Foreign Imports Hurt The Domestic Car Manufacturers.

The last decade has seen foreign imports continue to gain substantial market share putting an increasing pressure on the domestic car manufacturers. It’s certainly made the domestic car industry rethink their strategy.

In recent years we’ve seen Chrysler, GM, and Ford all offering deep discounts on their cars because the Japanese imports have taken over such a large share of the market. Priced competitively often with longer warranties, and excellent track records, consumers are much more likely to consider foreign imports.

This loss of market share has also forced the North American manufacturers to close plants and layoff massive numbers of workers. Even their deeply discounted prices and zero percent financing hasn’t been able to accomplish regaining of the lost market share.

This year we even see Ford and GM offering the same pricing the offer to their employees. What all three of the North American manufacturers don’t seem to have tuned into is that rising fuel prices they continue to build lines that are heavy on fuel users and light on fuel efficient vehicles. They also tend to miss the fact that the consumer is looking for fuel efficiency in a classy car, not just a commuter car. This has been very advantageous to the foreign import market, whose lines are geared towards style and fuel efficiency.

The problems with the North American auto industry are far reaching including the higher prices on steel, the higher wage costs, NAFTA, war, and recession. These global and local issues have caused serious downturns in the number of consumers purchasing new vehicles.

The problem compounds itself on an economic scale because these well paid auto workers who become laid off are now not contributing to the local economy in the manner they were which affects many other sectors such as real estate and retail. This results in reduced earnings and loss of jobs in other sectors.

The main reason the foreign imports have been so successful is that they have been quick to stay in tune with consumer demands. They have created a wide range of imports to meet the needs of almost every consumer from cars to SUVs to trucks.

Whether you are looking at a Honda, Toyota, Mazda, or any of the other imports they offer competitive pricing, style, fuel economy, and safety features. Their marketing has been aggressive and they’ve been quick to convert consumers to their product.

You can choose a nice compact 4 door family car that still has the lines of a sportier vehicle, or you can choose a sporty two door that zips along and gives you the satisfaction of a power house with fuel economy.

If you are looking for something a little bigger all of the foreign imports have an SUV style vehicle. Need a pickup truck? Some of them are also producing trucks that have exceptional good fuel economy.

The North American manufacturers are going to have to become a lot more competitive in pricing and a lot more innovative in design if they hope to recapture the market share they’ve lost to the foreign imports.



Deon Melchior is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit ArticleClick.com. Article Click is a free content article directory. This means that as a publisher you may reprint the articles that are included in our site, as long as the article is unedited and the author box is included with it's live hyperlinks.