This may be hard to believe, but it’s been almost two years since Ford announced their intention to stop making sedans and passenger cars. Later that year, GM followed suit. Since then, there’s been approximately 4,987 think pieces about how their strategic withdrawals will come back to haunt them. Critics wondered if American sedan owners would stick with their respective brands. Edmunds recently published a white paper that partially answers that question. Basically, the majority of Focus and Cruze owners are moving on to different automakers. But it’s more complicated than that.
The above chart succinctly sums up what’s happening when Focus and Cruze owners decide to trade in their cars. They’re largely moving on to different brands. But this chart doesn’t tell the whole story.
Perhaps Ford and GM aren’t as foolish as some people think. On one hand, more Focus owners are indeed gravitating a bit more towards compact sedans from Honda and Toyota. But a decent number of them are staying within the brand too. According to Edmunds, 33% of compact car owners buy another compact. Ford ultimately swayed at least 25.4% of Focus owners to stay within the brand. And take a look at the top two vehicles they bought. They’re exactly the type of vehicles Ford envisioned them buying.
GM did even better. The company convinced at least 41.5% of Cruze owners that staying within the fold was a good idea. Granted, both brands did lose some customers they might otherwise have kept if they stayed in the passenger car market, but the losses aren’t as dramatic as people thought. Ford and GM probably used similar data to make their decisions back in 2018.
We’re still in the early stages of this fundamental shift in the industry. Product will determine how Ford and GM compensate for the lack of passenger cars sales. And we are seeing that, in products like the Ford Ranger, Ford EcoSport, Chevy Blazer, and upcoming TrailBlazer. Given FCA’s success over the last several years, I expect Ford and GM will eventually shrug off any collateral damage from dropping cars and become more profitable once they strengthen their utility and truck lineups.
Are these reasonable assumptions, or am I missing a key fact about the current situation?
Well considering that for the past 20 years the Cavalier, Cobalt, and Cruze as well as the Focus have had a variety of issues I myself and a number of people will not seriously consider these vehicles unless a cheap beater or dirt track car is needed. I didn’t want to believe it, but when I saw the Toyota Corolla was the top vehicle bought during Cash for Clunkers I had my doubts about the long term viability of Detroit’s sedans.
I figure the new Equinox and hopefully Escape are more reliable than the Focus and Cruze, so I don’t think GM and Ford are going to suffer too much by getting rid of sedans. Besides, SUVs have more cargo capacity and AWD availability that most sedans do not have.
I still think ford shoulda stuck with the fusion. It was always a high seller and people who had them loved them.
But it boiled down to capital for product and they just didnt want to bother putting money onto a shrinking market dominated by honda toyota and nissan. I get it for the taurus and even focus but in the case of the fusion specificly i think theyre gonna regret it down the line.
Technically, they are sticking with the Fusion. Next year it’s going to become an Outback fighter: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a30653717/ford-fusion-wagon-spied/
I could see it working but ford better give it a strong marketing campaign for it to get noticed. Otherwise itll suffer the same fate of the Regal tour x.
I agree
Based on what I saw, GM little, if any, marketing support to the entire Regal line. A fair number of people didn’t even know that it existed.
I doubt that will happen with a new Fusion crossover.
I’ve got a few thoughts on this in an upcoming COAL, but bottom line Ford and GM will be just fine. Sedans were their least profitable business, so all they’ve done is shift customers into higher-margin vehicles while sending their loss leader traffic somewhere else.
Entry-level feeder vehicles are basically a myth (and if they are bad cars, they can actually drive owners away from your brand).
I believe the shift to practical utility vehicles is permanent as transportation becomes more of a commodity to people.
Yeah that’s kind of a false prophecy. There is no reason a manufacturer should accept that they make bad products that send people elsewhere. If you have a Fusion and you were happy with it you may be likely to come back to Ford when you need or want something larger. If you can’t have the opportunity to buy a Fusion and thus end up in an Optima or whatever instead, if you like it you are probably pretty likely to look at that manufacturer’s larger vehicles first when the time comes to replace it.
Given the spectacular problems with the Focus and Fiesta automatic transmissions, it doesn’t surprise me that owners of these vehicles are switching brands. These would have been very desirable vehicles, but were tight on space compared to the competition and were branded as having a dangerous and unreliable transmission.
