Car industry recovery to take more than a decade-author

[Coventina]

Source: Reuters

HONG KONG, April 7 (Reuters) - Global car and truck sales
will take more than a decade to recover to their 2007 peak as
the sector faces a recession that's likely to be deeper than in
the 1970s and '80s, auto industry author Graeme Maxton said on
Tuesday.

However, car sales are likely to remain strong in China --
which in January surpassed the United States to become the
world's largest auto market -- and bounce back quickly in India,
helped by the introduction of very low cost cars, Hong
Kong-based Maxton said.

"Demand for smaller, cheaper cars should be more robust in
the mature markets, too," Maxton said in a press statement.
"Sales of buses and trucks will also return to more normal
levels sooner, as businesses begin to reinvest. That may not
offer much comfort to most car makers in Europe, Japan and
America over the next decade, however."

(snip)

Since Western consumers have borrowed too much and are
seeing the value of their homes evaporate, Maxton said many will
need to focus on rebuilding their savings before buying a new
car, even when the economy recovers.

Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/motoringAutoNews/idUKHKG18159820090407

[Jackpine Radical]

1. And when the industry comes back, it had best come back with green cars.

If our industry behaves as stupidly as it has done in recent decades, it doesn't have a prayer.

[elocs]

2. We have met the stupid and they are us. Can't entirely blame the auto industry.

Yes, we are the ones who wanted the big cars and trucks so Detroit just obliged. That's what businesses do--provide customers with the desired goods and services. We called the tune and Detroit played it and now they are suffering the consequences of having given us what we wanted. Now that gas is relatively cheap now, people can enjoy driving their gas-guzzlers again. It's just that Detroit is unable to sell many new gas guzzlers anymore.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Nevertheless, the Japanese have had no problem selling small, relatively

fuel-efficient cars in the American market. Detroit spent a lot of ad money pushing their big iron on the public and resisting all efforts to increase fuel efficiency. The public are sheep--a well-documented fact in social science--and the Big Three kept herding the public and themselves toward the cliff.