Need a picture?
;)
Posted on 04/26/2018 2:35:14 PM PDT by Red Badger
Ford's plan to reduce its passenger car lineup to just two models, and GM's difficulty selling passenger cars in the U.S. show how much tastes are drifting toward trucks, SUVs and crossovers.
Ford will only update the Focus Active crossover and Mustang for the U.S. market, while GM called out a challenging passenger car environment. ======================================================================================================
So is it really the end of the American car on its home turf?
From the way Detroit's major executives are talking, it would seem so.
Ford said Wednesday it will only offer two new cars in North America over the coming years — its iconic Mustang and the Focus Active, a rugged-looking hatchback that has already debuted in Europe, and somewhat resembles the Subaru Crosstrek or the Buick Regal TourX.
GM is moving along the same lines.
"I think we have been on this path for a number of years," GM CFO Chuck Stevens said on a call with reporters on Thursday, after the largest U.S. automaker released first-quarter earnings.
Many of Fiat-Chrysler's biggest successes have been SUVs in recent years, evidenced by the growth of its Jeep brand.
"Virtually eliminating Ford's NA car portfolio makes a lot of sense, in our view," said Adam Jonas, an analyst at Morgan Stanley. "No more Fusion. No more Focus. No more Fiesta. No more Taurus."
GM still makes quite a few cars. For now, Chevrolet alone still sells somewhere around 12 car models if you count Corvette, although there have been rumors and news it will cut or end production of at least some of those. Buick has some sedans and a crossover that looks a lot like a wagon, and Cadillac has so many sedans industry observers and dealers say it missed the crossover trend.
And despite the fact that American companies are reshaping their lineups, sedans will still form a substantial portion of the vehicles sold in the U.S. for the foreseeable future.
"Although passenger car segments have declined over the last number of years, they are still very important," GM's Stevens said Thursday. "Small cars are important internationally, and they still make up a chunk of sales in the United States."
But crossover sales were largely what drove GM's earnings beat on Thursday, and the automaker's income was down because it had spent a lot of time retooling its factories — to build more trucks. Buick's best-selling model is the subcompact Encore crossover, and Cadillac's biggest debut this year has been the XT4, a model the company is making to finally catch up with rivals already in the luxury crossover segment.
Throughout the rest of 2018, GM's crossover sales should be strong enough to support margins despite costs from new truck launches, CFRA analyst Efraim Levy said in a note Thursday.
By 2022, almost 73 percent of all consumer vehicle sales in the United States are expected to be utility vehicles of some sort, and about 27 percent will be cars, according to auto industry forecasting firm LMC Automotive.
By that same time, LMC automotive expects 84 percent of GM's U.S. sales volume will be SUVs, crossover and trucks. Ford will be at 90 percent, and Chrysler at 97 percent.
So sedans and other cars are expected to still form more than a quarter of all consumer vehicle sales in the U.S., but the overall trend appears to be that American companies especially are giving up trying to sell cars to Americans.
What will they sell instead?
Detroit is already strong in pickups and large SUVs, such as the Cadillac Escalade and Lincoln Navigator, which is enjoying remarkably brisk sales after its first complete redesign in more than a decade. The Big 3 control almost 85 percent of the domestic pickup market, according to LMC Automotive, despite competitive products from foreign brands such as Toyota and Nissan.
And Ford, for example, will also double down on "authentic off-roaders," Ford President of Global Markets Jim Farley said on a conference call Wednesday, after Ford reported first-quarter earnings. This includes trucks like the Raptor, and the upcoming reintroduced Ford Bronco, and an unnamed SUV. GM and Chrysler are entering this segment, too.
The second-largest U.S. automaker also plans to refresh its current lineup of SUVs and crossovers and create new products that fill "white spaces" in the market, essentially meaning the company will try to combine or tweak various designs or combinations of features to find new segments no other company is targeting yet. This means combining various elements of both cars and SUVs in ways that distinguish Ford's vehicles from what is already out there.
"We will have a very diverse passenger car business," Farley said on the call. "It just won't be traditional silhouetted sedans that tend to be commoditized."
In ditching cars and pursuing this strategy, Ford made a difficult choice, said Kelley Blue Book analyst Rebecca Lindland.
"I think this is one of the challenges that the Big 3 has faced, that they really had a tough time finding their way on the car side," Lindland told CNBC. "They have struggled for too long to be profitable, to be a full-line manufacturer, and they have made the hard decision to start over. The problem is they are so far behind."
