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“New car shoppers, seemingly inspired by winter weather and low gas prices, are buying up trucks and SUVs – particularly smaller ones,” Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds.com senior analyst, said. “At this point, most automakers and dealers offer products in these popular segments and are able to benefit from the trend.”
US sales in January are expected to come in at a Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) of 16.7 million. This would be a 23.1 percent decrease from December but a healthy 14.4 percent increase from January 2014." (bulliondesk.com)
"General Motors' January sales rose 18%; Ford was up 15% and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' jumped 14% from a year earlier, as lower gas prices spurred sales of pickups and SUVs.
Nissan sales increased 15%, while Honda posted an 11.5% gain and Toyota was up almost 16% with a new January record for light truck sales. Volkswagen was flat; selling 10 more vehicles than a year ago." (Detroit Free Press)
U.S. Car Exports Top 2 Million
"U.S. auto exports hit a record for the third year in a row in 2014 as strong demand for U.S. made cars and sport-utility vehicles, especially in the Middle East and Asia, offset concerns about a strengthening dollar.
The trend also was fueled by foreign-owned U.S. auto plants built in the U.S. Midwest and South that are now exporting more vehicles to other markets. Car makers including Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. that opened factories here to be closer to U.S. customers are now exporting too."
GM car sales slid 7% to account for just 32% of the automaker’s January volume. Light trucks at General Motors – including a pickup range that grew its sales by 42% – jumped 36%.
The big loser? That’d be the Koreans. Hyundai and Kia combined to own 8% of the U.S. market in January 2014, a figure which fell to 7.2% in January 2015. New vehicle sales rose 14% in America last month, year-over-year. Hyundai volume rose to a record-setting January level of 82,804 sales, but the 1% gain severely trailed the industry. Kia sales were up a little more than 3%, although the brand’s car division slid 3% on falling Optima and Cadenza volume.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2015/02/12/auto-vehicle-recalls/23312869/
JP Morgan says underweight. That is polite Wall-Street-speak for the game is over and dump that loser!
P Morgan said the last six months prove the company does not have the ability to scale sales and production profitably. They have no faith that Tesla can meet its own prediction of delivering 55,000 vehicles in 2015 versus 32,000 in 2014. They are all but rolling on the ground over Tesla’s claim to ship 500,000 in 2020 and “millions” in 2025.
But the real back-breaker for shareholders is that 80% of Tesla quarterly earnings reports since 2011 showed negative cash flow. JP Morgan seems to wonder whether Tesla will eventually run out of cash. Musk can still raise money, but diluting shareholders at lower and lower prices will cause investor anger. If the stock continues to “dumpster dive,” as they say on Wall Street, Tesla could eventually be cut off from new cash.
http://www.breitbart.com/california/2015/02/13/tesla-blows-through-cash-stock-plummets-on-loss/
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Find New Roads!
Tech-Loving Drivers Are Trading in Cars as Often as iPhones (Bloomberg)
I consider myself a non-conformist by today's standards, but I see I fit in with my state, overall.
Midwest being Chevy buyers is probably as stereotypical as Subaru hittin' it outta the park in Washington State.
"The margins in the car business are remarkably thin," Visnic says.
He points out that Apple can turn a profit of a few hundred dollars on an iPhone — the same cut a car dealer is happy to make on a sedan that costs 30 times as much."
Apple Must 'Think Different' On Cars, Or Join Ranks Of Failed New Brands (NPR)
Tesla Model S Named Top Model For Second Year In A Row
The ranking, best to worst, with overall score and the percentage of the brand's models that CR tested and recommends:
•Lexus, 78, 78%
•Mazda, 75, 67%
•Toyota, 74, 68%
•Audi, 73, 56%
•Subaru, 73, 80%
•Porsche, 70, 60%
•Buick, 69, 83%
•Honda, 69, 58%.
•Kia, 68, 78%
•BMW, 66, 50%
•Acura, 65, 40%
•Volvo, 65, 67%
•Hyundai, 64, 36%
•GMC, 61, 17%
•Volkswagen, 60, 46%
•Lincoln, 59, 40%
•Infiniti, 59, 29%
•Nissan, 59, 25%
•Chevrolet, 59, 36%
•Cadillac, 58, 25%
•Mercedes-Benz, 56, 20%
•Scion, 54, 25%
•Chrysler, 54, none
•Ford, 53, 19%
•Dodge, 52, 33%
•Mini, 46, none
•Jeep, 39, none
•Fiat, 32, none
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2015/02/24/consumer-reports-brand-ranking-lexus-fiat/23910563/
And Audi in 4th I find as surprising as it is encouraging.
