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That seems to be it. Today's Ford is yesterday's Mercury.
The point I was making about wheel size wasn't availability, it was replacement cost. My Aura's 17s are about $250 an axle for Indonesian imports. At least I got almost 100K out of the original Korean front tires, now I need to replace the rears which have almost 110K on them.
As bigger wheel sizes become more common, the economies of scale should take effect in keeping prices at a more competitive level. When I had to buy replacement 20" tires for my car, they turned out to be cheaper than all of the 18" and 19" sizes of the same tire model.
I do agree with the premise that today's Ford and Chevy now occupy segments that yesterday's Mercury and Oldsmobile did. They had to do that out of necessity to help improve their perceived quality image in relation to their Japanese competitors.
With Mercury now also dead, the US auto industry is showing signs of the "new economy" even within its marques. Mercury, Plymouth, Pontiac and Oldsmobile - all gone, all "middle class" marques. Dodge and Chysler, Ford and Lincoln, Chevy and Cadillac and Buick (which is big in Japan, a sure sign of the elitness of the marque) means the big three all now have gaps in "the middle" - just like the american economy.
You confused Japan with China. Buick has been big in China for years now.
This has nothing to do with the middle class. They sold crap vehicles for too long while the competition was better. By the time they turned things around somewhat it was too late, people have moved on and are not coming back.
If anything it shows that the middle class was tired of putting up with crap products and shunned those brands.
It isn't really "brand erosion" as it is "brand consolidation". Automakers are realizing it's much more expensive to have SEPARATE brands for basically identical vehicles and instead they're adding higher trim levels to the mainstream brands. Mercury, Oldsmobile, and Plymouth all had identity problems in the later years of their existence and were no longer profitable brands to produce. Pontiac is a separate case study as they had a unique brand identity but they had awful resale value and were very reliant on "parts-bin" manufacturing.
Most manufacturers nowadays are trying to differentiate between the brands under their umbrella and have vehicles that appeal to a certain market. General Motors is doing an excellent job with Buick and Cadillac, separating the brand identities and producing vehicles that have a certain "feel" to them. The Cadillac CTS and Buick Lacrosse are very similar in size but have a vastly different interior and exterior look/feel to them. How many people could really tell the difference between a Ford Crown Vic and a Mercury Grand Marquis?
I see it as a step in the right direction to get rid of certain brands in order to focus on the remaining lineup. No need to offer the exact same vehicle under a different name when an automaker can offer different trim levels.
Buyers of a certain brand usually have expectations of what brand they're buying. Someone buying a Chevy Impala has vastly different expectations than someone purchasing a Cadillac CTS, two different vehicles with two vastly different price tags.
There really is no longer "middle-class" brands per say but does there really have to be? Cars usually are a purchase that has many factors involved, not simply social status. Many middle-class can afford a luxury brand if they truly wanted one but some chose to save money on a vehicle and spend it elsewhere while others are prone to buy the vehicle based on emotion regardless of the pricetag. Some of the wealthiest folks I know drive Chevy/Ford pickup trucks and some of the poorest I know drive 3 Series BMW's and C-Class Mercedes. Vehicles are too difficult to generalize someone on unless it's a Bentley, Rolls Royce, or another ultra high-end nameplate.
In the 70s and 80s, there wasn't a single TV set made in the USA. They were all imported. In what way did that that harm the American economy?
It doesn't hurt the economy a bit to make the things we are good at making, and buy the things we are not good at making. Like I do. I boil my own potatoes, but I go out for fries, because it would not be cost effective for me to invest in a fryer and all that oil and pay continuous attention during the process and have all that mess to clean up and put away.
Just stop making cars in America, import what we need that can be made cheaply, and get on with the things we do well.
From 2007 to 2009, US auto production fell by almost half, while China's doubled, and China now produces 2.5 times as many cars as we do. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Templat...ountry_in_2009
We are no longer in the race, and it is unbelievably wasteful for us to think that we are. Our haughty traditions and smug pride are becoming a luxury we can no longer afford to keep shoring up.
The middle class is still Ford, Chevy, Toyota, Dodge, etc.
