What are THEY supposed to do without seven passenger vehicles?
The American auto industry has missed the forecast on the two oil crunches of my lifetime: Carter oil crunch and the Bush oil crunch. Both times the Japanese were already marketing high mileage vehicles. In fact, IIRC, that oil crunch really put the Japanese auto makers on the map in the minds of many American consumers.
Did the foreign auto makers have higher mileage autos because they better forecasted the direction of oil? I don’t think so.
I think they had in their own economies so inflated the price of oil through taxation that they were already producing higher mileage vehicles because they were practical in their own countries, given their higher priced gasoline.
Nonetheless, I don’t like small cars. I think they’re uncomfortable, less useful for transport of multiple passengers/cargo, and less safe. I’m willing to pay a bit more for size and the comfort, utility, and safety that come with size.
American auto manufacturers will always do well to continue to improve the mileage of larger vehicles. They should focus like a laser beam on larger, high-mileage vehicles.
Who really wants to cram into an Aveo, anyway? Certainly not a family with 2+ kids.
And, of course, there is cost. American auto workers should decide now that it’s better to have their total package of pay, benefits, and retirement cut from incredible pay down to good/excellent pay. It’s better to have a good job with good pay than no job with no pay.
The American automobile manufacturing model is based on a vibrant domestic post WWII economy when most of the industrialized world lay in ruins, and could afford the demands of labor unions, generous wages, and retirement packages. Times have changed.
Notice quite clearly that the business model that a company operates under is determined by the company’s management, not its union. The situation that GM and Ford find themselves in is due to rigid (and not too bright ) management. The chickens are flapping home to roost.
One wonders what it will take to get these companies to change? And one wonders when the US will step in to bail them out?
The answer to the author’s question is yes.
I think the era of the SUV is probably over and Americans will by and large move back to conventional sedans and small station wagon types. We really never needed those huge and weighty vehicles for what we used them for.
I happened to drive a new Ford Focus the other day and although I am too big for it most people would be pleasantly surprised. Plenty of zip and I’ll bet it might get close to 40 mpg on the highway, as I got 34 mpg in my Fusion.
I think GM is pissing in the wind if they think that they will revive their company on the Volt which will cost $45,000+. They have some good models in the Malibu and CTS but a lot of their product is not up to speed.
Personally I think Hyundai is the best deal going these days. And it is made right in Alabama. And they aren’t asking an arm and a leg for a really nice vehicle.
Leave Detroit, go South, ditch the Unions...then the auto makers will have viable companies. Until then they are like the water spinning down a drain...
I have sworn off American manufacturers' vehicles for the last twenty years, and I have never regretted the decision. The Asian manufacturers have not expressed the same sort of contempt for me as a consumer, and will have my loyalty for the rest of my motor vehicle buying days.