American car manufacturers have been accused of being slow to react to the market. I remember having a conversation with a friend who was a former employee of Sargummi (They do all the little bits of rubber around the windows for GM). He basically made the point that in his opinion the US-Auto machine tended to be single minded and lacking in vision. Not really new news is it?

What is interesting is the historical correlation between now and the 1970/80s:

  • the current increase in oil prices
  • the trend of American manufacturers to build increasingly larger and larger vehicles
  • the foresight of Asian car manufacturers

Case in point is the news that SUV sales sales for GM have dropped by 50% (GM Sales of SUVs Plummet 50 Percent @ Media Buyer Planner). This is interesting for two reasons. Firstly at a time that sees dwindling fossil fuel reserves, GM/Ford etc are all still pushing larger and larger vehicles. Size that no-one really needs or increasingly wants. I still remember my first trip to the USA and upon seeing an F350 dual wheel monster drive past with a wheel barrow, cement mixer and some bricks in the tray, thinking “Is a load of bricks really that much heavier here?” Back in OZ the same load was usually handles by a 4 pot turbo diesel Toyota.

The second thing is that perhaps people are finally realising that they don’t need a V8 SUV to get to the shops and ferry the kids to school.

The article states:

Merrill Lynch auto analyst John Casesa said GM’s plummeting SUV sales may hint at low numbers for upcoming launches. “We are growing increasingly concerned about all the prospects of GM’s new line of SUVs,” he said.

Meanwhile, Toyota Motor Sales USA, American Honda Motor Co., Nissan North America, and Hyundai Motor America all posted increased sales in September.

Is bigger better? Well if you look at sales volume, environmental impact, fuel consumption and real world driving requirements; then the answer is “No”.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 6th, 2005 at 6:05 am and is filed under All Posts, Marketing, Trucks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.