The small GM cars were also-rans for their own reasons. I vividly recall trying to pull out into flowing traffic on a mild grade in a turbo Cruze, only to have it become completely unresponsive to the gradually-floored throttle. Most of the time it was a pretty decent car, but I could never buy or recommend one after that near-death experience.
Of all the discontinued models, very few are likely to be missed in the market. Ford and GM have mostly seemed to avoid producing competitive passenger cars for years. Most were adequate at best, which rarely breeds brand loyalty.
What is amazing is that a total 5.5% of the Focus trade-ins were on ANOTHER Focus or Fiesta! Could those be all the stick-shift models or are people really standing in line for another beating? 🙂
Well, we’ve got a 6 year old stick shift Focus and we love it. Haven’t had to do anything to it but routine maintenance. Can’t say our friends that bought one with an automatic feel the same. I would seriously consider an Escape, but the cost of one equipped the way I want it is out of my range.
Most likely, our next car will be a Mazda 3.
I suspect dealers are offering some insanely sweet deals, where even though you were dealing with some awful Powershift issues, it’s simply too tempting to pass up. And for what it’s worth, I think there’s some evidence that the 2016+ cars aren’t QUITE as horrible or problematic as the early years.
You should try a 2016+ Cruze. new generation of 1.4T with a notable bump in power, and about 300lb less curb weight. They are surprisingly peppy.
My 2019 has enough power to keep me happy. I tell friends I have V-8 power (true enough with 153 hp and 3,229 pounds in the sedan model) and 4 cyl fuel economy (I’m averaging 36mpg and get 45 on trips)
That’s awesome highway MPG, Consumer Reports got 47mpg during highway MPG testing with theirs. Incredible stuff! One of these is sort of on my radar for the next commuter, I like the high mpg and the cushy well sorted ride, and the very reasonable prices for lightly used ones.
I was so impressed with my 2017 Cruze’s power and MPG, I purchased a 2019 RS hatchback for commuting to work when I found out they were to be discontinued.
gtemnykh, my LS sedan which stickered at 19,900 was $14,000 with all the rebates and a discount for being a demo with 3,000 miles on it. I have 10,500 miles on it now and not one complaint or need for warranty service.
Some of the numbers that you show as “staying with the brand” represent buyers staying with models that have been discontinued (Focus, Fiesta, Fusion, Cruze etc) and this is just the lot leftovers. In two years when those are all cleared out (hopefully) these stats may change. All those 2019 people that stayed with the brand didn’t choose an SUV or truck, they stayed more or less in their current form factor.
Definitely true, but in two years Ford will have introduced the Bronco, Escape-based “baby” Bronco, Fusion (as an Outback competitor), and presumably some other models we don’t even know about yet.
And GM probably has some tricks up their sleeves too, although they’re a little harder to read.
I haven’t lived in the middle of the US for some time now, but I suspect there remains decent-sized pockets of “buy ‘murrican” out there. The sorts of people who will buy whatever Ford or GM sells that’s in their price range, rather than even consider anything with a foreign nameplate on it (even if it’s built in the US).
It’s all in one’s perspective. To those of us in Middle America, there appear to remain on both coasts decent-sized pockets of “not buying ‘murrican”. Those sorts of people who will buy whatever Toyota, Honda, or others sell that’s in their price range, rather than consider anything with a domestic nameplate (even if it’s built outside the U.S).
It’s never prudent to paint with too broad of a brush. 🙂
Thank you Jason.
His entire statement was based on an insulting stereotype that people who support domestic brands are ignorant.
There is though the reality that there are many communities with a domestic brand dealer in town or very conveniently located whereas a competitors nameplate may mean drives of an hour or much more. Not really an issue where I and you are but a real situation for a lot of people. Somewhat a chicken and egg thing and not telling you anything you don’t already know but difficult for some to visualize that have only really been in large metropolitan areas.
I used to live where the nearest dealer to service my Nissan was two hours away. It had a Ford dealer only, while Chevy was an hour away. So either I shop Ford or keep driving long distance. I would have looked harder at a Fiesta with a stick, or a Fusion when I was shopping last year if I still lived there. I have no interest in their other offerings as the Mustang isn’t affordable anymore (remember when a bare bones Fox Mustang LX with the 2.3 and a stick wasn’t really that much more than a loaded Escort?) so Ford abandoned me.
Agreed. For a long ago comment I researched the number of Ford and Toyota dealers in Wyoming. The numbers weren’t even close.
