mycargets52mpg

Does America Want to Buy Fuel Efficient Cars?

Americans react as rationally to price signals as anybody. Exhibit A: Full-size SUV sales and resale values during last year's gas price spike. The main point to keep in mind is relative fuel efficiency. Skipping the Suburban for an Equinox will save money at the gas pump. That Equinox will of course not do everything a Suburban does, but at some point the additional fuel cost will force needs and priorities to be reassessed. When gas hit $4, that point was clearly reached, and many consumers made rational decisions. An Equinox will of course be less efficient than a Civic, but that comparison probably was not valid at $4, given the underlying needs assessment. GM, Chrysler, and Ford had clearly banked on behavior as described by rstrader, but the evidence shows otherwise. At least Mulally and Lutz had the guts to openly endorse higher gas taxes to support their investment in fuel efficient vehicles.

Chrysler's Rebadging Plan: Strategic Blunder for Nissan?

It may be more than simple Prizm/Corolla-style rebadging, at least one would hope. Using the Altima/Maxima "platform" with a Chrysler interior/exterior design might still flop, given their utter loss of styling direction, but if done right, could save the company. There's no reason to be ashamed about utilizing good engineering. For instance, VW is so good at this game that its Czech subsidiary Skoda builds a Jetta-sized vehicle (the Octavia) that is better, and lots cheaper, than the Jetta, but with mostly the same mechanicals. That strategy effectively saved Skoda, and allowed VW to spread the cost of its engineering over more units.

One more point - after the Talon/Laser came the moderately popular Sebring/Avenger, again built off the Mitsu Eclipse platform. Did anyone know, or care? I didn't think so, either.

Impact of GM Destroying the EV1

Re: Fuel cells, about 8 years ago Chevron teamed up with GM to work on a hydrogen infrastructure that used petroleum (of course) as feedstock to produce hydrogen and sell it through Chevron's distribution network. Basically the dark side trying to protect itself from obsolescence. To their credit, GM eventually must have concluded that Chevron rope-a-doped them into this lunacy, and deep-sixed the plan.