Professor Mark J. Perry's Blog for Economics and Finance
According to March auto sales data released today by Motor Intelligence, the market share of the Big Three automakers fell to a new record low of 47% in March 2008, down from 53% last year (see chart above). 
Dr. Mark J. Perry is a professor of economics and finance in the School of Management at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan. Perry holds two graduate degrees in economics (M.A. and Ph.D.) from George Mason University near Washington, D.C. In addition, he holds an MBA degree in finance from the Curtis L. Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. In addition to a faculty appointment at the University of Michigan-Flint, Perry is also a visiting scholar at The American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.
3 Comments:
Not really a surprise. This story has been reported before. Read below.
"Look at the horrendous statistical performance detailed inside Tom Krisher's AP newspaper story written on June 9, 2007. Notice what's fleshed out in this story, "Gradual deceleration of the Big Three --- The combined U.S. market share of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler declined from 73.8 percent in 1980 to 37.6 percent through the first five months of 2007."
Lots of nice charts.
http://www.carofthecentury.com/answer_to_gm%27s_market_share_plunge.htm
My family always had GM vehicles...just in my 30 year lifetime, we went through a '58 Chevy pickup, a GMC diesel pickup, two Caprice Classics, an Astro van, a Monte Carlo (my first car) and even now my mom has a Lumina and my dad and brother (both farmers) have Silverados.
But then, five years ago, I got a job that required a bit of a commute and alot of city driving. Not impressed with the MPG on my Monte Carlo, and desiring something a bit easier to paralell park, I started looking around for something a bit less sporty, a bit smaller and a bit more efficient to fit my personal needs. I started with GM out of pure instinct, but found...alot of crappy vehicles in the mid-size, compact and sub-compact models. I think at the time, Chevy was pushing their new Aveos, which, quite frankly, reminded me of a Hyundai, not something from GM, and for more money. The Cavaliers and Sunfires were on their way out, and the Malibu just wasn't that great either. I ended up finding a good used Nissan Altima, which I still drive to this day. I've been so impressed with it, that I'll probably start with the local Nissan dealership when it eventually dies (God willing in another 100,000 miles or 5 years).
Looking back, I can't help but wonder how many others were in the same situation as me; people who had grown up with big American vehicles, but then when faced with new needs for new times, just couldn't find what they needed in an American made vehicle. I mean if you think about it, the entire time GM, Ford and Chrysler were pushing their large vehciles when gas was cheap in the 90's, other companies were steadily building their base of solid compact, efficient cars. Honda Civics, Nissan Altimas and Sentras, and Toyota Corollas were there the whole time. When the demands shifted, they were in the position to offer up these vehciles, which were now vastly improved over their already reliable older models.
I confess I was a slow learner - I owned two Citations, 4 different A-body GM station wagons - an 84, 85, 86 and an 88 (all were poorly engineered and poorly built junk), and a 88 Cavalier. Boy was I a glutton for punishment through crappy cars. It was bye, bye Chevy and almost good bye to GM too.
Since then I've had 4 Saturn S-Series - one we sold at 175,000 miles, the 93 has 190,000 miles on it, the 96, has over 210,000 and my 99 is the youngest at only 130,000 miles. Nothing fancy, but reliable.
Yes, GM and the rest of the US automakers came to the quality party way too late. The labor unions still haven't figured out that their pay packages, benefits and work rules puts the US makers at a great productivity and cost penalty.
Also the US makers can't seem to get a vehicle from concept to market in less than twice the time the foreign makers can, which means they can't respond quickly to changes in market demand.
So, the US cars are more expensive, they are playing catch-up on quality and their vehicles lag the market. That's why the declining market share is still declining.
It is doubtful that my next car will be a Saturn - even their new Astra won't get the fuel economy as my Saturn SL2 does. My next car will need to do much better than that - so what American car am I supposed to get?
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