I’d find these percentages more useful if I had percentages from other brands to compare them to, since customers frequently change brands when purcahsing a new car. No manufacturer counts on 100% of their existing customers repurchasing their brand, and many new car buyers replace their existing vehicle with a model from another segment.
I’d expect Toyota and Honda fare a bit better, but Nissan probably matches up quite closely to the domestics, and smaller brands like Volkswagen or Hyundai may see higher levels of churn.
In fact, I’d assume Subaru has the best retention levels, given their steady growth over the past 10 years.
In the case of Nissan in with the recent scandals involving Carlos Ghosn then I could nickname the “Ghosn-gate”, Nissan had cut the corners in the early 2010s when they did the Altima and Sentra and dumping them to the fleet market didn’t helped the situation either.
If the new Sentra isn’t successeful as Nissan hoped, will Nissan remove their sedans from North America just like they did in Australia?
That’s true and the other interesting thing would be absolute numbers. Such as what quantity does this represent i.e. did Chevy lose 2500 or 250,000 customers etc. Big difference.
Agreed. It would also be insightful to see similar stats on the other models being cancelled. That would tell a more comprehensive story.
In turn, it would also be intriguing to see what is being traded on the models both are keeping. Is every new F-150 being sold having an F-150 traded for it? Doubtful. This is a slice of an overall much bigger picture.
I’ve never seen any data that suggests that there are consequences for forgoing making a specific product on the rate of adoption for the products that are being made.
For instance, few are making low cost FWD “sporty” coupes like they did in the 90s, but that isn’t stopping anyone from selling small SUVs. Just because a segment that isn’t being produced due to the economics of doing so doesn’t seem to me to have any impact at all on the ones they are producing and making money on.
It may make for a boring, homogenous marketplace that we (car enthusiasts) have long taken for granted as having a scratch for every itch, but it’s far more of a natural state of a market for there to be few choices of mostly-the-same products than one with a dozens of highly variable choices.
If Ford is teaming up with VW they could sell a rebadged Jetta or Passat If they feel a need to have a sedan in their showroom.
No need for a rebadged Jetta, they have a brand new for 2019 Focus that they offer in Europe. It is on the new platform that underpins the 2020 Escape. It does look like they may offer a long wheel base wagon version of that platform as a Sport Utility Wagon, potentially using the Fusion name. So they could potentially spin up a sedan mate if they thought there was enough of a market.
Here’s my highly subjective personal take. I gave up on Ford.
I was a very long term buyer of new Fords – to include Taurus, Probe, Mustang(s), Thunderbird, Focus, F-150(s), Contour. This year I bought my first ever Toyota car. This came from the same dealership (and same salesman); it sells Ford, Lincoln, Toyota, Hyundai.
That’s a very interesting aspect. Does the salesperson who you trade the Ford sedan in to really even bother to try to sell you a Ford something else or just lead you over to the other side of the showroom and show you a brand that you may not be familiar with but that still sells what you may believe you still want?
At the end of the day the salesperson and the dealership owner just want to sell you something, they don’t particularly care what brand it is. Unless they don’t represent any other brands…
Jim: In my case Dwight did not lead me over to the Toyota store. I went into the Ford showroom, found Dwight and from there we walked a block or so to the Toyota showroom and ordered the car I wanted from an incoming boat. Dwight didn’t care; he still sold me a vehicle. The dealer is close to home; they have dealt with me satisfactorily in the past. I went there to get a car and knowing there were no Fords I told them I want a Toyota this time.
QOTD?
Yes – maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but SOON and for the rest of their miserable existences.
+1
Nah. When Rivian takes over what’s left of Ford it’ll just be for their nameplates, factories and dealer buildings. Likewise whatever turns out to take over GM.
US branded passenger cars? You mean Tesla.
You believe that a company that has not sold a single vehicle at retail will take over Ford?
I’m getting a but wild, but yes, I’m serious. There’s a disruption taking place in the auto business: 21st century electric cars and trucks. If you’re interested, see my long comment about this in the 1/22/20 article about Tesla’s $100 billion market cap.
Summing that up, the EV transformation could turn out to be just as profound as the Model T or the PC. Huge old companies died and huge new companies were born.
Rivian is very well funded, very well managed, got a great deal on Mitsu’s factory in Illinois, and shows every sign of following in Tesla’s footsteps. If fully successful (a very big if), Rivian could get access to the kind of capital Tesla is currently growing on. They have an investment and product development relationship with Ford.
