Comments on: Honda, Toyota, Fail More in December than Two of Three “Failed” US Carmakers

By: Gerald

Gerald — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:50:35 +0000

People have been realizing Ford is different from GM, and Chrysler for some time. That is why they don’t need a loan.

As for GM and Ford doing better than Toyota or Honda for December 2008, you should realize that that comparison for GM and Ford is against some not very good sales numbers for 2007, while Toyota and Honda had pretty good sales numbers in 2007.

The worry now is that for the future, the car makers are expecting the total sales in the US to be at lower levels. This means further contraction of the total Automobile industry. Maybe 2 to 4 million units as I recall. That is very bad.

Subaru is a niche market for people with specialized needs.

Jeep must survive!! It is as American as Harley.

By: randiego

randiego — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:26:52 +0000

Damn. What kind of driving you doing? mr. ew’s 2000 Passat 1.8 Turbo gets 30 MPG on his commute to work, which is half city driving.

Yeah, good question, but the missus’ new Versa only gets 27-28, driving the same roads. There’s lots of hills here? My driving style is more Parnelli Jones than Grandma Moses, but I’ve always thought that 23 is low… 230 miles on 10 gallons, over and over.

By: emptywheel

emptywheel — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:40:24 +0000

Sales are down this year in Japan, too.

So yeah, hurting all over.

By: PJEvans

PJEvans — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:05:38 +0000

I see that Toyota is going to do an 11-day shutdown of its factory (or factories) in Japan. Guess they’re hurting all over.

It’s hard to buy cars when the lenders won’t lend.

By: PJEvans

PJEvans — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:04:14 +0000

Beats blackouts, though.

By: JimWhite

JimWhite — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:58:38 +0000

Hmmm. I just got back from a meeting only to find the Longhorns are struggling with Ohio State, down 6-3 at the half. The real schools (that would be Florida and USC) put OSU away handily in the past two bowl games. Why is the Big 12 South so weak in the big bowl games? Over-rated much? Pretty weak pass by McCoy at the end of the half.

By: freepatriot

freepatriot — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:37:31 +0000

but not secular rifts ???

what’s up with that ???

By: bmaz

bmaz — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:14:06 +0000

She is able to traverse temporal rifts.

By: CasualObserver

CasualObserver — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:11:10 +0000

EW,

Are you sure your focus is short enough? A month is an awfully long time-horizon from which to judge success or failure of huge corporations. How about a week by week breakdown. Or better yet, how about a day by day?

By: runfastandwin

runfastandwin — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:02:50 +0000

C’mon you guys, you have to enjoy the losses as much as the wins, or you will be eternally unhappy if you are a sports fan. I mean each year there’s only one team that doesn’t eventually lose right? I live in LA, and the NFL has seen fit to deny us a team, so we don’t even get to enjoy the losses, we get to enjoy nothing. Even worse, most of the time we get east coast teams on TV.