Even though GM is showing signs of new life, the trend is clearly showing that the domestics will continue to lose market share. In 2005, Detroit's automakers had 54.5% of the retail market...
By the end of last year, that had edged down to 50.1%. That's a 1.2-percentage-point decline from the fourth quarter of 2006, and it's an even larger 2.1-percentage-point decline from the first quarter of last year.
Full story here.
Full story here.
rcpax says:
09:06 AM, 04/14/07
And we all know there's a good reason why.
orangutan says:
09:16 AM, 04/14/07
I could care less what nationality my car manufacturer is so long as it's a good product. And, like rcpax said, we all know why "American brands" are losing.
kurtamaxxxguy says:
12:23 PM, 04/14/07
Keep in mind many "foreign brands" build much of their USA product _in_ the the USA with USA employees.
Also, Per the article:
Chevrolet Silverado
Ford Fusion
Jeep Wrangler
are all doing just fine (note that two of these use lots of fuel).
And there's the high performance market USA makers make excellent niche vehicles for:
The Corvette Blue Devil will sell out within weeks of its introduction.
billt9 says:
01:58 PM, 04/14/07
The reason is the American brands have a small lineup of vehicles.
The American brand dealerships also carry these vehicular shaped decorations. But they're not too pretty, and people don't buy them.
Nonetheless, this is just sensationalist news.
The big 3 are concentrating on making a profit, instead of selling a bijillion cars at rock bottom prices.
Clearing vehicles off their lots at fire sale prices is what gave the big 3 such bloated market share in the first place.
They realized that's not such a good idea for profit.
ateixeira says:
09:39 AM, 04/16/07
Improve the product.
Buying American out of pity doesn't do anyone any good in the long run.
Focus on the product, because the consumers don't focus on the nationality of the cars.
And we'll overlook the fact that the Camry is the only car represented in NASCAR that is actually made in the USA.
estreka says:
06:02 PM, 04/16/07
I'm curious what the breakdown is between cars and trucks. I would assume trucks are roughly 90% Big 3, so foreign cars probably make up considerably more than 50%. If you take out fleet and government orders, I imagine the gap is even larger.