With The Land of The Free deep in auto-market hell, our cheese-eating surrender-monkey pals look set to follow suit. PSA (Peugeot-Citroen) has enjoyed relatively brisk metal moving thus far this year. But the automaker expects sales in its Euro-market bastion to start dropping through the rest of the year. Sales in Western Europe (where PSA gets its fattest profits) are down two percent year-to-date, and headed south– despite French-market tax incentives (where 22 percent of PSA sales originate). The Wall Street Journal reports that price increases set to go into effect this summer may help PSA's bottom line, but only at the expense of sales. At Renault, CEO Carlos Ghosn's ambitious ten percent sales growth target has been halved. "Realistically we are dealing in an environment which is very uncertain and we have to be very transparent in the fact that it can get better or worse," says Ghosn. Analysts say profitability goals are also likely to be abandoned. C'est la vie.
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Saw on last evening’s news how Americans are foregoing cars and getting more and more into using bicycles to get to work, etc.
Just as more and more Chinese are getting rid of their bikes (symbols of Mao’s Long March) and getting more and more into buying and driving new cars.
Perhaps some sort of an exchange program is in order….
As for me, I wouldn’t mind a 2CV right now!
I actually saw a 2CV on the NY thruway last month, the driver was pulling into a service center. First time I’d ever seen one on the road.
Rabid Rick should be so honest…
I’ve seen quite a few 2CV in New york city, and the other day saw a DS in NJ, on the border with Pennsylvania.
Buddy had one when we were in Italy. Fun little car that I would like to own. Don’t have a wreck though. Not much structure there. Like a motorcycle, there are places I would not drive one like the interstate.
I have never understood my countrymen’s disdain for the French. They make great wine, and produce stunning women and cars. How can you hate the place that gave us both the Bugatti and Catherine Deneuve? As for surrender? They only did it once, in 1940. I imagine the USA would have done the same if the Wehrmacht had rolled in over a shared border at that time. The only thing that saved the USA (and UK) in those instances was a rather large moat. France historically had put up some serious fight for the past two centuries from 1803, through 1870, and 1914, sometimes winning, sometimes losing and always surviving. Our military records are not that dissimilar. Their withdraw from SE Asia, not to mention their refusal to get dragged into Iraq the second time, look like smart moves in hindsight, no? Let’s hope our retreat from Bagdad does not become our 1812.
Besides, France is the ONLY major military power that has NEVER gone to war with the USA in our 232 years. Think about that for a while. I’ll gladly break bread, eat cheese, and drink wine with a Frenchman (or woman)!
On to cars though: You gotta love the French there too. Their plus belle voitures have always been uniquely different, from Delage & Delahaye, through Bugatti, Facel-Vega, Talbot-Lago, and Panhard & Levassor. Not to mention the survivors Citroen, Puegeot, & Renault… you’ll never have trouble spotting a French car in a crowd. They may not be gorgeous, but at least they are never bland.
–chuck
http://chuck.goolsbee.org
It is very refreshing to hear honest prognostications from a CEO. The truth is that nobody ever knows what is going to happen, AND that very many people yearn for the illusion of certainty.
Executives, politicians and religious leaders routinely give-the-man-what-he-wants and try to make it sound like they are providing the longed for certainty.
Some years ago I stood in for our mid-sized company’s CEO at a monthly employee meeting. We were going through a time of great risk and uncertainty. My speech essentially was that I recognized that we were in such a period, outlined what we were trying to do in the face of certain obstacles and appreciated the great efforts everyone was making to help us get through it. I lost of count of how many people approached me privately afterwards to thanks me for the refreshingly honest words. Of course this was a bunch of highly skilled, highly paid and well educated folks.
“I have never understood my countrymen’s disdain for the French.”
Indeed, the US’s revolutionary war against England would have absolutely gone the other way were it not for the help of France’s military. Check out the recent most excellent HBO miniseries “John Adams” for an easy to watch refresher course in early US history.
Yay Chuck Goolsbee! Viva la France.
How can you hate the place that gave us both the Bugatti and Catherine Deneuve?
Not bashing on the French or anything, but the Bugatti firm was created by an Italian living in France. I’d give the credit to the Italians for Bugatti, not the French…
Unreliable cars, poor build quality and failing CEO’s (Nissan dropping from Japan’s number 2 to number 3).
Carlos Ghosn has said nothing extra that Detroit’s CEO’s have said. So why is he being praised for saying all this but when Detroit trot out these “excuses” they’re lamblasted?
Face it, French car firms are out of excuses, just like Detroit……
I guess Le Cost Cutter is kind of up a creek, huh? It’s hard to be a rockstar executive, especially when a flying economy has made you look like genius.
It’ll be very hard for Ghosn; his success is based on going in, cutting like a madman and refocusing a brand on core strengths. He’s exactly what Chrysler or GM need, but not at all what Nissan/Renault do. Now that they’re (sort of) on an even keel, they need Toyota/Honda-style, long-term, kaizen, overall management.
@KatiePuckrick – I’m pretty sure Nissan’s goals are profitability, not overall sales volumes. Their build quality has gone up significantly over the past few years where their Japanese competitors have gone down (Toyota, looking at you) , and as far as French cars being unreliable, that’s true of all European cars.
And FYI You can find people complaining of ANY brand’s build quality- go on YouTube and see people with video complaints of Civics shoddily assembled or GM products with horrible panel fits (far worse than the Peugeot 307 I drove.)
@Chuck – It was just a joke from The Simpsons- we love France. Sarkozy likes America and is even pretty realistic with the Bush administration, something most flavor-of-the-week Americans can’t even manage.
Bugatti firm was created by an Italian living in France Germany.
The French surrendered in 1870 to the Prussians. They surrendered in 1814 and 1815 (when Napoleon escaped and tried again) to the Grand Coalition. They surrendered in Vietnam. They surrendered in Algeria (to the Arabs — something no Western power had done in centuries — Charles Martel must have rolled over in his grave). They surrendered in Quebec. They surrendered in India. And I’m guessing they’ll surrender to Islam once the Islamic population gets a little bigger in France.
The French have a long history of surrender on the battlefield — where they reign supreme is taking advantage of allied victories to then get something at the after war conferences.
And tell the GI’s who died fighting the French in the invasion of North Africa that the French have never fought the US. Of course, they surrendered fairly quickly, but that’s traditional.
Finally, French wine is vastly overrated (and from California vine stocks anyway).
Perhaps TTAC’s editorial staff should exercise some restraint when deciding whether to “flame” an entire nation – possibly by applying the constraints you impose on posters – the “comments policy” – to yourselves.
After all, there are enough places in the world where US of A is thought of as Unlimited Supply of A-holes. I can see no practical benefit for TTAC in confirming those suspicions.
As for France’s ‘surrender’ in various places, I’d call it being realistic. The British learned here that it’s very hard – almost impossible – not worth it, to sustain a colonial hold on a remote people. We surrendered (came to our senses) in Vietnam and will do so in the Middle East at some point. Looks like we might have learned from our own revolt against British rule, but no. People being dominated by a foreign power have it ‘in their faces’ every day, whereas for the remote dominating power, it’s just ‘in the news’. So the dominated have unending and powerful incentive to throw off the repression.
We have no clue what the French went through in wars against Germany, and might not be so bellicose if we had. The German people cheered wildly as Hitler’s troops were rampaging through Europe and Russia, but their perception changed after the bombing became heavy.