what I would like to know is why all the car magazines show us cars from Europe, Asia and Australia with features and performance that we want and that we would buy but will never make it here; why can’t we have a truly “world” car? why do cars have to be detuned or supersized before they reach our shores? like henry said, you can have any color car as long as it’s black. the manufacturers decide what we get not the customer, hence the huge aftermarket
Thats a very good point, I myself am not and almost 100% never going to be in the market for a new car. I would have to say that I want a new car made that by the time it gets to me as a used car it is not a rolling money pit.
I would be satisfied driving my 2004 F-150 for the next 20 years (which is probably on the high side of how much driving time I have left). I question if enviromnental regs. are going to provent me from driving my pickup that long. I know the truck can be kept operational that long but as we see with the 'clunkers" plan this will not be encouraged perhaps prohibited.
You can’t make one product (of any kind) for all of the different markets and cultures in the world.
When companies go global, they sometimes make the mistake of thinking one size fits all. For example, in many African cultures, people can’t read, so they put pictures of the product on the package. So when Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, the local people thought it was made of babies, and obviously, it didn’t sell in those markets with that packaging. That mistake cost Gerber a lot of money. What we have learned form this is that as companies expand into new cultures, they can’t sell the same products packaged the same way. You wouldn’t want to try to sell Beef to Hindus. Likewise, demand for cars is affected by local cultures. That is why there will never be a “world car.”
Even GM and Ford make cars for the UK market that they don’t sell here in the U.S.
Nothing is keeping you from getting an SUV. Currently we have a wide selection of vehicles to choose from (that may effectively change in few years though), different people chose different vehicles. You could’ve chosen to get a large SUV if you wanted to, but you got the minivan instead. Other people chose to get SUVs.
I don’t see the problem here. Nor do I see the validity of your argument since getting a minivan was your decision in the first place.
One issue about owning a environmentally responsible car for commuting to work, and a second vehicle for recreational us such as towing a boat/camper, and hauling stuff. Is the auto insurance companies make it not cost effective by charging the same high rate for both vehicle as if you can drive both vehicle at the same time. If insurance companies charged by driver, or heavily discounted a second fuel efficient car to make it cost effective, then perhaps there would be more environmentally responsible people.
IMHO the degree of one’s enviromental responisbility should be a personal choice, not one forced on you by government or on any other party.
FoDaddy, when we leave environmental responsibility as a matter of personal choice, cancer rates and childhood asthma rates go up. These have societal costs too. Some studies have shown that it is cheaper to prevent these kind of problems than it is to deal with them after the pollution becomes a problem
Americar, my motorcycle insurance is about $180/year for both bikes. Wouldn’t it be nice if insurance companies would treat an additional fuel efficient commuter car the same way? I think they refuse to do this because cars are capable of creating a lot more damage if they hit something (increasing liability costs), and because if a tree falls on your car, or it gets hit while parked on the street, it costs a lot more to replace or fix. If you could fix and replace a small car as cheaply as you can a motorcycle, prices for insuring such a car would be a lot cheaper.
I believe that as well to a point. But you cant go dumping your used oil on the ground.
If insurance companies charged by driver, or heavily discounted a second fuel efficient car to make it cost effective, then perhaps there would be more environmentally responsible people.
I hear you. Back when I was single and owned 6 cars, 2 bikes and two boats, I often wondered the same thing. But it came to me- you can’t insure only the driver because a driver can get into many different vehicles, each with it’s own liabilities and costs to repair. What if I normally drive a Chevette and get into my buddy’s Z06 and crash it? It wouldn’t be fair to charge everyone for the worst possible scenario. So instead, they insure each car. And this also covers the instance where you lend your car to your now ex-friend because he trashed your pristine Z06 
I get a 25% discount on low mileage cars and 10% discount for multiple cars so they are discounted at least somewhat.
Also my insurance takes each car into account based on; engine power, cost to repair, current value, mileage driven etc. My '03 Toyota Camry costs more to insure than my '04 Chevrolet Trailblazer, mainly due to the cost of repair parts. A smaller, cheaper car should be less expensive to insure than your tow/utility vehicle. Unless of course, you commute 100 miles into the inner city with it. That could offset any savings…
My Ford Contour is proof of how this doesn’t work. The Mondeo was Eurpoean Ford, and brought to the US as the Contour. However, the lower gas prices, less congested living style, etc. made US buyers less inclined to accept marginal rear seat room than Eurpean drivers (the generally low reliability didn’t help, either).
