One of the big problems with the "big three" has for years been that they have TOO many dealers. As the market share has shrunk, these dealers have been cutting each other's throats to sell the same brand to the same customer - pressuring the manufacturer to offer incentives and cutting back on service quality or ripping off those who need service. Ror an example of how many dealers there are now - there are five DC dealers within a five mile radius in Calgary. There need only be one.
Posted at 2007-01-27 10:38:49 [PermaLink]Statistics show that even profitable mass market car companies (here I mean to exclude companies like Ferrari etc) make surprisingly little, per vehicle. One stands out: Porsche, which makes over $20K average profit per vehicle sold. As I recall, BMW was second at between $2K and $3K per vehicle. Others came in significantly lower. So competition is tough, and if you stumble -- and clearly some companies have been stumbling for years -- then with costs so high you can rather quickly find yourself in a deep hole.
Posted at 2007-01-28 01:30:17 [PermaLink]eh: Huge Porsche earning per car debunked here (and by Porsche):
[External Link]
It's mainly money from VW, and there are problems with the Cayenne (no kidding!):
[External Link]
' Net income beat the 178 million-euro median estimate of six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News, a figure that didn't include earnings from the Volkswagen holding. Sales missed the 3.2 billion-euro median estimate. Pretax profit increased to 1.45 billion euros from 277.8 million euros, according to provisional figures for the fiscal first half.
``In light of the sharp decline in Cayenne sales, it is especially remarkable that they managed to increase operating profit this much,'' said Georg Stuerzer, an analyst at HVB Group in Munich. ``The numbers are super, even if you take out the one- time effects.''
First-half deliveries of Porsche cars and SUVs fell 5.9 percent to 39,750 units, the carmaker said. Cayenne sales fell by more than a third to 10,225 vehicles, while 911-model sales gained 16 percent to 17,340 cars. Deliveries of the Boxster and Cayman cars rose 22 percent to 12,170 vehicles.'
Mark
Ottawa
"Its Premier Automotive Group, which includes the Jaguar brand, also lost money."
I believe that of the PAG only Jaguar is losing money, and they are doing it big time. Aston Martin actually turned a profit and now Ford wants to sell it.
OTH - the Fusion shows Ford can do it if they really want to. The first year Consumer Reports reliability rating for the Fusion looks like a Honda or Toyota.
Debunked? Not really:
[External Link]
Thanks for the link.