If/when the US auto industry mis-executes themselves into another existential crisis like 2008, new US companies that didn’t exist then like Tesla and Rivian could find themselves taking over factories, dealerships and even nameplates from Ford and GM. (Control of Chrysler is already on a private jet to Europe.)
If that happens in, say, 2030, GM/Ford’s lack of passenger cars in 2020 probably won’t matter, because they’ve been doing a mediocre job on cars anyway. Tesla on the other hand does seem to know how to sell lots of cars.
I think you have the “cart before the horse”. The auto biz is very capital-intensive with lead times much beyond the patience of the “New York Minute” people on Wall Street. Tesla’s survival has several unique characteristics that other EV start-ups can’t replicate (e.g, Elon’s deep pockets, long view, and dare I say charisma).
Could be. It’ll be fun to watch.
One person’s “charisma” is another’s “annoying/smug”…but it seems to be working currently. If I end up with a Tesla it’ll be despite Musk, not because of Musk. Note though that Amazon is invested in Rivian and in theory Bezos has much deeper pockets and just as long a view if not longer than Musk so who knows.
Factories aren’t that difficult to come by, GM basically gave away Lordstown recently. Rivian didn’t pay much for theirs either. And Musk seems to be able to build one from scratch within a year or so and in various countries to boot.
Tesla’s success is certainly replicable I think, as long as the leadership isn’t constrained by the typical industry boundary-think (that’s the biggie). This is where the newcomers may have an edge over the old guard that are finally trying to dabble in the field. Tesla also seems to have some issues holding on to key people, which translates to people with a lot of actual knowledge being out there and up for grabs.
Taking it to an extreme, someone like Amazon COULD service Rivians out of their existing warehouse locations, there are two within an hour of me, that’s better than Tesla’s locations. Of course service that comes to me is even better. They could also likely handle logistics and delivery better. Tesla’s proved that you don’t need huge and expensive showrooms, just representative samples in small locations and a delivery system, i.e. pretty much the way much of the rest of the world works with regular cars outside of North America. I’m guessing the average Audi franchise owner is wondering why they had to spend millions on a fancy building when Tesla has no trouble selling just as expensive cars while located next to Claire’s in the local mall.
Jim said, “Tesla also seems to have some issues holding on to key people, which translates to people with a lot of actual knowledge being out there and up for grabs.” Precisely how the Silicon Valley got started and grew.
A bunch of people who couldn’t stand working for William Shockley, co-inventor of the transistor, quit and started Fairchild Semiconductor. Fairchild turned out to spinoff companies like dandelion seeds. For example a couple of guys called Noyce and Moore quit Fairchild to make integrated circuits and started a little outfit called Intel ($71 billion revenue last year).
Have youvall forgotten that a US branded passenger car company has the highest share value in the history of US carmakers? Tesla 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
I do think Ford and GM will at some point want to change course, adding sedans and wagons back into their US offerings. It will be far easier for Ford to do so; unless they give up on their European operations they will still be in the “true” car business.
Yeah the 2019 and up Focus they sell in Europe is on the same new platform that underpins the 2020 Escape. So if there is an uptick in the next 4 or 5 years they could always bring it over, of course they probably shouldn’t use reuse the Focus name.
The new Focus sold in Europe is built in China. It is subject to Trump’s China Tarrifs. Ford intended to sell a Subaru Crosstrek like version of the Focus. But the Tarriffs made the cost prohibitive. Trump told Ford to shift production to the US. But you can’t just make those decisions quickly. It takes years to set up a factory and US labor made the price high as well. So no Focus Crosstrek for US.
No the sole source for European Focus is a plant in Germany. Yes they proposed selling one from the China factory in the US but once the tariff became a possibility they backed off from that.
https://www.motor1.com/news/242743/2019-ford-focus-production-video/
That does not mean that they couldn’t give us one from the German plant, if they perceived enough demand. It also doesn’t mean they couldn’t set up a plant in the US, Mexico or Canada.
I’m a sedan/wagon guy, not a CUV/SUV guy. If the manufacturers of my past cars stopped making sedans, then getting a sedan of a different make would be a no-brainer.
Sedans? Probably not. But I expect they’ll be getting back into hatchbacks and wagons through the back door, by applying several design cycles’ worth of longer-lower-wider to existing CUV nameplates.
The Escape is an extreme case since it started out very truckish back when Ford had a real wagon in the Focus line and has morphed into their designated sedan-substitute to make room for the Bronco sub-brand, but if its’ shape catches on the rest of the market will follow.
