The all-purpose family car is a dying breed. |
The attitude was such that you didn't buy something unless you could afford it. And you couldn't afford something unless you could buy the whole thing. You saved the money up first. |
The Bill Ford ads really address the problem that Ford has, which is being pretty stodgy as a company. What the ads do is raise awareness of the brand. How positively they do it is up to the ads, but people do like them. |
The difference between what Detroit goes through and what Toyota goes through is that for every single problem Toyota has, they put a team on to fix it. Detroit pretends it doesn't exist. |
The Japanese are starting to get worried about the Korean brands for the same reasons the domestics worried about the Japanese. The Japanese are looking over their shoulders right now. |
The market changed as it often does. Frequently, that means Detroit gets left behind. It never fails. |
They're both losing market share. Is it important to consumers? No. |
They're saying that gas prices are a problem, they're a consideration, but they're not going to affect the way people live. |
They're simply postponing the acquisition of a full-size sport/utility until they see what happens with gas prices, |
They've loosened credit standards to the point that anyone can get a car, ... It's banks. It's finance companies. It's everybody. |
This plan is five years late. But I guess it's better late than never. |
Today, it's around 16 percent. Today we find that cars simply don't have the status they once did. What drives the demand today is the incentive. |
Toyota wound up with this paradox. They're selling a car meant for young people to older people. It's not where they wanted to be. |
Used-car prices for the most part are set up by new-car prices. |
We believe this kind of data is important in a consumer's selection of transportation. Basing purchase decisions solely on fuel economy or vehicle size does not get to the heart of the energy usage issue. |