Mercury was 5 % more content than a Ford but it wasn't even worth that premium.
The car market was too fractured for Ford and GM (especially) to carry so many brands. It costs a lot of marketing money to market a brand, support the dealers, and manufacturer and stock (for years) a different front grill.
You can still buy a Toyota Camry with plastic wheel covers and cloth interior. Maybe you can't get manual windows, but it is probably cheaper to put PW in all cars than to make them two different ways.
You can still buy a new car, even an American one, for $15K or so. I think that is pretty amazing in 2010. It will have fuel injection, probably 4 wheel ABS, and air conditioning.
Plus besides brand name, really what were you getting different once you moved up brands especially recently with most cars having power everything and high options.
The middle class is still Ford, Chevy, Toyota, Dodge, etc.
Mercury was 5 % more content than a Ford but it wasn't even worth that premium.
The car market was too fractured for Ford and GM (especially) to carry so many brands. It costs a lot of marketing money to market a brand, support the dealers, and manufacturer and stock (for years) a different front grill.
You can still buy a Toyota Camry with plastic wheel covers and cloth interior. Maybe you can't get manual windows, but it is probably cheaper to put PW in all cars than to make them two different ways.
You can still buy a new car, even an American one, for $15K or so. I think that is pretty amazing in 2010. It will have fuel injection, probably 4 wheel ABS, and air conditioning.
My friend has a Corolla with manual windows, and hard as a rock seats -it is the most stripped down new car (08' on lease) I have ever seen!.
In the 70s and 80s, there wasn't a single TV set made in the USA. They were all imported. In what way did that that harm the American economy?
That's not true at all. Curtis Mathes was the last American BRAND name TV set, and it went away in the late 80's. Zenith was still around but they had been partially bought by LG and their production moved offshore. HOWEVER, Japanese brand does not mean made in Japan. Sanyo bought Philips in the 80s as well and both Sanyo and Philips TVs were, for the most part, made in the US. North American Philips had many manufacturing facilities here until the late 90's - the picture tubes were made in a factory near Little Rock. North American Philips also had substantial presence in E TN until the 90s. Just because their parent company wasn't located here didn't mean the production facilities were gone.
It doesn't hurt the economy a bit to make the things we are good at making, and buy the things we are not good at making
It has wrecked the economy because we don't even make the stuff we ARE good at making. When you choose to compete with a nation that has ZERO respect for human rights, has production facilities where they are literally PLAGUED with people committing suicide because of the interminable misery of their days, we are dooming ourselves to be like them, or to wither economically. We are in a trade war and this nation is too addicted to $99 air conditioners and five gallon jars of dill pickles to fight back.
It has wrecked the economy because we don't even make the stuff we ARE good at making. When you choose to compete with a nation that has ZERO respect for human rights, has production facilities where they are literally PLAGUED with people committing suicide because of the interminable misery of their days, we are dooming ourselves to be like them, or to wither economically. We are in a trade war and this nation is too addicted to $99 air conditioners and five gallon jars of dill pickles to fight back.
Here is the reality. If you are good at making something, and there is a market for what you make, and the price is fair, you will earn what you deserve. If you violate one or all of the above principles, do not expect the cash to keep flowing out of your end of the pipe.
What does human rights have to do with it? Today's China has a great deal more respect for human rights than the USA had in the 1800s, and our slavery and our expansion massacres in fact performed quite favorably to the growth of YOUR economy. An economic heritage that created the birthright of wealth that you believe entitles you, generations later, to unlimited purchasing power at the expense of the very people you now think are denied human rights. Slavery and genocide were the bedrocks upon which your entitlements were built.
The human rights problem in the world today is not the people earning a dollar a day for their labor. It is the people who believe their wage of $100 a day is a birthright, even if they're a WalMart greeter.
China has a great deal more respect for human rights than the USA had in the 1800s
What medication are you on?
Even if that were true, this isn't the 1800s. Have you ever left Texas? This isn't just a problem in the US, it's a problem pretty much throughout the developed world right now. You seem to be slamming anyone who lives in a developed nation. Must be easy from the cozy warmth of your parent's basement in Texas.
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