Ford is being thermal nuclear stupid. They are throwing out the baby with the bath water. They sell over 200k Fusions and MKZs each year to highly satisfied customers and without dumping them on daily rental fleets (a.k.a., Nissan, Hyundai, Kia). The Fusion has Ford’s highest quality ratings from Consumer Reports and J D Power.
The sales loss from the discontinuation of these mid-size sedans will be huge. The incremental sales from the added saturation of SUVs/CUVs cannot recover the losses — a simple look at each manufacturer’s SUVs/SUVs sales will show 2-3 nameplates covering 90% of the market and the remaining 3-6 niche SUV/CUV nameplates delivering the other 10% (of which 2-3 percentage points may be incremental). Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, and Kia understand this.
I don’t necessarily disagree with you except that Ford definitely pushes Fusions into rental fleets, I just had one last month from Budget.
The fact is the Fusion is at the end of its life cycle and they didn’t think the segment was going to be strong enough in the future to justify the development cost considering that the margins on sedans are much lower than on any other segment.
As for Ford, they will likely lose my wife and I as future customers. We had a 2001 Focus wagon, a 2010 Milan and, currently, a 2017 MKZ hybrid as family cars. My daily is a 2012 Mustang. We’ve been happy with the vehicles and the dealership. But when we need to replace the MZK, Ford won’t have a sedan. Neither of us likes SUVs/CUVs/trucks. Nor do I trust a German brand long-term. I suppose we’ll look at Korean and Japanese brands, leaning towards Honda or Toyota. I grew up in a family of Lansing, MI autoworkers, so I would prefer domestic, but such is life.
It’s hard to say. Spending time at the auto show today, here are some opinions and observations:
Toyota Avalon TRD: My seventeen year old son was succinct – “Trying too hard.” Not the way to save the sedan.
Camry: I didn’t look at the trim, but it seemed to match the Avalon TRD for trying too hard.
Ford Fusion: They brought in four of them and they had steady lookers all day.
Dodge Charger: Strong sales last year, lots of lookers, really looks and feels like a solid car. My son actually likes it over the Dodge Challenger. He drives our Mustang and finds the Challenger too big for a sporty coupe.
Chevrolet Sonic: There were at least two, and they were busy when I briefly walked by.
Chevrolet Malibu: Seemed a bit lonely, but I wasn’t there long.
Lincoln MKZ and Continental: They were getting some lookers and generally positive comments, but the heavy traffic at Lincoln was the SUV area. The Aviator is impressive at cursory review.
At 6’1″, sedans are low for me. But, we recently bought 4 to outfit the kids, two Fusions, a Dart and a Mustang. The value proposition is strong in lightly used versions, the aerodynamic bodies and reasonable curb weights deliver on gas mileage, and the low center of gravity provides handling we don’t get in our tall SUV and truck.
And, with a decent experience with our Ford products, we have some fairly pro Ford offspring, I can see them buying up the Ford line in the future.
The Mustang Mach E was present in life-size poster form only. But, my wife and son were impressed. Both remarked it looked very sedan like, despite the SUV label on the poster.
The great sedan cull may prove a bit overdone, and the future of sedans may be in taller hatchback vehicles like the Mach E parading as the SUVs they aren’t.
I think the Japanese are losing what they had built up over decades: a perceptible edge in quality (both in reliability, durability, AND material quality and fit/finish), nice and simple, handsome design and ergonomics. That’s just not longer there. And the domestics have been making steady progress for the most part (not without some hiccups). As someone who would call himself a dyed in the wool Toyota/Honda guy just a few short years ago, I find myself cross shopping domestics more and more (and bought a Chrysler Town&Country last year).
Sorry, nothing can outpace the relentless cost cutting that rules all manufacturing today. Alternately cars today are built so similarly (using the same suppliers, etc.) it’s becoming harder to pick one over the other.
Meh. Ford hasn’t made a sedan I’d want since they discontinued the Town Car.
It’s kind of sad, I found myself looking at some cheap lightly used sedans, and I’m finding myself very seriously considering a number of domestic products. Now, maybe that speaks to the fact that they are still only an attractive option only when they are heavily discounted, but in terms of interior quality, NVH/ride/handling, from what I’ve read and seen, they are generally every bit as competitive as the Japanese, who IMO are resting on their laurels, or using tech that is a bit less durable long term so that there isn’t an impetus to buy strictly Japanese in interest of getting a 15 year durable car. As I’ve seen with how my 2012 Camry is aging, everyone uses the same cost cut stuff more or less.
