Posted by Keagan Patrick on November 19, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Once fuel had reach $4.05 a gallon nationally, we watched as truck sales plummeted and small/compact car sales got a little boost. People in the industry began to say that compact cars were going to appeal to more Americans and make up a larger percentage of vehicles sold here in the United States. The trick is said to be selling these small/compact cars for a profit. Up until recently the major domestic automakers had been able to make up to $12,600 profit on Large Luxury SUVs, but selling a small/compact car only raked in about $2,400 bucks. Once you subtract anywhere from $3,000 to $5,000 for fixed costs you could actually end up with a negative number. Which means that a solid business case to produce small/compact cars here in the U.S. is not always an easy case to make; other than to help offset CAFE. Although, Mazda seems to be able to make a business case for them, and they sell tons of them!
Of course now there is talk of ‘premium small cars’ becoming popular with Generation Y and possibly becoming a more lucrative business venture. With fuel prices dropping again to around $2 a gallon only time will tell what the future of the small/compact car will be here in the United States. Still, injecting premium content into a small car may go a long way in appealing to an increasing number of people who don’t think small size should equal skimpy content.
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Posted by George Peterson on November 17, 2006 at 11:16 am
Since we have identified the vehicles that have the longest days supply, we have been asked to show which vehicles have the shortest days supply. Which vehicles are so hot they just blow off the dealer’s lot? As with the slower moving vehicles where we arbitrarily cut off the days supply at 150 days, here we are using 50 days as the cut off point. The details are shown “below the fold”
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Posted by George Peterson on October 6, 2006 at 12:56 pm
AutoPacific and VehicleVoice had the opportunity to evaluate the all new 2007 Nissan Sentra on the roads East of San Francisco Bay. The all new Sentra competes with the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Mazda3, Ford Focus and Chevrolet Cobalt. For 2007, every major dimension has been expanded to meet American tastes.
For the Record
Global development effort between Nissan and Renault. Delayed by about a year after bombing in USA product clinics. Went back to the drawing board to get it right.
Built at Nissan’s Aguascalientes Plant in Mexico: Plant underwent a $800 million upgrade to accommodate all new Sentra and all new Versa. 350,000 units per year capacity.
On sale October 12, 2006.
Target Customer: Echo Boomers – Generation Y between the ages of 18 and 29. Sentra needs to serve many purposes – going out with friends, carrying a bike, taking road trips, buying furniture at IKEA.
Strives to be Compact Class Benchmark
No longer a compact car aimed at the lowest common denominator customer, the new Sentra strives to be the benchmark of its class when it goes on sale October 12, 2006. While the Sentra slots into the Nissan car lineup above the all new Versa (which actually is larger in some dimensions) and below the all new Altima, the Sentra has grown over its predecessor in wheelbase (+5.9-inches), overall length (+2.3-inches), overall width (+3.2-inches) and overall height (+4.0-inches). Now the “compact” Sentra nudges the Mainstream Mid-Size Car in basic dimensions.
The Sentra has substantially more passenger volume than Civic, Corolla, Mazda3 and Cobalt. Similarly, it has a large cargo volume only slightly topped by Corolla and Cobalt.
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Posted by George Peterson on September 19, 2006 at 1:10 pm
On Tuesday September 12, the Cougar Ace finally made it to the Port of Portland (Oregon) after having rolled 60-degrees in the Pacific on July 23 while shifting ballast. Operator error, you see.
The Cougar Ace, owned by Japan’s Mitsui OSK and flying the Singapore flag, is a gargantuan car carrier. On its fateful voyage, it was carrying about 4,800 cars. Most of these cars were Mazda3s and Mazda CX-7s. There were a few RX-8 and MX-5 Miatas on board as well. The Mazda3 is Mazda’s hottest model at the moment and the newly-introduced CX-7 SUV is just beginning to catch on.
While the ship did not sink, and the vehicles were lashed to the deck, the 60-degree list made a shake-and-bake bag out of the fourteen decks on which the cars were strapped.
Mazda says that the cars will be evaluated for damage. Our guess is that the condition of vehicles in transit will range from totalled to being saleable units. The cars won’t be sold as new, but will be repaired if possible and carry full new car warranties.
Warning from Your Friends at VehicleVoice
The caution here is, be sure where your new Mazda3 or CX-7 has come from and verify if it was on the Cougar Ace or not.
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