The Detroit auto execs have been getting pillaged for not making the kind of vehicles that consumers want to buy.
That accusation doesn’t seem to to ring true when driving down an interstate highway or walking through shopping mall parking lots. I see plenty of SUVs, min-vans, and pick-ups with American brand names. Some look pretty new to a casual observer. Seems like folks are buying them.
In fact, for the past several years, about half of the best selling vehicle models are U.S. brands. The SUVs have fallen out of the top 10, but pick-ups still top the list and at least one American car (Impala) makes the list. Detroit may not have the car of the future, but it seems to have had some cars for the recent past.
Where are hybrids are the list? Nowhere.
CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo raised that point with Congressman Barney Frank:
Does Congress realize how few hybrids have been sold, as it pushes, Detroit to make them, and will Congress give consumers greater incentives to buy these cars?
Frank’s reply was odd — even by Barney Frank standards:
“That’s a very fair point. And one of the things I’ve been saying is that some of my colleagues and the commentators who have been blaming the auto companies forget to blame somebody else—the consumers. In the recorded history of America, no one was ever forced at gunpoint to buy a Hummer. But we do believe that the combination of genuine concern about global warming and energy efficiency means people are now ready to buy these cars.”
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_51/b4113000737793.htm
Translation: “If the dogs don’t eat the dog food, blame the dog.” Not exactly the “marketing concept” at work.
Ken’s take: It looks like Detroit makes vehicles that many American consumers like, but that Washington doesn’t like . The congressional meddlers want Detroit to make cars that are guaranteed to lose money (lots of it). If only the dogs would eat the right food.
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