At least the auto industry gets it

[miles otoole]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/AUTOS/11/17/car_price/index.html
No brakes: Car prices set record

The average cost of a new car at 4-year high of $27,958 due to higher financing costs.

November 17, 2005; Posted: 9:50 a.m. EST (1450 GMT)

​

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The average cost of a new car raced to a four-year high in the third quarter, according to a report by a Detroit-based bank.
The average price of a new car was $27,958, including financing charges, up six percent from a year ago, according to Comerica Bank.
It took 26.2 weeks' worth of an average person's salary to buy the average new car in the third quarter. That's 1.5 weeks longer than in the previous quarter of the year, according to the report.
"Affordability deteriorated because financing costs rose sharply and because the average consumer reacted to the great deals that were available this fall by spending more, not less, for a new car," said Dana Johnson, chief economist at Comerica Bank, in a statement released by the bank..
The report incorporates data on consumer spending for personal-use vehicles and data on auto loan terms.

 

[JohnDoe]

Sorry, no. The auto industry does not get it......really poor example.

Ask anybody that works for an auto company. Not only that, the article specifically stated that it was mostly due to higher financing costs.

 

[fromunda]

So you imply that raising prices is the answer? Kinda selfish don't ya think.

How about indusrty consolidation?

 

[I.P. Freley]

The auto industry is just about the MOST consolidated industry you can imagine. It's SO consolidated at this point that there are only two major US auto manufacturers left, and one of them is in such bad shape that bankruptcy is not out of the question.

 

[fromunda]

I thought there were three US auto manfuacturers?

My response was directed at the aviation industry, since miles was comparing the two. If the airline industry would get the ball rolling, things would be a much better place for you guys. Some would lose, yes. But most would gain from consolidation.

A major shakout is what this industry needs to return to profitability.

 

[I.P. Freley]

I thought there were three US auto manfuacturers?

Chrysler was acquired by what we all think of as Mercedes a few years ago. It was presented at the time as a "merger", but the reality is that they were bought.

Most of us (myself included) still think of Chrysler as "American", but in reality it's not.

 

[YourPilotFriend]

Trust me, the auto industry will make the airline industry look good after whats coming down the road for them. I fully expect to get laid off from my job next year. Look at Delphi, they went from 20 some dollars an hour to 9 bucks and 20,000 laid off. The job market is Horrible right now. It's easier getting fuloughed as a pilot, than losing you job elsewhere.

 

[I.P. Freley]

I hear ya. My next-door neighbor works at a GM truck assembly plant, and he's getting more than a little nervous. The chicanery of the UAW makes ALPA and Teamsters look pretty small-time.

 

[sbn340mech]

The auto industry has one small advantage over the airlines. They sell a product that just about every consumer needs. Kinda like Microsoft. Our problem is we sell a product not everybody needs, and for prices that just ain't high enough. Simple economics really, take in more than you spend and you make money!!

 

[Gulfstream 200]

The auto industry??!!!!

anyone checked Ford and GM stock lately?

that industry is in for a hit that will make the airlines look successful.

 

[h25b]

Well, hate to say it because a lot of American workers will again be suffering from the ineptitude of management, but anyone who test drives a Honda Civic and then goes to try out a Ford Focus can quickly figure out why the U.S. manufacturers are getting their a$$es handed to them. And it's not like this hasn't been going on for a while either. For crying out loud, the foreign cars are even being assembled in the United States !!!

Every time I get a rental car I can't believe what pieces of $hit they are competing against the likes of Honda and Toyota with. Just the other day I got a Chevy Cavalier rental with only 15,000 miles on it and I had serious questions as to whether the thing would get us to the hotel.

 

[I.P. Freley]

What you gots against the Focus, yo!?

I had one for three years and it was lovely. Nothing went wrong, and it was cheaper than the Civic with similar equipment.

I just had a rental Toyota Matrix that I was totally unimpressive... 3000mi on the odo and it buzzed like a vibrator. My Focus never did that.

 

[h25b]

What you gots against the Focus, yo!?

I had one for three years and it was lovely. Nothing went wrong, and it was cheaper than the Civic with similar equipment.

You get what you pay for. Whatever the price difference is you'd be crazy not to spring for the Civic. Especially now that 06 Honda Civics are out.

The Ford Focus crew car I got the other day at Signature shook like a dog $hittin' razor blades when we were at a stop light.

The domestic cars just are outclassed in fit and finish issues and seem to age a lot worse than their foreign competitors.

 

[I.P. Freley]

Heh, well the '06 Civic wasn't available to me in Nov. of 2000.

Why am I not surprised that the CREW CAR wasn't in good shape? That car has been abused by crews for an indeterminate period of time... It could be six years old and have led a very hard life indeed. The only reason I even bothered mentioning the buzzing Toyota I rented was that it had only 3k miles on it... Using rentals or loaners as a point of reference is unfair unless the car is practically new.

I say again, 3 years with my Focus and it never needed non-routine service, except to replace the clutch return spring (the one that pulls the pedal back to the retracted position). I apologize for asserting that "nothing went wrong", that was an overstatement. That spring made all the difference. My mother had a Civic that had three trips to the dealer in the first year for mechanical issues... Including a new clutch after 10,000mi and new shocks/struts after 11,000mi (and before you get any big ideas, mom knows how to drive a manual, having driven one for almost all her years).

The only reason my Focus didn't look like new when I dumped it was the ding in the quarter panel that had nothing to do with the inherent quality of the car. Fit and finish was top-notch, regardless of the fact that it was made in Mexico.

I guess I got what I paid for, eh? Blanket statements about "domestic" cars aren't always accurate, nor are blanket statements about Hondas.

 

[sweptback]

I drive an American car (and I've never owned anything but), however one thing strikes me as funny.

Amercian car companies go to great lengths to promote the "buy American" aspect and patriotic bull####, yet make almost every part in Canada and Mexico and put two rivets into it in final assembly in America and call it American made. Then they say that they can't compete with the Japanese because they use American labor and have to pay more for it.

The Japanese car companies make their cars in the US, using US labor, and do it cheaper. Plus, they make a better product.

I think my next car's going to be Japanese.