Re: Somewhat OT: Comparison of the current North American auto industry and the decline of the British auto industry in '70's
- From: Phil Newnham <pnewnham@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2008 19:21:41 +0100
Jimbo wrote:
Technically, this is true but remember that most of Ford's european
operations have long been successful in their own markets and somewhat
independent of head office. In fact, had Ford North America adopted
more of the European designs available to them, they might be better
off today. Similarly, Opel was a company acquired by GM and allowed
to run somewhat independently as was Saab. It remains true that
neither Ford nor GM export cars from North America to other markets
and that is part of their problem.
No, no, no. They do export cars from North America - you can buy the Ford Ranger and Chrysler 300C here, among others - but we don't buy them. They are sales flops in Europe for the same reasons they sell well in the US - the Ranger is too big for Europe and the 300C is too brash and has too cheap an interior. The Americans like brash and they're not bothered about cheap interior if it means cheap car. Seriously, the idea of a world car has been tried before, by Ford and GM, and it has always flopped. It's a huge deal that the Fiesta is also a world car, and *if* it's a sales success when it launches in the US, it will be a momentous step, it will mean that the American market has fundamentally changed, and the driver for that change is fuel prices. Americans don't want to give up their big gas guzzling cars and we don't want to buy them. Remember also that fuel costs in the US are still a fraction of what they are in Europe - it would be a huge surprise if that *didn't* drive the top selling models in both markets to be fundamentally different.
I'm starting to get irritated with the self-centric coverage of the
crisis in the US - have they not noticed that Toyota have announced
Toyota, interestingly, just opened a new plant in Ontario, Canada.
Obviously this was planned before the credit crisis but they are still
going ahead with production there of the Toyota small SUV, RAV4
Which is, by the way, a very boring car indeed. But it sells well - curious that similarly boring US produced cars by your reckoning are part of the problem.
there's absolutely no reason the US can't have a healthy domestic auto
industry.
The also have to change their model lineup to suit future market and
environmental issues. Traditionally, they have not been good at that
compared to others.
But it's already happening. Ford's 2009 Fusion has better fuel economy than the Toyota Camry across the board.
Somewhat agreed. My caveat is that its a bit of a circular argument
especially when the same manufacturers were the ones offering the low
interest rate loans or lease rates, etc.
But they were not, by and large, giving loans to bad clients who would never be able to afford them, which is what the sub-prime mortgage market was built around. The banking crisis is not one made by the car companies.
--
Phil
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tmc1979/
.
- References:
- Somewhat OT: Comparison of the current North American auto industry and the decline of the British auto industry in '70's
- From: Jimbo
- Re: Somewhat OT: Comparison of the current North American auto industry and the decline of the British auto industry in '70's
- From: Phil Newnham
- Re: Somewhat OT: Comparison of the current North American auto industry and the decline of the British auto industry in '70's
- From: Jimbo
- Somewhat OT: Comparison of the current North American auto industry and the decline of the British auto industry in '70's
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