news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5236930.stm
All of the big three's sales in the United States continue to fall to the gain of Asian manufacturers.
No-one else to blame but themselves surely?
|
Just read the article. Looks like the US motor industry is in freefall.
45% drop in SUV sales was what struck me most. Spare wheels hung on the tailgate look so passe now!
|
|
I'm not anti-American but their motor industry can only blame itself for its head-in-the-sand attitude of British Leylandesque proportions!
|
|
|
|
well I think it is primarily that their car based offerings are not that competitive particularly at the lower and mid sized segments against the asians. Often they seem to have pretty rubbish 4 cylinder engines or relatively poor refinement/interior ambiance. You got the impression in the last 10 years they have all formed the view that making cars as a opposed to trucks was really only about selling a first car to a college attendee or selling to rental fleets, both of which just wanted a low sticker price...You assume they thought "when anyone has any money they'll buy a truck anyhow". Now those clientele in the middle range are coming back to cars or not at least progressing towards a truck/SUV and there's not alot coming from the big 3.
|
|
Very true Beefy. Also remember the British motorcycle industry! "These Eastern upstarts won't beat us. What do they know?" I agree Triumph is a rousing success but look at the pain they had to get to where they are today!
|
Very true Beefy. Also remember the British motorcycle industry! "These Eastern upstarts won't beat us. What do they know?" I agree Triumph is a rousing success but look at the pain they had to get to where they are today!
New Triumph is a different Triumph, only the name survives. 1969 CB750 was 20+ years ahead of any Brit 'bike. Wot? No oil leaks? I can press this button and it starts? But where's the vibration? And yet........... is there anything more evocative than a Trident climbing the Mountain ? A four is just a four, a howling triple (albeit a twin plus one) is spine-tingling. Bert Hopwood's modular designs were the future for the British 'bike industry, but it never happened :-(
Modern 'bikes are very good, very fast, very reliable. If I relied upon a 'bike for my income then it has to be something from Hondayamuki. But I really, really want a Triton, or a Combat-engined Commando, or .... or .... or ... And why press a button to start the thing when one can don the correct outer garments, adjust the mixture and timing, operate the decompressor and descend in a manly manner from a great height upon the kick starter ...... and then hobble into the distance cursing all and sundry? And don't forget the saga of heating the plugs.
I do not want Harley.
|
|
Or was the CB750 released in 1968? The mind plays tricks as the years roll on :-(
|
|
|
|
|
There'ssomething wrong with those figures, the percentages seem way too high. The trends may be correct, but I have a feeling that the actual figures may need checking. Either that or the sample was way too small.
|
I read an article a few months back (can't remember where) which blamed Ford's woes in the US on its reliance on cheap (to produce), low tech gas guzzling SUV's and trucks which sold by the bucketload when fuel was $1 a gallon, but have recently lost their popularity at $3 a gallon pump prices.
$3 a gallon though. If only!!
Cheers
DP
|
|
$3.78 a US gallon I saw in a news clip the other day,compare that to a UK gallon and a US SUV doing 15mpg and my present car doing 45mpg not a lot in it I would have thought .
|
$3.78 a US gallon I saw in a news clip the other day,compare that to a UK gallon and a US SUV doing 15mpg and my present car doing 45mpg not a lot in it I would have thought .
I think that $3.78 is converted to be the same as a UK gallon - I was in the US a couple of wks ago and fuel is around $3 per US gallon.
However, Americans generally drive much greater distances than we are, so (I would guess) the average US family is spending way more on fuel than the average UK family.
|
|
|
|
There'ssomething wrong with those figures,
>>
for some more details on these stats as well as email links to the reporters, see
www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aDGLZ...s
|
|
|
|
|
The Asian countries are good at taking someone elses idea and trying to improve on it. They did it with motorbikes, musical instruments, electrical goods and now cars. Gone are the days when British folks bought British goods, we live in a global market and every individual wants the best they can get wherever it comes from.
|
|
Even BMW dropped 12% in the US in July.
|
|
|
|