Also, for those who consider CR "the Bible", so much for Ford being the domestic darling.
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2015/02/lexus-takes-gold-2015-jd-power-dependability-study/#more-1008050
Steering back to the original question....does anyone understand how that happened or what it means? I think the objective reader would concur that it's a reasonable question.
In the JD Powers data, based on objective facts, the meaningful point for a blank bar would
be at 140, with Mazda and Mitsubishi, rather than at 147. This would move BMW and Infinity to
148. below the typical. The 140 mark is the median. That is the halfway divider rather than the average.
149. The obscenely high scores of Land Plower and Flat pull the average down. Statistically
the median is more meaningful.
Ford and Hyundai are really down in the number of problems. I'm not as surprised by
Hyunda considering how much junk Hyunda/Kia pushed into the American roads the
last 15 years, but Ford should be higher. A breakdown of the particular models at Ford
would be elucidating. I hear various rumblings about different things that are problematic
at their shops.
*****
*****
I would expect Kia and Hyunda's problem records to be closer to each other than they appear
to be in this report.
A personal experience about Kia's higher than Hyunda record is from my shopping for cars
the last 3 years. I was in a Kia store in the evening, having stopped in after shopping
at a plaza adjacent. The older salesman was pushing me toward the gussied up Optima
called a Cadenza. He explained how he as a salesman added value to the purchase from
their store because he was make sure the guys in the shop would actually try to fix
things his customers were finding wrong that the guys in the shop would resist
recognizing as problems and actually fixing. He said he would go into the shop and
tell them to fix the things that needed it.
I conclude now that's how a company can keep
their warranty problems lower--refuse to fix them for the customer unless the salesman
intervens.
I can believe that a salesman did have clout in service at that store because months earlier
a service writer/repair manager had come out to help me when I was looking at their
used cars/new cars. If the service assistant can sell cars, the salesmen likely can
help run the repair department...
Needless to say, I wasn't as impressed as the older salesman thought I'd be as
to how things get fixed at a Kia store.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Considering Nissan/Infinity's model lineup. They have some vehicles I really like and several I really don't. So I guess I could see where their overall score could be good despite a low model recommendation percentage.
FWIW, my '14 Ram has been good so far too at 30k miles. I've had a 3rd brake light go out (dealer replaced for free) and an LED map/dome light which occasionally flickers (dealer has on order).
While I really like the LED lighting, if they go out, you just don't go to a local auto-parts store to get a replacement. My truck has a lot of LED lights which should last a long time, but when and if they go out, it means a trip to the dealer.
The other edge of that sword is that cars last a lot longer than they used to so in theory fewer new cars are needed.
That bottom feeder Land Rover is probably lights years more reliable than the typical car of just a decade ago.
I think that after my snowblower, probably the best mechanical investment I've personally made is my '08 Cobalt. $9,900 new after rebate and GM card dollars, and before my trade, sits out all the time (and I mean all) and we've had many consecutive days of below zero, including double-digit-below-zero, and it starts every single time, on its soon-to-be-seven-year-old battery. Satellite radio is a thing I love too. Absolutely dirt-cheap to run and maintain, dirt-cheap to buy, and built (almost) locally. No bad in any of that I don't think.
The Highest Ranked Midsize Car is _____ Chevrolet Malibu !!!
Next mentions are Altima and Camry. No Optima, Sonata, Accord in sight on the site.
Midsize sporty car is Camaro
next mention Mustang
Highest Rank Large car is Buick LaCrosse
Next mention Avalon? and Taurus
http://www.jdpower.com/press-releases/2015-vehicle-dependability-study
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I'm liking that dark, dark red I'm seeing on 2015 Malibus. Good buys to be had if you don't have to mirror what this-or-that magazine says. Built in Kansas City.
Pace with grace.
'21 Dark Blue/Black Audi A7 PHEV (mine); '22 White/Beige BMW X3 (hers); '20 Estoril Blue/Oyster BMW M240xi 'Vert (Ours, read: hers in 'vert weather; mine during Nor'easters...)
Tesla must of made "average" by the skin of their teeth.
Since batteries are my biggest replacement costs, how can I complain vs the GM junk I had in the past?
Cheers!
Most people can forgive a failure or two in the first 100,000 miles, but complete failure of just about every part?
Remember, too, that even then Hondas were built in Ohio.
Besides, your story IS anecdotal so hardly a quantitative proof of anything. Just sayin'.
But we are happy to see you back here! It has been lonely and you offer a good counter to some of the others of us!