Big lineup of small cars (foreign makers "luck out" on timing/gas prices)

U.S. invasion just in time to help beat gas-price blues

http://www.cleveland.com/business/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/business/112859151481470.xml&coll=2

Thursday, October 06, 2005

...Automakers including Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, Volkswagen and Kia are introducing new small cars, including some with sophisticated safety equipment not previously found on such affordable vehicles...

While these models will have thrifty, four-cylinder engines, their ARRIVAL ISN'T A RESPONSE TO GAS PRICES exceeding $3 a gallon. Most of them were designed for use overseas and it takes time to prepare them for the U.S. market, so such DECISIONS WERE MADE SEVERAL YEARS AGO.

The automakers readying their small cars for the United States
JUST LUCKED OUT and hit a sweet spot on timing because of the gas prices, Schuster said.

"We couldn't decide three months ago," said John Weiner, director of sedan product planning for Nissan, which will introduce its 2007 Versa next May. With a price starting around $12,000, Versa will be smaller and less expensive than the Sentra, previously the automaker's smallest model...

a long-in-the-tooth Echo knockoff!

http://www.chevrolet.com/aveo/

Ford's got... umm... well, they're selling last year's Focus this year, even though the rest of the world got this year's Focus.

Good god.

have lost $1.4 bil in first half of '05 because...their huge gas-guzzlers aren't selling?

GM to Unload Fuji Stake at a Loss

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/05/AR2005100502082.html

General Motors Corp., squeezed by losses, said it plans to sell its 20 percent stake in Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., the Japanese manufacturer that builds Subarus in the United States and Japan.

Based on the current value of Fuji shares, the sale could bring GM as much as $740 million. That's about half of the $1.4 billion GM originally paid for its Fuji stake in 2000...

Financial pressure on GM continues to build. The automaker lost $1.4 billion in the first half of the year. Sales of large, profitable sport-utility vehicles have fallen substantially, cutting into a major source of company earnings. Auto-parts supplier Delphi Corp., which GM spun off six years ago, says it will go bankrupt if GM doesn't provide a bailout. To get money, GM has turned to the United Auto Workers union, asking the factory workers to pay a larger percentage of their health care costs...

Other GM strategies also have faltered lately. GM, the No. 1 U.S. automaker, has poured resources into developing and marketing SUVs, such as the Hummer, while rival Toyota bet on gas-electric hybrids. In February, GM agreed to pay Fiat SpA $2 billion to resolve a contract dispute and divest a 10 percent stake in the Italian automaker.

They sound pretty desperate. Yikes. This isn't good.

deja vu all over again.

Not thinkin', just dumb luck.

Detroit learned nothing from the 70s.

Hell, most of the foreign car companies actually have a PLAN!

Who could ever have imagined that oil would get more expensive? JUST ANYBODY WHO CAN FUCKING READ!

GM will go into the tank, and us taxpaying suckers will bail it out. I'm glad the Bush years have reamed me out to a size 19 asshole. I'll barely feel the screwings coming up in the next couple of years.

in his cabinet and thought for two seconds. They realized that these assholes would fuck everything up and their oil and war buddies would be making a mint - so now is there turn to capitalize on the high gas prices.

Bully for them and fuck GM and Ford for not being (more?) forward thinking.

As others have pointed out, fuel will continue to get more expensive. Even beyond gas costs, perhaps some SUV drivers have realized they don't really need a lumbering behemoth. Strangely, some people are interested in safety features, too.

Too bad US Automakers screwed up so badly. The executives still have their golden parachutes. But the workers don't.

which basically further promote american gas guzzlers

I told Mrs. ZBDent - "We can't count on the gas prices staying this low."

Went with the Escort wagon - gas mileage . . . good decision.

Boy, I'd be pissed now if I decided on an SUV . . . it would be hard to unload that sucker (pun intended) now . . .

"Give the pig a drink!"

these days? Lucking out?

No wonder they are going bankrupt.

But luck = "rugged individualism", "vision" and "the same spirit that made this country great" if it's Detroit making money hand over fist on Mesozoic Shitwagons.

Whatever. :eyes: