Da Biz Last Month
October. Horrid, horrid October. Well, it's grim. Bad went to worse in the late months of the year for the business. With the summer employee pricing plan pulling an estimated 30 million some buyers out of the market 6 months premature, it has had a bigger effect on the market than any analyst or expert could have possibly expected. And, the numbers are there to prove it.
From AutoExtremist.com, "The domestic auto companies reported their worst sales performance in years in October, with their share of the market plunging to just over 52 percent - a new historic low." They go on to say "...truck and SUV sales went off a cliff, down by half in most cases." And to show what happens when you DON'T offer employee pricing programs/incentive based selling, "To add the icing to Detroit's miserable cake, Toyota captured 15.1 percent of the U.S. market - a new historic high."
I would just like to say that I have been preaching this over and over, again and again in this blog and elsewhere. I WAS RIGHT! Nyah Nyah Nyah!!! Ha! Thank you, that is a large feather in my cap.
On the plus side, IF the big three decide to continue with value pricing and offer revamped products that are competitive to the import product and desirable to the buying public, we can see a positive turnaround in approximately five years. This, by the way, is a big IF. The big three have to follow through with their intentions to realize this success.
In other news, Kudos to Honda on the new Civic. Although the quality of components used to construct the body aren't as solid as I would have liked to of seen, it is a nice change from the previous model. Honda which had been losing sales in the tuner market/youth market have a new hit on their hands that has a fresh design. See picture below.
By the way, it's slow here too. Although we have some new product, aggressive programs, and a stable product, we are feeling some of the pain inflicted by the errors of the big three. I suspect I will survive the long cold winter, but I may have to cut some non essentials out of the budget. I see a turnaround in mid January when the new Passat gets a little more recognition.
posted by Disgruntled Car Salesman @ 2:58 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
Got to say your great in your element DCS. Good work.
What's a "...liked to OF seen."???
Is that like a "...liked to HAVE seen."??? (which is the English equivalent?)
Cut out those non-essentials: driving. There's a bus. Take it.
Thanks VietVet. I'd hope having done this for a while now that I could pick up a few pertinent skills.
Dad29, you should join BagManJimbo aka WEAC's towel boy and become a teacher too! Then you could rake in the great benies and get paid for correcting papers.
That new Civic looks great. They were really falling off for awhile, style-wise. They got boring, frankly. But are you saying they're in danger of becoming rust-prone? That would suck.
BTW - how are those Merc-Smart Fortwo's selling in the US? I live in Toronto and we're starting to see quite a few of them...
Honda has a problem with the guage of steel they use in their products. Creates road noise and makes for a cheap feeling car. Rust doesn't seem to be that large of a problem anymore.
The Merc-Smart you speak of I am not familiar with. I haven't seen any of them around, nor have I heard of it. I suspect it's one of those small little cars. Let me know.
Ah.
As for the Smartcar. They're those little 2-seaters. Mercedes manufactures them. I saw them first in Europe on vacation about 3 years ago. They're about 45-60 HP and apparently get amazing gas mileage. they have no weight so are useless on the highways, but the safety shell around the driver is apparently indestructable.
they're good for cities.
www.smart.com
Nope. No Smart cars here yet. Thanks for the info though.
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