Informal survey

[jhetley]

I was contemplating the general castigation current on the auto industry, bemoaning "Detroit's" pig-headed management decision to concentrate on pickup truck and SUV production and letting Japan steal the small car market.  And then, as I walked to fetch the newspaper and back, I counted passing vehicles.

Over half the traffic on State Street consisted of light trucks and SUVs.  Usual carrying one person, the driver, and with no visible cargo.  Folks, "Detroit" was producing those dinosaurs because that was what the American Driver wanted to buy . . .

I'm old enough to remember small cars like the Nash Metropolitan, the Henry J, the Ford Falcon.  "Detroit" has tried to produce small, fuel-efficient cars through the decades.  They've flopped in the market.  Instead, we bought highway battleships like my family's 1957 Oldsmobile, with a big V-8 engine and automatic transmission. 

Or a Ford Expedition.  What percentage of SUVs ever leave the pavement, except in an accident?

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what that number would be Jim, but note this tidbit: Toyota currently has as much market share as all of GM in the American automotive market. Now sure, some of that is Toyota Highlanders, but much more of it is Corollas and Camrys.

[pernishus.livejournal.com]

As an inveterate pedestrian...

...come to think of it, that's all I really have to say to car-owners...

[grin]

My total non-air transportation costs for 2007 were $720.00 -- deductible from my federal Canadian income tax..

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's not that Detroit didn't build small cars, but they did seem to have a lousy time building small cars that people liked.

I do wonder if part of it's because of their base of operations. Japan needs small, fuel efficient cars (as does Europe). Does this mean Toyota and Honda are used to thinking of how to make their baseline cars (i.e., small ones) better? Whereas Detroit was used to making big, fun behemoths?

(An interesting side note: I do know that Detroit had, at one point, begged for a gas tax if the CAFE standards were rising. They often sell their fuel efficient cars at a slim margin - sometimes at a loss - to make the CAFE standards. They'd like to see $4-5 a gallon gas if they have to start selling cars with 40-50mpg.)

Oh, yeah, another sad story... one of the Big Three has a car that gets 50mpg (diesel, but still). They just can't easily get it over here because their diesel engine plant is too far away. And, of course, they're having a hard time justifying building a new one if gas prices might drop (as, in fact, they have).

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

What percentage of SUVs ever leave the pavement, except in an accident?

This is one of those cross-atlantic things:

Many SUVs can be found parked on pavements, obstructing foot traffic. One hopes that *all* SUVs will leave the pavement.


I thought Opel/Vauxhall was part of GM? They make a pretty nifty small car.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Detroit didn't (and still doesn't) market its smaller vehicles effectively. Even now, if we have the TV on, at least 60% of the commercials are for gas-hog SUVs and monster pickups; I rarely see one for a smaller fuel-efficient vehicle, and when I do, it's probably a Toyota or Honda. Also, the last few times that I was shopping for a car at a dealership, the salesdroids were pushing REALLY HARD to get me to look at an SUV, even after I said that wasn't what I wanted.

Another piece of the equation: "trucks" (a category which includes SUVs, and even my Montana minivan) get a lot of regulatory breaks vs. passenger cars, which makes them cheaper to manufacture, hence more profitable. (Source: Russ, who spent nearly 20 years in the industry.) Nobody was ever willing to level the playing field by separating working trucks from luxury trucks and making the latter subject to passenger-car regulations.

It's not entirely fair to blame the consumer when the consumer was having SUVs and monster pickups pushed down their throats at every turn.

(edited to fix typo)

[suzilem.livejournal.com]

I drive a small SUV (Ford Escape) for the sole reason that the seat is the precise height to make it easy for me to get in and out of the vehicle and the cargo area in the back is low enough that it isn't difficult the get my walker in and out.

Before the last five years or so, I had always driven smaller cars like the Ford Escort.

My gas mileage isn't too bad for that class of vehicle (25 city, between 30-35 highway). My only regret is that when I bought Hamish 2.5 years ago, I couldn't afford to get the hybrid version.