Here is a headline you thought you'd never see!
 

Toyota, Honda Lead Declines in Dec. Auto Sales- AP
Toyota and Honda's U.S. sales fell more than their U.S. competitors' in December, with Toyota's 37 percent decline and Honda's 35 percent drop showing the Japanese company's popular fuel-efficient models were little help as consumers steered clear of showrooms due to the dismal economy. Ford Motor Co.'s U.S. sales fell 32 percent in December, while General Motors Corp.'s dropped 31 percent. Chrysler LLC and other automakers were to report their U.S. sales for December and 2008 later Monday.


:confused:

This can't be. The liberal media said it was conservatives trying to break US unions. And DubbaYew was at fault. :rolleyes:

That's amazing, maybe car manufacturers will start lowering the prices of their cars even just a tad, that'd be nice.

Not surprised. When you build a car that lasts for years they don't need to be replaced as often. This is what killed Chrysler back in the early 70's. When money is tight and you are driving a Honda, you don't need to replace it. My 93 Accord with 205 on the clock is still a very strong car, and can still hold up to my 19 year old Army daughter. Her other car is a hummer.

Huh? If you factor in how many vehicles each car makers are selling, Japanese car makers still sell more cars than any domestic car company.

You need to understand that this makes a better media headline - to say Toyota have higher decline in sales rather than saying Toyota used to sell 10 million cars now sell 7mil, and Ford used to sell 5mil but now they sell 4 million.

Media Stating the Obvious
 

Remember those are just percentages, anyone can make numbers sound good or bad. The root of the story is all automakers sales are down. Why? Well when working class people are out of work (and their the ones that buy the majority of cars) and the economy is suffering then no one will be willing to make the investment.

Give people a job and I'll bet they'll start buying cars.

Owned Hondas, Toyotas, and now a Porsche, I like all of them. BTW we're long HMC. And I'll look to add around $20.00.

Say what???

Chrysler's December sales fell 59%, much more than the Japanese competitors.
Not surprised, part of a failing economy is less sales of luxuries (more people turn to public transportation). The good thing is, however, that the economy always corrects itself, so a failing economy should lead to a healthy one is a few years.

Stay tuned and hold tight people.

PS. Speaking of Chrysler, my dad had to rent one because we are doing a clutch change and 90k service on my Boxster, so we are now driving around in a Chrysler Sebring from 2007. I must say, I can see why Toyota and Honda have been making more sales, because this brand new Chrysler felt plasticity, cheap, and worst of all it had vague throttle and steering and we took a trip with it to the mountains (not fun with vague controls).

That is finance speak for he likes Honda's stock at $20 buy price.

I agree and doing same.

:)

Chrysler was essentially still born when it was jettisoned from Mercedes, who in my opinion, stripped it of everything that gave it a chance to survive in its niche.

I have studied the Mercedes acquisition and dumping of Chrysler and it is IMHO one of the worst done mergers in the history of GLOBAL business. Am I overstating?

There are some very fine US built cars out there. I have driven the new Malibu and greatly prefer it to the Accord and Camry. Ditto the Aura.

These generalizations about the US car industry are being changed all the time. It is a very dynamic marketplace for cars right now and the world over-capacity of autos is staggering (likely 50% more than reasonable demand if all the numbers are tallied.

Several years ago I rented a Sebring and I thought the same thing. Well, I described it as a POS, except that it was convertible top, but very plastic, cheap and vague is spot on.

[QUOTE=Brucelee]Chrysler was essentially still born when it was jettisoned from Mercedes, who in my opinion, stripped it of everything that gave it a chance to survive in its niche.

I have studied the Mercedes acquisition and dumping of Chrysler and it is IMHO one of the worst done mergers in the history of GLOBAL business. Am I overstating? /QUOTE]

Merger? More like corporate rape!

I remember the joke at the time:

Q. How do you pronounce Daimler-Chrysler?

A. Daimler. Chrysler is silent.

I agree, Mercedes pretty much destroyed Chrysler's business. Now Chrysler is probably the worst off within the big three in America (GM has several European brands to keep their business up).

I heard the new Malibu is quite good, and a lot quieter than the Camry. I told my dad to get the Toyota though because personally I don't trust Chevy in terms of reliability, and personally I think the new Malibu is pretty ugly, whereas I really like the new design direction Toyota/Lexus has taken.

There are a few stars in the American car market, the new ZR1 Corvette, the Saturn Sky/Pontiac Solstice and the upcoming Camaro to name a few.