TTAC readers looking to debate the “mid-size vs. full-size” truck matter have more fodder now that GM has unveiled a teaser photo of their new mid-size trucks.
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0% financing for 60 months. Up to $2,000 in dealer rebates, most of which winds up going into customers’ pockets. Rental lines bulging with high-trim sedans as dealers desperately attempt to shovel away product and make room for truckloads of new arrivals. Savvy shoppers are shaving three, four, and even five grand off of MSRP as average transaction prices land in the basement for the class. Despite massive inflows of manufacturer cash, sales volume stagnates and declines as competitors grab more and more market share. All in merely the second model year of Toyota’s marquee product, a legendary nameplate with a (supposedly) loyal customer base and years of carefully-crafted reputation. What, pray tell, is going on here?
When the Buick Encore compact crossover was introduced, some questioned if it was the right vehicle for the brand, but apparently GM underestimated initial demand for the Encore.
After adding 600,000 units to its North American capacity within the past two years, Ford is trying to find ways to increase output of the Escape crossover and midsize Fusion, both of which currently have about 40 days supply. The Fusion is particularly in short supply on the east and west coasts, a good sign for any domestic automaker these days. A 60 day supply of cars in inventory is generally considered normal for the U.S. auto industry. Automotive News is reporting that at the Center for Automotive Research’s Management Briefing Seminars, held in Traverse City, Michigan, Ford VP for North America manufacturing, Jim Tetreault, said, “We’re still looking at how we get more out of every plant, and that’ll be a focus for as long as the demand is as strong as it is.”
I come to praise the chicken tax, not to bury it. In exchange for the short-term consequence of a few people paying too much for Toyota trucks with insta-rust beds, this country managed to acquire a pretty substantial infrastructure to build “foreign” automobiles while still providing jobs to Americans. It even helped the Japanese automakers, who managed to survive the 1985/1986 spike in the yen without abandoning the US market because they were largely in the process of moving production to the Southern states.
In recent years, however, the 25% tariff has come to be ever-so-slightly irrelevant, primarily affecting buyers of the Ford Transit Connect who can’t figure out why there are wrench marks on the floor of their brand-new cargo vans. And now it might be gone for good.
The very first Generation Why column began after GM unveiled two concept cars aimed at millennial buyers, with the subsequent 18 months spent debunking numerous articles claiming that young people have abandoned the automobile in favor of electronic gadgets.
This author has long maintained that such talk was, in its most extreme form, the wishful thinking of people with a not-so-hidden desire to see cars disappear from the urban landscape. At its most benign, it’s simply foolish. Finally, the rest of the world appears to be catching on to the notion that when it comes to falling rates of car ownership, “it’s the economy, stupid.” General Motors just happens to be one of the first to say it publicly.
Toyota will drop the Matrix hatchback for 2014, leaving them without a compact hatchback. The Matrix, jointly developed with General Motors, never set the world on fire, and Toyota didn’t even break out its sales figures from the Corolla, making it tough to gauge its popularity. Perhaps we’ll get the much more attractive Corolla hatchback in the future.
In July 2013, America’s three favorite midsize cars combined to sell an extra 10,667 copies than they did a year ago.
Collectively, the best-selling Toyota Camry, second-ranked Honda Accord, and third-ranked Nissan Altima were up 12.5% in July. Midsize cars, as we understand them here, rose 3.4%. The U.S. auto industry reported an overall volume increase of 13.9%.
Back in April, we reported on relatively high incentives for the Cadillac ATS, which were discovered in the midst of some fact-checking on a blatant puff piece on the brand by Bloomberg. Months later, none other than Automotive News has caught on, with their own story about the baby Cadillac’s high pricing and the resulting incentives being offered.
Three-plus years ago, your humble E-I-C pro tem was quite impressed by an 800-horsepower Nissan GT-R. After a couple of years racing in the NASA Performance Touring “E” class, where “big power” cars have 160 horses at the crank, having a chance to boot the proverbial ten-second car around for a while was quite a hoot.
At Switzer, however, I suspect they look at those old 800-horsepower days the way Justin Timberlake does at his N’SYNC records.
A glimmer of hope that the European car market is stabilizing might be seen in the fact that for the first time in nearly two years, French car sales were up in July.
The recovery of the auto industry in the U.S. continues with July sales being the best in seven years, up 14% from last year. Every domestic and foreign based automakers had increased year to year sales, with double digit gains at six companies. Leading the pack were Honda, Toyota and General Motors, with sales up 21, 17 and 16 percent respectively. Ford, Chrysler and Nissan each were up 11%. Subaru, whose North American sales helped parent Fuji Heavy Industries to record earnings, had the best year to year performance, up 43%.
Fuji Heavy Industries, the Subaru’s corporate parent, had a 400% increase in operating profit due to strong U.S. sales for that brand. North American sales for Subaru in its largest market were up 30% to 116,000 unites in the quarter just ended. Fuji’s operating profits were 69.64 billion yen ($739.6 million), up from 17.33 billion yen ($184.05 million) last year, a record for quarterly profits for that company. Read More >
Chrysler Group reported net income of $507 million in the second quarter, with strong sales of SUVs and pickup trucks helping the car company make a profit for the eighth consecutive quarter. Earnings were up 16% from the same period a year earlier when $436 million was made. However, the company reduced its projected full year profit. Second-quarter revenues grew 7 percent to $18 billion, up from $16.8 billion in 2012.
According the the China Automobile Dealers Association, despite efforts by car makers to reduce inventories, Chinese domestic brand dealers still had 49 days worth of supply in June, a figure that would be considered decent in North America, where two months is the norm. But it’s a matter of concern in China, where normal dealer inventories are 24 to 36 days. That figure is an improvement over the 61 days of supply at the end of May. Read More >
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