Now i was all set to talk about the wording of the Big 3's loan requests, but then i looked deeper in to today's Freep (12/3) and saw the sales figures, and felt that it would be best to argue the whole "no one wants to buy domestics" meme that seems to plague a a lot of auto discussions.
All numbers are sourced to the Dec 3rd Detroit Free Press. So of course there might be a Detroit bias in the raw writing of the words but numbers are numbers lets let them speak for themselves.
Come with me across the Jump.
Before you jump as i was getting my citations in order i found this on the Freep Wagoner will drive Volt to Senate hearing, to be honest i'd like to see congress pony up some money to get the Volt out sooner than late 2010, but at least the can see what the Big 3 will soon offer up.
Now return to your standard jumping, watch your step please.
The Industry in the month of November of the 2008 year AD, fell by 36.7% from last year at the same month in the year of 2007 AD.
In that 38.7%, breaking down the 6 largest automakers world wide, Chrysler lost 47.1%, Nissan 42.2%, GM 41.3%, Toyota 33.9%. Honda 31.6%, and Ford the winner of sorts only losing 30.5%. Now in the US Ford is the 3rd best selling after GM and Toyota, so their 30.5 is less hurtful than the hit GM and Toyota took. In fact according to this years market shares Ford is gaining on Toyota, with 16.4% last month (Toyota 17.4%), and 14.9% on the year (Toyota 16.8%). If this trend keeps up then Ford could well reclaim the #2 slot from it's Japanese rival, as Toyota has to deal with GM trying to push them down and Ford working to climb over them. The only brands to take less a hit than Ford would be Germany's BMW and Volkswagen, but their combined sales are still only 5.6% the industry.
Now in Year to date sales Ford GM and Chrysler sold a total 5,940,739 units, for a total 48% market share. Toyota, Honda, Nissan the next 3 largest seller only sold 4,307,639 for a total 34.9% market share, not to mention Nissan didn't break 1 million units yet, nor do they have at least 10% share like the other 5.
Now what do all these numbers mean? Simple People Buy Domestic autos, in fact they Buy Domestic Light Trucks, the two top sellers are Ford's recently updated F-Series, and the Chevy Silverado both selling more units than any auto maker outside the top 6 with the the F-Series 37,911 units (473,933 YTD) and Chevy's Silverado with 29,534 units last month (431,725 YTD). The F-series alone sells better than every brand outside of the Top 6, combined the Ford and Chevy light trucks out sell Nissan as an entire company.
Speaking of single model sales of the top 20, 10 are domestic, 10 are imports. of these 20 only 1 model year didn't lose to last year's nov sales and that is the Chevy Malibu which had a 35.4% jump over last Nov's sales. YTD only 4 models haven't lost sales, the Honda Civic with a 5.9% gain, the Malibu with a massive 51.8% increase, Ford's Fusion had a small 0.9% gain as the 09 model year ends before 09 even starts as they gear up for the 2010 ver, and the Michigan built Focus had a nice 15.7% gain over last year.
This isn't about Auto execs doing stupid things, this is about a market, a system in crisis. The problem doesn't come from Detroit or Toyota City it comes from the credit markets, the Wall street. The numbers show an across the board drop, Ford reduced auto production in Q1, seeing a hard year ahead, i don't know about any others, but when markets just crash like this it isn't time to play the kick 'em while their down game but to rather give them a hand back up, and then help them rebuild once they can stand once more.
The US domestic Auto Companies are still in there, they are still able to fight it out. Given the loans they should well make their marks for releasing the much demanded green autos of the future. The 2011 Volt and Ford in their loan requests mentioned a BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle) of the utility type in a few years and a fully BEV Sedan by 2011 as well. I hope to hear more at the Detroit International Auto Show when i go there next month to look at the Big 3 cars that I'll seen on the roads sooner rather than later.
Now I live in Michigan so even my rat bug republican rep McCotter (who i've voted against 3 times to date) so i really can't go can call my reps since they are all already for the Load deal. If you hope for a future where green cars are built by American owned companies please contact your rep and ask them to clear the loan to Detroit's 3.
-Gabe
Sources -
Webster, Sarah A., and Brent Snavely. "Industry's sales spiral plunges into 13th month." Detroit Free Press, 3 December 2008, sec. E, p. 1.