S&P foresees another tough year ahead for Nissan, and as a result Nissan’s credit rating has been cut to “junk” status:
I think there are hard times ahead for all brands . The vehicles that might appeal most of them are too ecpensive or just not versital enough for a family . I might not be correct but the amount of recalls seems at an all time high . Some of which are for things that should not be . For instant - Honda has problems with seat belt latches - how hard is it to make a seat belt latch .
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Ford and Gm seem to be having problems selling their inventory too without substantial price cuts. Then throw in the banking crisis that might curtail loans and yeah rough year ahead. Jim Cramer will say it’s a great opportunity to buy, or is it bye for him?
For $150 cost, it’s easy to make one that’s reliable. Try making one for $10 and you’ll see where the difficulty comes into play. Just an example but you get my point hopefully. And to head off the inevitable from the gallery- yes, even safety related items are subject to cost cutting…
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Same as it ever was, for GM at least.
The bank problems are narrow, mostly related to increasing interest rates. In the case of Silicon Valley Bank and I think Signature Bank, they bought long term treasuries to lock in the higher interest rates. Unfortunately as interest rates increased the value of the bonds they held decreased to make the rate they pay higher if the bonds were sold. This meant that the principal backing the bank’s assets decreased below the minimum amount allowed. They had to sell those treasuries to get their reserves back up to the minimum. Some big depositors got wind of it and caused a run on the banks. That’s unusual and limited to the two banks so far and probably not to all banks because their managers are not as dumb as those from SVB and Signature. Note that the chairman of the Federal Reserve had discussed raising interest rates many times before they even started rising them. There are no excuses for missing that cue.
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Yeah I had the money and banking class. The lack of actual bankers on the boards and management is astounding. How deep it goes is unknown but the fact is that overall bank have billions too little to cover their liquid deposits. You can cover a bank run on a few but not all of them.
I’d be surprised if any bank could cover all of their depositors, if all demanded a cash pay out. Most of the money has been loaned out already.
As far as Nissan, I’ve always had a soft-spot for that company ever since their 240Z. So I’m hoping all goes well. The local Nissan dealership has always been very friendly to me when I’m walking past on a walk-a-bout, or occasionally I’ll buy non-car-specific car parts there, light bulbs and such, they are happy to help out, even though I don’t own a Nissan.
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You can understand the panic if you go to the bank and the doors are closed, or try to transfer money from saving to checking to meet payroll and get the 404 message. If the panic spreads, there is not enough liquidity to cover in the system. Of course it is foolish to have more than $250k at any one bank which is the limit guaranteed by fdic. I don’t have to worry but I still have five accounts in three different banks. Even more foolish to not have a risk manager on staff or any professional bankers but instead social engineers. But all the other banks large and small will pay for it.
The depositors at SVB were mostly companies. The main issue that made the regulators release insurance funds was that a lot of payrolls were tied up in the banks. If the businesses couldn’t make payroll then they might go out of business. Any business with a payroll if less than $250,000 is mighty small, especially when pay is every other week or twice per month. $250,000 is plenty for my wife and I.
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I actually do like Nissan. Bought a used Rogue sport for my daughter that was going out of state for school and it is a nice car. Has the rear traffic alert and blind spot monitoring. The CVT is not as gutless as the newer gens. Pretty roomy inside. Comfortable seats and driving position. Did the whole Ikea runs with it. It does have Renault badges on it along with Nissan, but I did have a Le Car at some point.
Not just companies…but many companies that were depositors were into investing in high-risk startups. One non investor company was Roku.
It is going to get ugly between the govt trying to ram down the EV’s down everyones throat and the ICE devotees . There is little infrastructure to even try to force everyone EV . unless they figure out the refilling EV in 10 minutes or less there is going to be major pushback from the main car buyers . Our whole economy is based on everyones ability to move around at will for vacation , travel etc… They would have you sit at home in house until eternity. They will also start pushing you on 4 wheelers , boats and any other recreational things that run on gas. It is going to get ugly in the next 20 years . EV is not the answer . They should be pressing hard on hydrogen fuel cells .
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Gee I dont know why when everything is $40000 now for a simple vehicle.
There’s a lot of truth to that unfortunately.
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EV is the answer, not the whole answer but part of the answer. I haven’t seen the exact numbers lately but a majority of households have more than one vehicle. In some cases the vehicles outnumber the people. EVs can be a part of that mix.
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The question is the answer to what? We have oil and gas a plenty. It is not an environmental catastrophy to use it. What the zealots want will never happen in 50 years. First hit the papers about 1930 and has become a religion.
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I’m probably more of an environmental zealot than my esteemed colleague @Bing, but it is definitely possible to go overboard imho. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, we got notice yesterday that natural gas water heaters will be banned in just a few years. This doesn’t apply to just new construction, won’t be able to replace an existing gas water heater either, when water heater breaks, will be required to change to electric. Not sure if any of the political bullies have calculated how much it would cost a homeowner to update the electric service and service panel to handle an electric water heater. The radio news folk interviewed someone on the street about this idea yesterday, the response: "Due to the recent wind storm we’ve been without electric power for 3 days now, but at least we’ve had hot water. Now they won’t let us have hot water either. Seems like a very bad idea. "
Another story in the same vein, somebody decided to walk out on the Bay Bridge, thinking about jumping off. Police spent 6 hours to prevent him from jumping. So he didn’t jump, life saved. Seems like a good thing. Problem was, the incident caused a major traffic jam on the bridge, resulting in an accident that killed two motorists. It’s possible to be overly kind.
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That will be the least of your worries. They calculated the assessment per family for the initial reparations payout at $600,00. So start tracing ancestors. Could be a gold mine. Minnesota too buy about one vote.
Zealots are a problem, especially when they become politicians. But for many multi-vehicle households and even an occasional single vehicle household, an EV in the mix makes the most economical sense. My loyalties are not to ICE or EV, it’s to my hip pocket.
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We have at least 2 decades before the infrastructure needs to be in place with the current mandate. Personally I think that date will be pushed back. After 9/11 it was mandated that all states will have a Real ID drivers license in place by 2005. That mandate has been pushed back and pushed back. The current Mandate is May 7th, 2025. That’s 20 years of push backs. There’s a lot that can happen between now and then.
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