I don’t know for sure if the big 2 will be regretting the loss of sedans, at least immediately. At least at GM they still have a couple of sedans to retail until to the total cessation of sales.
I spent the weekend on Long Island piloting a new 2020 Chevy Equinox and I have to say, it’s a nice package. I don’t think I would have liked plying 495 and parts of Queens in a sedan of any kind, as it seems that everyone drives a S/CUV there. The car height arms race is in full effect and it appears there is no end in sight.
I’m still of the opinion that the mfrs that are selling sedans have no choice other than to sell what they have and cannot shift “gears” if you will. Not that they don’t have an otherwise full line of vehicles (for the most part) and can compete in those arenas. But being the “last man standing” is only great for a while. Eventually, you have to move on.
I would imagine that both GM and Ford have the engineering wherewithal to supply a sedan relatively quickly if the market were to change. However, I see most of this as the revers of the situation as K.T. Keller (Chrysler Corporation president in the early 1950’s). He famously insisted on cars with a roofline that a man could wear a hat in during the time that cars were becoming lower, longer and wider. We may be in for a long term trend of the S/CUV styling if this holds.
I often wonder if GM and Ford have a all or nothing mentality. If they cannot dominate a certain part of the market(like small cars) then they take their marbles home in anger. Instead of using every sale for their overall profits.
Look at the 2018 Chevy Cruze. They sold 142,617 and while it is down from 2017 where 184,751 were sold, that is still a very good number of sales. Same with the Focus in 2018 where 113,345 were sold. With the Focus and it being 7 years old in 2019, the tooling probably was long paid off so all Focus sales are profit.
The huge 2019 drop is probably because folks don’t want to buy a brand new car and find out the model is being dropped 2 days later. GM and Ford killed sales off by simply stating they were killing off the cars.
Folks probably laughed at Chrysler back in the late 1980’s about keeping the Omni/Horizon around but each was pure profit as the tooling had been paid off by 1985 or so. Even then Chrysler spent money to put an airbag in the cars in 1990(despite dropping the car in 1991)
GM did this crap with the minivans also, even though they were outsold by Chrysler in the van department, they still sold a respectable amount of mini vans each year
It seems Ford and GM seem to dump vehicles the second there might be any trouble with sales brewing(even if only temporary). I am going to go out on a limb here but i suspect, Honda, Toyota and Hyundai are going to stick with their small cars for years down the road
It seems nuts just to cede entire markets, especially when theyre not markets that dont sell cars, they just sell a bit less, look at fusion sales for instance.
What if the trend changes? What happens then?
Seems stupid to paint yourself into a corner.
This may sound slightly off-topic, yet it directly relates to the topic at hand. First Honda, then Toyota and other Japanese brands came and built cars in the US, made by Americans and sold to Americans. Conquest sales if you will. The one big difference is that the UAW wasn’t involved in the manufacture and building of the Japanese brand cars, like it has been so long as at GM, Ford and Chrysler. Honda, Toyota and others have GAINED market share annually while at the same time, the market share of the BIG 3 has been in decline. I say this not to be critical of the UAW autoworkers themselves, but from my perspective, the UAW along with upper management at the Big 3, has now for many years sent people to what was once seen as foreign brands to get a better-designed and better-built product. People who have been burned by ending up with a poorly designed and shoddily built car from the Big 3 have, in some cases, left them for good. For too long, and perhaps more in the past than present, management at the Big 3 has focused more on profits than on actually providing customers with a quality product.
So what am I really saying? Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, Kia and VW still offer compact and mid-size sedans. The Big 3 could compete if they wanted, but seem to be chasing greater profits in pickups, SUVs and the so-called Next Big Thing. The leaders at the Big 3 aren’t content with a reasonable profit and slow steady growth. They want to make the greatest profits possible in order to make themselves look good and to make a huge paycheck for themselves, based on their companies doing better profit-wise. As an American, I believe the whole culture of the Big 3 is wrong, while the foreign-nameplate brands are far more wise and reasonable.
Love my 2014 Lincoln MKZ hybrid. Unfortunately I need a new one and I already have a pickup so don’t need an SUV. Probably settle on a good old American car. AN AVALON.
With the current car market and the never-ending pandemic, this was the worst thing they could have done.