Well, that and the fact that you couldn't wear them out with sand in the oil and driving 80 mph on railroad tracks. Damn those things were un-killable!
Fast growing? Seems like GM/Ford have already saturated the SUV market, and there's already too many players in the AWD passenger car market. Audi and Subaru traditionally had a lock on this market (after AMC/Eagle left, but AMC never had decent marketing. I wonder what would have happened if the Eagle had a rally program like Audi or Subaru? Would have been fun to watch... but I digress) but now everyone and their brother is offering at least one AWD sedan or wagon.
GM and Ford both need to come up with a product that is not just "as good as" but markedly BETTER than the existing products in a given class and price point if they want to get any market penetration. There's too many people out there that have a negative impression of GM/Ford and their products, "all things being equal" they will choose another brand based on past experience or reputation.
Maybe so. I may be wrong but I perceive that as market segment of very finicky customers. It may be one of those markets where they spend a $billion on a new product, and the market just says it's mediocre. Mediocrity is the heart of what's driving them into bankruptcy.
In fact I think we're already there with the "Edge". It's an all-out development effort, but reviews in the press are mixed. It looks good, but it weighs 5000 lb, and it only seats 5. There's nothing really great about the performance or the gas mileage. Just middle-of-the-road all the way. It looks a lot better than a Pacifica, but maybe not so good as the Murano, depending on your taste.
How about the Compass? It's cheaper, but awfully ugly. The Compass is going to be the new Aztek, I'm afraid. Recent Autoweek test had all kinds of breakdowns. It's bad when you develop products that are ugly right out of the box.
I guess this new Buick Enclave thing is the GM's big all-out crossover effort. Their current crossovers are kind of forgettable to me. I know they had the Ranier/Aztek for a while. Now they have that Pontiac Torrent instead and whatever it is at other divisions. These were all okay (ignoring the Aztek's styling). I guess you could say mediocre.
For now. Import market share is increasing and domestic market share is decreasing, and if this trend is not reversed it will be very bad news indeed for the US automotive industry and you won't be able to make that statement anymore. I stand by my statement and hope that GM and Ford's product planners agree with me, for their sake.
Not to worry. Obviously more American continue to prefer what they offer than any import brand You are talking about share of an ever growing market, GM and Ford both sell more vehicles today than the did in days of old. If indeed GM and Ford falter, which is unlikely, it will be bad for America not just the auto industry. Import brands pay their workers less, offer less desirable healthcare benefits and less desirable pensions. Worst of all Japanese corporations pay no US corporate income taxes on the profits earned on cars they only assemble in the US of mostly imported parts, contrary to what many believe. They will no doubt find it cheaper to simply just import all of their vehicles, as they do most of them now. Without American made vehicles, would Toyota continue to assemble some of their cars in the US, of 'world sourced parts' as they now say in their ads, when they can built them in China, of the same parts, for one third the cost?
Like who? Nobody I knows can say anything like "GM builds a better car than Toyota" for example with a straight face. Nobody believes it.
Irrelevant. There's declining market share, and it will continue to decline unless something is done. At some point total sales will also decline - oh wait, that's already happening.
They're already faltering. Declining market share and declining total sales = "faltering" in my book.
it's already happening.
Indeed. Think "Studebaker" on a much larger scale.
And yet there are no shortage of applicants for those jobs. Odd, that.
Well, I guess GM and Ford better get on the stick and start building better vehicles if we want to reverse the flow of dollars, eh what?
cite?
Maybe, maybe not. They do have a reputation for quality to uphold, and china is not there yet. However, once China figures out QC - well, you ain't seen nothing yet, you thought competition from Japan and Korea was bad, it's only going to get worse.
Of course, this hasn't stopped *GM* from importing Chinese parts...
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