Farley is very smart, Lindland said, and Ford has a catalog of vehicle platforms around the world they can search through to quickly develop some products. But it will be challenging.
"Even though they are starting fresh, they have to accelerate their timeline to get their products as soon as possible," she said. "I am driving a Toyota C-HR right now, which I believe is the kind of car they are thinking about making."
The best thing you can do is find a nice older vehicle that you really like and take care of it.
Need a picture?
;)
Nobody inside...it’s parked...
Cars? BMW.
Trucks? Dodge Ram.
Not sure what that means...
And all be POSes.
About two decades ago I saw this cute little sports car advertised on the tube. I went and looked at one of them, on a whim. I could hardly get in and out of the thing.
Yikes!
I drive an FX4 F150 and back into every possible parking spot. It’s easier than trying to back out of a spot with 18 people jockeying for position to get my spot after I leave.
It’s also safer.
You hate trucks and you hate SUVs and you hate women.
Sounds like you’re a real fun person to hang with!
With regard to trucks, you do realize that people need trucks to tow things such as trailers, RVs, boats, equipment, etc, that your sedan cannot handle...right?
Do some research on towing capacities, it might enlighten you as to why trucks/SUVs are in fact necessary for the American way of life.
I was born in 1971, my general thoughts on GM are... in a nutshell
CRAP.
Now as to their brands.. Olds should have been killed off long before it did.... Pontiac? Seriously, put spoilers and a nasal grill on anything, including a minivan, and its your “sport” brand? Seriously... Chevy, lowest of the low... Buick... Comfortable old man cruiser... and Cadillac, what you buy when you are too old for a Buick...
I will never forgive GM for the crap they made for most of my life.... They may convince millenials they are worth a damn, but learned my lesson long ago about what crap they made.... Hell, how many people died due to them covering up their ignition switch problem??? And how many more known problems killed others we will never know about?
Ford, when I can get nearly double the warranty for your vehicle elsewhere, you can’t be considered.. if it takes 5 years to pay off and you will barely cover yours for more than 2 with typical 15k a year driving, you don’t even believe in your vehicles....
And Mercedes/VW/Audi/BMW/Jaguar.....
We'll continue to see 4- and 5-seat sedans as they are intermediate models, but we've only begun to see 1- and 2- seat commuter vehicles, and thanks to range problems in smaller electric vehicles (the Tesla Model 3 is the ideal platform size for an electric sedan, as it turns out) they'll be conventionally powered, or perhaps hybrid. My empty-nester sibling and spouse just replaced their previous minivan (which was option-rigged like the freakin' space shuttle) with another one (I think it was the Pacifica, I never got the nickel tour). Their other vehicle is a small truck. And they're a nest of libs, btw. Thanks Red Badger.
2016 Kogod Made in America Auto Index
http://kogodbusiness.com/auto-index/
http://www.google.com/search?q=who+builds+cars+in+the+united+states
There are some good things about my height and huge feet. It’s saved me a ton of money on sports cars and designer footwear.
People who buy trucks don't buy vehicles often, due to initial cost and trucks' excellent durability. They'll put up with auto insurance costs (trucks and larger SUVs are often thought to be inherently safer, which is important to parents of children) and cut miles driven if the price of gas becomes a problem. More likely they just put up with it. Parents who don't want their kids riding the school bus (I can see why they might not) or are not in the service area (we were not, enormous rural school district) cooperated with school transportation, and I'm sure that's still done, even in the two-career era.
Pathetic! The Japanese, Koreans and Chinese will be taking over our passenger car business. Many will be built/assembled here by American workers with all the profits going to the Japanese, Chinese and Koreans. This is not what a superpower does. Be economically colonized by foreigners. Where is the pride?
America is no longer a nation. We are a convenient economic zone for immigrants legal/illegal and for foreign corporations to set up shop here and to send their exports to.
Take a look at the huge Nissan factories in Mexico. Due to NAFTA these automobiles enter America with zero tariffs. A complete farce.
We have a family member who’s a major gearhead. Thanks to him, I’ve had the opportunity to ride/drive in vehicles from a Model T to a Porsche. I love cars. I just hate modern ones.
That’s so they can find you if you get lost in the woods or mountains or swamp or desert...........................;^)
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/bymodel/2018_Ford_Explorer.shtml
These SUVs get better gas mileage than my old 74 Pinto 4 cylinder, or my 2003 Lincoln Town Car V8...................
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.