D'OH! Detroit 3 Market Share Lowest in History
CNN -- Asian and European brands captured 54.2% of overall vehicle sales in June, edging out the 45.8% of sales that went to the U.S. brands, according to Autodata (see chart above), placing the Big Three in their weakest competitive position ever compared to their overseas rival. Until last year, there had never been a month that American car buyers preferred the combined offerings of Asian and European automakers to those of the Big Three.
MP: Maybe it's not the "Big" Three any more?
3 Comments:
"MP: Maybe it's not the "Big" Three any more?"
The U.S. auto industry is now referred to as the "Little Six" in many industry publications.
What many people fail to realize is that GM was an anomaly with over 50% of the U.S. auto market. Realistically, that is not how a competitive market operates for very long. It took a special set of circumstances for GM to have that much of a market for that long. Essentially, Europe got blown to hell in WW II and did not have much manufacturing capability in the 50s and 60s, and there was a pent-up demand after the war for everything—along with a bit of protectionism.
What we are seeing now is the continuation of a process in manufacturing that started in the 1970s. Consequently, the escalation of gasoline prices just brought to a head what was bound to happen naturally in time.
No longer can powerful companies such as GM determine what the customer will buy and at what price. The possible future of GM will depend on how well they can supply customers with vehicles they wish to buy at prices they can afford. Those companies that excel at what they do will survive. Those who don’t, well. . . .
Anecdotal evidence for what its worth (obviously not much in the grand scheme of things) but one of the reasons over the last two years I believe that Ford or at least some Ford products are now thoroughly hated by those who bought them is the use of some relatively new electro-optical (their words, not mine) connections for everything from accelerators, to brakes, heater and air condiditoning controls...
The people buying them are NOT happy and they all claim they are NOT getting any satisfaction from the local dealers where the vehicles were purchased or the Ford regional outlets...
Is this any way to run a circus?
juandos,
I've never heard of such a complaint. I don't even know what an electro-optical connection is. Do you have any more information?
As far as customer complaints, none of the U.S. auto companies, or unions for that matter, are large enough to operate with the arrogance they used to operate with. If they do, it's "Bye-Bye."
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