Re: Cheng Shins


"TOG@Toil" <totallydeadmailbox@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:6d35aeb7-63c5-4e2a-b783-fa83113b19f9@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hm. Does the US build *any* good small-to-medium sized cars?

Sure; the Honda Accord is built here. :-)

Oh, wait, you probably meant a good small-to-medium
car built by one of the traditional Detroit-based makers,
right?

Well, actually - yes. The most recent crop of smaller cars
Detroit's brought out are actually pretty decent, and certainly
in the running vs. any of the competition (and at a lower price
than, say, the Toyota Camry). But they've turned off such
a large percentage of the American buyers with past crap
that they need to win back all of those who have bought - and
been very satisified with - the Toyotas, Hondas, etc.. And
now they're facing competition from relatively new brands in
the U.S. market, such as Hyundai, Kia, etc.. When those
Korean brands first showed up here, they were seen - and
were - cheap, second-tier wannabees, but they've worked
very hard and rapidly improved their products. So the
"traditional U.S." brands are trying to defend a shrinking
market share, in an ever-more-competitive market, selling
to people who don't have the best past experience with them,
and they're still carrying an uncompetitive cost structure thanks
in part to some poor choices re which models to make, and
in part to the UAW, etc..


As for European brands, which ones apart from BMW/Mini and Mercedes
sell well? Forget sports brands like Porsche, Ferrari, etc. Does Fiat
sell in the US? Peugeot/Citroen? Renault?

Fiat, Peugeot, Citroen, and Renault gave up on the U.S.
market some time ago and are not available here. There's some
rumor of one of them or the other coming back from time to
time, but so far nothing's happened. Alfa is also in that group.
The top European brand here is no doubt VW; BMW, Mini,
Audi, Mercedes, Saab, and Volvo would be the other "most
common" European marques. What remains of the British
auto industry is seen here only rarely and generally only in the major
cities (i.e., if you go to New York, Los Angeles, etc., you
will find Lotus, Rolls, Bentley, and Aston-Martin selling to a
very specialized, select customer base). The Italian exotics
have a similar sort of presence here. Porsche is easily the
most common of the "sports car" brands, with dealerships
in just about any medium-sized or larger city.

The place from whcih we're most likely to see the next wave of
"mainstream" cars here is, of course, China. There have been lots
of stories in the press here about when one of the mainland Chinese
makers might try to first enter the U.S. market.

Bob M.


.

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