisting diesels just cant compete...
Image and safety, technology (fuel consumption) are very big selling points in Germany and that is the areas where german manufactueres excell, the Japanese cars image is: usually good quality, but only in the first 3 years, cheap, no style, copied..
).
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