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Car companies, take a lesson from HP and Canon

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gorcorps said:
Why stop when the wheels come off? You can fix that 🙂
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You know what I mean 😉

My baby is about to hit 100k miles, which is saying something since I don't drive it all that much. We have an occasional road trip, but for daily commute to work I just drive it down the street to a park and ride and get on a bus so it gets < 5 miles daily.

Thankfully, my car has been pretty good to me as far as repairs go.
 
What makes you think that car companies don't already own, or are partnered with oil companies?

Electric cars and/or ultra high efficiency carb carburetors have been possible for a long time. Carburetors capable of getting 100+ mpg on a V8 and 2-ton vehicles have been around since 1950s, they will never make it into a car. Why do you think that is?
 
sportage said:
Notice how HP can sell a new printer for under $100?
They can because they make up the difference, or loss, with also selling the ink.
HP not only makes and sells the printer, it also makes and sells the ink.
So sure, HP and all the others can afford to sell a printer for under $100.
They are raking in millions off the ink sales alone.

Now, how about car companies doing the same?
If car companies, like Ford, bought and owned all the various oil companies, Ford could afford to sell a brand new $30,000 car for $3000. Why? Like HP, Ford would make up the difference by also owning and selling all the gas for their cars.
And this would work.
If only Ford and the others could spend the trillions needed to buy up Exxon and all the other oil producers, they could own and manufacture everything.
The cars as well as the gas.

A brand new 2015 Ford Focus for $2000?
And gas for the life of that Focus, also sold by Ford.
Each auto manufacturer owning an equal percentage share of all oil producers, and together owning 100% total of all oil producers.

Then, when you visit a gas station, the pump would detect the make of your car, and pull the Ford owned gas from the Ford tank. And the Toyota pulling its gas from the Toyota tank.
Well, not physically a tank for every make of automobile, but being all the car manufacturers would own all the oil companies in total, the gas for a Ford would be credited to the share of gas owned by Ford. And Toyota credited for the share of gas owned by Toyota. Etc, etc.

A brand new car for $2000 or $3000, and the gas also owned and sold by the same car company.
Why not?
Just exactly like buying and operating a brand new printer.
After all, most likely the parts for a Ford come from Ford, and also manufactured by Ford.
So come on Toyota, Ford, buy out Exxon and lets do this. 😉
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I recommend spending your limited brain capacity on actual things that may affect you for the better. And one little things missing from your idea, you seem to forget the whole oem parts and servicing market on these vehicles which you don't have on printers.
 
It might have worked if oil companies weren't already established. The trillions you spend to buy them out wouldn't pay itself back.

If you were selling the cars at a loss, you would have to charge extra on the gas to make a profit. That means that if there was a cheaper option for gas, people wouldn't buy yours. So you would either have to control all the gas or make other gas incompatible with your car.
 
momeNt said:
What makes you think that car companies don't already own, or are partnered with oil companies?

Electric cars and/or ultra high efficiency carb carburetors have been possible for a long time. Carburetors capable of getting 100+ mpg on a V8 and 2-ton vehicles have been around since 1950s, they will never make it into a car. Why do you think that is?
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I hate the ink business model. I think car manufacturers should list all costs up front and just charge a wholesale price to dealers or self distribute. Just like selling most any other product.
 
why sell the car at a loss when the bulk of the money made is in lending? Ford and the other automobile companies are in the financing business.

If Hp can get you to finance your printers and charge you interest for it, they would instead of relying on ink to keep their profits up. E-Meg is facing mounting pressure at hp to split the company up as its printer business is slowing dying.

Here is how the car companies make money:
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2015/01/29/ford-earnings/
The losses were offset by Ford Credit, the company's finance arm, which earned a pretax profit of $1.9 billion. That was the unit's best result since 2011.
 
Yes. Because all businesses are clearly exactly the same. And ink and oil are both black so I'm pretty sure they're the same, too.

Could a car company vertically integrate themselves further in the auto market? Sure. What would it get them? Another business still susceptible to the same volatility.

Most have already diversified in different ways by becoming banks and lenders.

edit: haha, just saw all the replies
 
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momeNt said:
What makes you think that car companies don't already own, or are partnered with oil companies?

Electric cars and/or ultra high efficiency carb carburetors have been possible for a long time. Carburetors capable of getting 100+ mpg on a V8 and 2-ton vehicles have been around since 1950s, they will never make it into a car. Why do you think that is?
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Aliens.
 
BoomerD said:
BUT...you can buy aftermarket ink for your HP printer...why wouldn't you be able to buy aftermarket gasoline for your car?
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Yea, you can but it's a huge hassle to get it to work, I have to go through a counter reset routine every time I want to print from my HP scanner/printer. Annoying, but HP's refills are insanely priced.
 
momeNt said:
What makes you think that car companies don't already own, or are partnered with oil companies?

Electric cars and/or ultra high efficiency carb carburetors have been possible for a long time. Carburetors capable of getting 100+ mpg on a V8 and 2-ton vehicles have been around since 1950s, they will never make it into a car. Why do you think that is?
Click to expand...


While I do have a healthy mistrust for big oil the "100MPG carb" was/is/always will be a myth. You just can't lean out the fuel/air mix beyond a certain point or you will get pre-ignition pinging, knocking and eventual engine damage. Today's cars with 3rd generation ECU's run about as good as it gets, my car is 9 years old and has 93K on it and the tailpipe is still clean as a whistle. I replaced the plugs @90K and they looked like they could have easily gone another 60K.
 
momeNt said:
What makes you think that car companies don't already own, or are partnered with oil companies?

Electric cars and/or ultra high efficiency carb carburetors have been possible for a long time. Carburetors capable of getting 100+ mpg on a V8 and 2-ton vehicles have been around since 1950s, they will never make it into a car. Why do you think that is?
Click to expand...

I think you're smoking something similar to what the OP is if you really believe that.
 
Car companies can't buy Oil Companies.

And even if they can, why should they sell you something cheaper....after all, they are in business to make money.

And even if they were to buy oil companies, the cars would be more expensive.......oil as well.

This thread is full of Walmart mentality. Gimme gimme gimme....cheap cheap cheap......
 
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