Quote:
Originally Posted by osv_alero
I disagree. As toyota has been introducing new compact cars, their gas mileage ratings have been going down. Check out scion as a perfect example. toyota will need to revamp their product line if they want to be class leading with the mpg area.
Besides the prius, there is no toyota that is class leading in the gas mileage area.
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Yes, but its still
far better than what GM is shoveling in the small car arena.
Toyota entered the truck market because it had plenty of money to work with, and predicted a return on investment. Had the cheap gas held out a few more years, they would have made off handsomely and furthered their dominance. They dropped small car gas mileage slightly to augment performance and further attack what American cars historically delivered. Now, they simply revise a few things and its back to class leading mileage. It'll take about one model year.
GM has so far avoided a class leading small car not because they can't engineer it - but because they couldn't afford to. It takes events like this (expensive gas) to break the union and allow small cars to be built profitably.
The most unaffected carmaker is probably Honda. They never entered the market for vehicles that use a lot of gas. However, they probably could have made good money in that segment over the last 10 years. Thats what people forget, maybe thats a reason Honda is still relatively small. They stayed focused on a somewhat narrow range, and just happened to pick the right area to focus - but they have not been as successful as they could have. Some of you will cite BMW as a good example of how staying small and focused is a benefit, except thats assuming they'd succeed at building basic transportation for cheap prices. I bet they'd fail miserably in that arena. Just look at how poorly MB understood it when it tried to handle Chrysler. They just about destroyed it - and might have.
My point, none of this is as simple as the media would have us all believe. Honda smart, GM stupid, Toyota surprised. Excellent soundbites - but counterproductive to actually understanding what has happened.