Why is it bad for a carmaker to compete with itself?

[Throckmorton]

I was wondering about this the other day because I read that the Jeep Commanchewas discontinued because it was competing with the Dakota. Now, Jeep won't sell the JT pickup here because it would compete with Dodge's trucks. What's the downside of competing with yourself? Obviously, you're spending more money engineering different vehicles, but that's moot when the vehicles are already designed and sold in other markets. To me, it's just expanding the market share of the company as a whole. It's not like you'd lose total sales. With the Jeep/Dodge example, it seems obvious to me that offroaders (or people going for that image) don't buy Dodge Dakotas- they buy Tacomas and Frontiers, so for Chrysler that's an untapped market.

Is it the dealers who don't want a competing badge? Seems like most dealers these days are a combination, or the same guy owns like 10 different brand dealerships

 

[Throckmorton]

And what's up with some automakers willingly self competing, but with nearly identical cars? See the Ford Mercury thread

 

[mooseracing]

Competing within yourself is costing more engineering, R&D, and marketing. You then have to sell twice the amount of vehicles to make the profit you would make with only one line. It's that simple.

 

[Throckmorton]

Originally posted by: mooseracing
Competing within yourself is costing more engineering, R&D, and marketing. You then have to sell twice the amount of vehicles to make the profit you would make with only one line. It's that simple.

For the R&D costs, yeah it reduces your profit per vehicle, but that doesn't matter when the vehicle is already engineered and sold to foreign militaries like the Jeep pickup, much less if it's already built and sold here. Having two factories building them doesn't cost more unless workers are sitting idle or something.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Jeep pickups have always been dismal money makers, although I think they're cool as hell.

 

[CrackRabbit]

The Comanche was an AMC designed leftover that competed with the Dakota of that era, that is why Chrysler killed it off.
The JT isn't really a competitor to the compact/midsize pickup market, more of a niche of people that wanted a Jeep with a small bed.

 

[mooseracing]

Originally posted by: Throckmorton

Originally posted by: mooseracing
Competing within yourself is costing more engineering, R&D, and marketing. You then have to sell twice the amount of vehicles to make the profit you would make with only one line. It's that simple.

For the R&D costs, yeah it reduces your profit per vehicle, but that doesn't matter when the vehicle is already engineered and sold to foreign militaries like the Jeep pickup, much less if it's already built and sold here. Having two factories building them doesn't cost more unless workers are sitting idle or something.

It does cost more to have two factories. Even if the car is a twin it still has different tooling and different parts. Not to mention if you had one model, one factory less superviors and other higher paid people.

 

[iamwiz82]

A bit of trivia regarding the Comanche, it was unibody upfront with a frame just for the bed box.

 

[Bignate603]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
A bit of trivia regarding the Comanche, it was unibody upfront with a frame just for the bed box.

And awesome from bumper to bumper. I've seen one where they replaced the front clip with the body from a 2001 cherokee to make it look like what a commanche would have been if they had stayed in production. It looked great.

I really want the J8 they sell to the Egyptian military. Dana 44 up front and dana 60 in back with a diesel to spin the tires.

 

[Throckmorton]

Originally posted by: mooseracing

Originally posted by: Throckmorton

Originally posted by: mooseracing
Competing within yourself is costing more engineering, R&D, and marketing. You then have to sell twice the amount of vehicles to make the profit you would make with only one line. It's that simple.

For the R&D costs, yeah it reduces your profit per vehicle, but that doesn't matter when the vehicle is already engineered and sold to foreign militaries like the Jeep pickup, much less if it's already built and sold here. Having two factories building them doesn't cost more unless workers are sitting idle or something.

It does cost more to have two factories. Even if the car is a twin it still has different tooling and different parts. Not to mention if you had one model, one factory less superviors and other higher paid people.

The Wrangler pickup is probably made in the same factory as the 2 door and 4 door. No matter what, it has to be made somewhere because they're selling them to foreign militaries (while our own wastes money on Humvees for non combat use)

 

[PingSpike]

Well, its working for GM!