Auto execs might be dense, but not SO dense as to not appreciate the advantages of amortizing start-up costs over an entire world vs. one nation. They’d be doing this right now if it worked…
Be glad to own anyone of these-Kevin
Uncle Sam,Whitey-guys we are gonna get averaged-Kevin
“I remeber thinking about “single-point failures” when they introduced anti-theft “chip keys””
You were very lonely. Hardly anyone thought about that aspect of the security system. I still don’t, although I only have one car with that system on it. I’m not mocking you, but very few people, even engineers, would suspect an electronic system of being unreliable.
The only true answer to the question is Free Enterprise.
Ford also “dumbed down” The Contour/Mystique for the American market. U.S. spec cars had inferior brakes and a much softer suspension conpared to the Euro-spec Mondeo
I agree wholeheartedly. Free Enterprise has worked so well, especially with the banks selling credit default swaps, Bernard Madoff, Enron, Tyco, Adelphia, etc. that I don’t see any reason to regulate businesses. Just look at how well unregulated markets (like the illegal drug trade and the black market), serve their customers. If only GM, Chrysler, and Ford could be as unregulated as the neighborhood cocaine dealers, then everything would be perfect.
“Just look at how well unregulated markets (like the illegal drug trade and the black market), serve their customers.”
Actually they are regulated markets, in a way. Just having to stay underground puts a a lot of constraints on how they can operate. Also, the businesses are so lucrative that if one sell goes out of business, several will jump in to take that market share. It’s not like building cars.
And most of the “legitimate” businesses you mentioned were regulated, and regulated in a way that could have prevented the problems. If only the regulators had been diligent enough (or allowed to be diligent enough) to stop the problems.
In a way, you are right. I always thought market regulations were rules you had to follow in order to operate legally. Therefore, since the drug trade can’t operate legally, I thought of the illegality as a market condition, not a market regulation. If we legalized drugs, we would have to regulate them like we do alcohol and tobacco. Until that happens, there are no specific regulations regarding a minimum age for customers or purity of the products. In any case, you have a good point.
Even considering the risks of being caught and prosecuted, I challenge you to name an American industry that is less regulated than the drug trade and other illegal activities.
Either way, I agree with you that market regulations mean nothing when they are not enforced.
It just occurred to me that I didn’t answer your question “why all the car magazines show us cars from Europe, Asia and Australia with features and performance that we want and that we would buy but will never make it here?”
The answer is that it makes interesting reading, even if we can’t get those cars here. If you don’t like reading about cars you can’t have, that is fine. Some of us enjoy reading about them even if we can’t have them.
oldsfan; US oil production peaked in 1970, and the country has been increasingly dependent on imported oil, much of it from inscure sources. In addition, the US has a horrendous balance of payments problem; it imports $600 BILLION more per year than it exports.
Putting these two together, and you will soon conclude that the question really is “WHAT KIND OF CAR CAN AMERICANS AFFORD???”
Like me, you probably grew up with big thirsty cars (see the post on what cars have you owned?)
I just retured from a trip to India and saw many small, well designed cars (bigger than a Tata Nano) made locally under license or imported. If you showed any Indian a cataloque of vehicles, he would of course pick a big car, even though this is totally out of the question in view of the congestion and very low local oil production. The Indian government, through taxation and gas price control, sets the size limits of what the country can affford.
The US government will be doing the same thing in the future. And the type of car has already been described by many posters; efficient, compact cars with frugal engines. Big cars will not disappear, however, but will be increasingly more expensive to buy and own. To meet the new CAFE regs, the manufacturers will also have to LIMIT their production.
Oldsfan, you and I are the last of a generation that demanded and got big, inefficient cars. Did you know that a Hyundai Elantra has more rear seat legroom than a 2 door Cadillac Eldorado used to have?
I’m off to a 5 week trip to England and Scotland, and I plan to rent a…compact, efficient and easy to park car.