April 16, 2004
The State of Autosales...
Over on Motoringfile, there was a debate going on about how the BMW 1 Series would do in the US market, and how popular (or unpopular) small hatchbacks are. Buisness First Buffalo Edition just so happened to have a big state of the automotive industry section right after, and I thought that two of the articles were important to seeing why BMW does not think that it would be a good idea to bring the BMW 1 Series to market. (All of the articles from the In Depth section can be found here)
The first one is Midsize cars live on the soft side of U.S. market. Page 3 of the online edition:
(There's a section about MINIs at the bottom of the page, but it seems like something thrown into the article.)
The second article is 54.3 percent of all vehicles sold classified trucks
Also, I believe that the perception that most Americans have about small cars (hatchback or otherwise) is that they are cheap. Cheap in cost, and cheap in quality. MINIs are well priced, a lot more than a disposable car (hint: It's a Daewoo), but still very reasonable for what you get. I don't know what the price point for a BMW 1 would be in the states, nor would I even try to estimate, but even if it was in the MINI range, I really don't see too many people flocking to something that would more than likely be perceived as a Budget Luxury car. I think that MINIs might be slowly changing the perception that small cars are junk, but when you say 'hatchback', I'd say that most people think of something small and cheap. Not BMW and nice.
Erik...
The first one is Midsize cars live on the soft side of U.S. market. Page 3 of the online edition:
Small cars didn't do much better [then midsize sedans], with losers far outnumbering gainers.
(There's a section about MINIs at the bottom of the page, but it seems like something thrown into the article.)
The second article is 54.3 percent of all vehicles sold classified trucks
Like it or not America just keeps on trucking, to the point where a record 54.3 percent of all new vehicles sold in the country last year were classified as "light trucks," as opposed to passenger cars. It was the third straight year so-called trucks outscored cars. That percentage means that of the 16.6 million new vehicles sold, more than 8.8 million were classified as light trucks, as against 7.8 million cars. By comparison, in 2002 light trucks accounted for 51 percent of the 16.8 million vehicles sold, yielding 8.5 million trucks reaching market. With total vehicle sales down by about 200,000 from 2002 to 2003, the numbers mean that truck sales actually increased by about 334,000 last year, while car sales declined by a little over a half million.
...
The National Automobile Dealers Association, a source for the numbers, credits much of the increase to the growing popularity of so-called crossover vehicles -- sport utility and related vehicles built from car chassis rather than truck underpinnings. CUV sales increased by 34.7 percent last year, according to NADA.
Also, I believe that the perception that most Americans have about small cars (hatchback or otherwise) is that they are cheap. Cheap in cost, and cheap in quality. MINIs are well priced, a lot more than a disposable car (hint: It's a Daewoo), but still very reasonable for what you get. I don't know what the price point for a BMW 1 would be in the states, nor would I even try to estimate, but even if it was in the MINI range, I really don't see too many people flocking to something that would more than likely be perceived as a Budget Luxury car. I think that MINIs might be slowly changing the perception that small cars are junk, but when you say 'hatchback', I'd say that most people think of something small and cheap. Not BMW and nice.
Erik...
