Ford slipped to 4th place in sales last month

I guess you think changing a few items makes them different. You are so out of touch with what is going on in the design studios and the real world that it is not funny. It does not matter how many different ways you cook SPAM, it is still SPAM, not beef. Get your head up out of the swamp water and breathe some fresh air...!

GM and Ford have together only 39.4% market share

Jeff wrote:

GM alone had over 50% market share a few years back

What happened?

Actually the cars that GM sells, that are made in Korea are technically Suzuki's built in the former Daewoo plants there, are not GM products. Of course Toyota will import their own cars, most of what Toyota sell in the US are not made in the US now, why would we expect anything different? ;)

mike

What do you consider to be huge numbers? The total number of the Korean Suzuki's they sell is only equal too about one weeks production of Silverado's ;)

mike

The US market, the largest in the world, is now shared by around twenty manufactures, rather than five or so, and has expanded from six million to around seventeen million, for one. ;)

mike

Competition.

In the 60s, there were almost no imports. The main except was the VWs. As time went buy, more and more import cars became available in the US. Originally, they were small cars, like the Toyota Corollas and VW bugs, but later bigger ones, like the Acura and Lexus became available. Mercedes and BMW also offer big cars. And the import brands started with questionable quality. They improved their quality greatly, getting a reputation for good quality, while US brands got a reputation for bad quality. I guess cars like the Ford Pinto helped a lot with the reputation for poor quality. Those imports that didn't have good quality, like Yugo, or a good dealer network, like Peugeot, left.

The import car makers made cars that US consumers wanted. They wanted small cars for their kids so they would be cheap and cheap on gas. They wanted small trucks, like the Toyota SR5. They wanted fast cars, like the VW GTI. And when the kids grew up, they wanted big Toyotas and bigger VWs. The US automakers pretty much left the lower-end segment because they couldn't make much money in it.

The import brands started making more and more of their cars in the US. Toyota makes about 60% of the cars they sell in North America in North America.

The other thing that happened was globalization. Companies started making cars for new markets, like South America and Asia, as well as the old markets in Europe and North America. The companies that move the fastest, like Toyota, get larger shares of the new markets. That is why Toyota is expected to become the world's #1 automaker within a year or so, and Ford dropped down to #3.

All this time, the US car makers were saddled with the old union rules and liabilities, like pensions and health care for retired workers, as retirees lived longer and longer.

A few years back, some kids at the local Wendy's were talking about the car they wanted. They wanted a Lexus. When I was a kid, it was a big Lincoln or a big Caddy kids wanted when they grew up.

Jeff

60% of the cars sold in the US are made in the US. And the Toyota Sienna has over 90% US content.

Toyota buys about $26,000,0000,000 worth of supplies and parts in the US every year.

Jeff

solve two problems in one go

send them to Iraq

I should have said, 60% of the cars sold by Toyota in North America and made in North America.

A few years back is the 1960s, that is 4 DECADES AGO.

Simply, they stopped listening to the customer.

Really? Did they really listen to the costumer before then?

The thing that changed in the 60s is that competition came these shores.

Jeff

BINGO! Or maybe better put, the new competition these past 30-40 years DID listen to the customer (when GM probably never did in reality).

Actually, your thanks was the dividends that you got.

Unfortunately, that is the risk you take when you buy 2000 shares of any one company. Had you put $50,000 into shares of Home Depot or Lowes or Microsoft back in 1980, you'd be rich.

In fact, you had better be rich. If you invested a large portion of your money in any one company, you risk losing a lot of money.

Jeff

Really? GM sells more vehicles today than they did back then. The US market as expanded by 10,000,000 vehicles annually GMs customers must still prefer what GM sells, over any import or domestic brand, since they outsell them all ;)

mike

That may all be true, but they just can't do it and make a profit. They are still paying health benefits for those workers that retired in the '60s and paying for it with the sale of today's cars.

Off topic, but your point about health benefits has been widely cited and is a serious concern, not only for the employers but also for the individual.

Health care costs have skyrocketed, and the individual can usually not afford to pay for insurance that will cover him effectively, nor can he pay the doctors, hospitals, and medicines out of his pocket.

GM is just one of the entities trapped in this quagmire.

I am strongly in favor of a national health plan, but realize the US government couldnt administer that either. Attempts to institute a national health program have been stymied by lobbyists for interested groups, and by gutless politicians who are their pawns.

I have all but given up hope that, someday, we will get a slate of congressmen and senators who will actually work for the benefit of the people.....all the people, not just the workers and certainly not just industry.

That makes a lot of sense. Let the government pay for YOUR health care. The only problem is the government does not do anything that produces income. The government will simply force you to pay taxes to give you that 'free' health care. The government will pay all of your healthcare bills, after deducting the cost of collecting and distributing the funds of course which mean you will pay more not less for your health care. Do you want the government to buy you a car to go to the doctor as well LOL

mike

Mike, whenever you speak, the group IQ drops by 50 points.