There is a demand for cars, often at lower prices. Abandonment was an idiotic move to please Wall Street, which is now pursuing the Big Three American carmakers.
From Wolf Richter to WOLF STREET.
To satisfy Wall Street and focus on the most profitable trucks, SUVs and crossovers, GM, Ford and the FCA killed almost all of their sedan models. GM stopped accepting orders for Malibu in February. They kept their muscle cars, and the Cadillac kept two models. But the whole main range of sedans is disappearing.
At Ford, for example, outside the Mustang, every car model was discontinued, from the initial Ford Fiesta, which had an initial MSRP of $ 14,200 in 2019, last year of production, to the Ford Fusion Hybrid, a large well-designed car that gets around 40 mpg, which would be extremely necessary at today’s gasoline prices.
It was a move designed by some corporate idiot, perhaps with the support of some generously paid recent MBA graduates at a well-known consulting firm, to please Wall Street analysts infected in the short term.
And Toyota laughs last. The former No. 3 in new car sales in the United States, then No. 2 after Ford withdrew from sedans, is now No. 1.
Toyota was №1 for the first time on a quarterly basis in the second quarter of 2021, largely because it still had access to chips while others didn’t, and that blew everyone away.
But in the first quarter of 2022, Toyota was again №1. This time he also suffers from a shortage of chips and his sales have also decreased compared to a year ago. But he sold many of those hateful sedans, including lower-priced sedans that cost much less than SUVs and pickups that others gave up.
And Toyota is now rubbing it in public.
“Much of the growth in our market share is really in the automotive business,” Bob Carter, executive vice president of sales for Toyota Motor North America, told reporters at a briefing on Wednesday.
“Cars are still an important part of the market,” he said.
“Unlike other brands that have left the sedan market, we choose to double,” he said.
Honda and other foreign carmakers still sell a lot of sedans – many of them lower-priced cars that get high gas mileage. Tesla makes the Model 3, its model with the lowest price. GM, Ford and the FCA have just withdrawn from the market to please some analysts from Wall Street banks, which will probably remain one of the stupidest decisions in the history of cars.
Toyota’s Q1 sales fell 14.7 percent from a year earlier to 515,592 vehicles, but surpassed GM’s (512,846) and Ford’s (432,132).
Toyota sales include 142,523 vehicles, Toyota and Lexus combined, with 47,501 Corolla in the lower class and 78,151 Camry in the higher class. Car sales fell 25% from a year earlier, as Toyota could not produce enough of them due to a shortage of chips, and also gave priority to high-profit trucks and SUVs, whose sales also fell as dealers ran out. inventory, but there is enough demand for cars.
GM, Ford and FCA have just handed over the business to Toyota, Honda, Tesla and other carmakers that still make sedans. And with the gas prices where they are now – $ 6.15 a gallon ordinary at my local gas station – these cars are certainly useful. GM, Ford and the FCA may never be able to fully recover from this monumental blunder.
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