Suzuki, Mitsubishi Urged to ‘Forget America’ as Sales Slump

jt191 · **Posted:** Fri Jul 10, 2009 5:06 pm

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... E3j.8n71UQ

Quote:

July 10 (Bloomberg) -- Suzuki Motor Corp. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp., suffering from plunging U.S. sales and excess North American plant capacity, may have to quit the market after a quarter century.

Suzuki, Japan’s fourth-largest carmaker, reported a 78 percent drop in unit sales in June, pushing its first-half decline to 60 percent, the market’s worst. Mitsubishi is down 51 percent this year, and is stuck in a slump that began in 2003.

Both carmakers “should withdraw from the U.S.,” said Yuuki Sakurai, chief executive of Tokyo-based Fukoku Capital Management Inc., which oversees about $10 billion in Tokyo. “It’s time for them to decide whether they pay a high price to continue business there or stop the bleeding.”

...

Stormhammer · **Posted:** Mon Jul 13, 2009 9:49 am

Or maybe Mitsubishi shouldn't ask $30-40k for their cars that people want to actually buy, and Suzuki should make cars that people want to buy?

jt191 · **Posted:** Mon Jul 13, 2009 11:39 am

My immediate thought was that the only companies not desperately trying to tread water to survive, were the companies not selling cars in the US. For Fiat and several of the others who haven't been in the US for decades, it's expansion time. They are buying up the ones in the US market.

ben · **Posted:** Mon Jul 13, 2009 3:57 pm

Mitsubishi has been struggling for years. The bad news is that it's true even for Japan. Suzuki is strong because of kei car sales at home, but there's no market for it in the rest of the world.

The US has managed to kill off/merge automakers until the final Big 3 (and for a while, Big 2.5). Seven automakers from a country the size of California doesn't make much sense. I love me some old Mitsus and this would sadden me greatly but it may be for the best/inevitable.

roosterfella46 · **Posted:** Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:16 am

the suzuki kei cars sells like hot cakes here..
the wagon R family is the market leader in the 1ltr kei car class..

the carry kei truck is still sold here n remains using the same engine as the same engine that the initial model got..its the same engine for like over than 20 years..
still it is by far the 1 ltr truck leader here..

the swift is the 2nd best selling 1.5ltr class after the jazz / fit
not to mention the other models suzuki indo have to offer...

i dont know about other market..but from what i see the suzuki is doing just fine here..
not to mention the suzuki 2 wheels / bike sales..

fyi.. i have been a suzuki car salesman too before switching to mazda

:lol:

Stealth · **Posted:** Wed Jul 15, 2009 5:48 pm

yea i drove by our local Suzuki dealer the other day. They have 4 cars left on the lot. Mitsu isn't much better. But really other than the EVO there is nothing special coming from that company right now. I'm a DSM fan and would hate to see them leave, but I think it would be for the best for them. Get out while the company is still afloat, or die here.

FoxyRoadster · **Posted:** Thu Jul 23, 2009 11:14 am

They could open up the minitruck market more here in the states..

I know out here they are legal, I want one but lol

ben · **Posted:** Thu Jul 23, 2009 7:33 pm

That's true, they sell great home grown pickups in the UK and elsewhere... but in the US they have a rebadged Dodge. What gives, trying to save on shipping?

Stealth · **Posted:** Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:36 pm

The US market does not want minitrucks (although I saw what I think was a Dihatsu on a trailer with a skid steer the other day)

toyotageek · **Posted:** Fri Jul 24, 2009 12:08 pm

Stealth wrote:

The US market does not want minitrucks (although I saw what I think was a Dihatsu on a trailer with a skid steer the other day)

The US market is brainwashed into not wanting minitrucks (kei cars, etc). Too many years of Bigger is Better!

I'm probably in the minority here, but I say let them jack up the price of gas to $10 a gallon, then we'll all be changing our outlook and wanting/demanding/driving mega mpg vehicles instead of gas guzzlers and monster trucks. :roll:

john · **Posted:** Fri Jul 24, 2009 7:48 pm

toyotageek wrote:

I'm probably in the minority here, but I say let them jack up the price of gas to $10 a gallon, then we'll all be changing our outlook and wanting/demanding/driving mega mpg vehicles

No, we'll all be out of a job. And broke. And never traveling anywhere.

More governmental control is never the solution to anything. :wink:

ben · **Posted:** Fri Jul 24, 2009 10:43 pm

It'd clear up a lot of traffic

john · **Posted:** Fri Jul 24, 2009 10:45 pm

ben wrote:

It'd clear up a lot of traffic

Hey, last time it hopped up to $4+ here, traffic jams almost completely disappeared...

Still not a fan...

jt191 · **Posted:** Sat Jul 25, 2009 11:08 am

We're talking about people who buy a new car every other year, wear only designer clothes, eat breakfast at the Starbuck's drive thru and the other two meals a day from the McDonald's drive thru, run up tens of thousands of dollars in credit card bills, then file for personal bankruptcy (on a regular five year cycle) and explain to their attorney and credit counselor that they can not live without their cable TV and cell phone while they walk out from under all their bills.

The economy and the price of gasoline are both going to have to get much worse before people would even consider smaller cars, and the population would have to starve down to a size that they would actually fit into smaller cars at all.

One family friend said she never had a car she could sit in comfortably before she got a minivan. She is almost four foot wide.

It's a problem of both brain washed mind set, and the ergonomics of gluttony.

It doesn't help that people view transportation as isolation, instead of simply getting from here to there. Everyone wants to go from their McMansion to their office park lot or garage, hermetically sealed in a big, cavernous, tall carpet and thickly cushioned interior, that is silent, with the tinted windows rolled up, and their AC cranked. They want to look down on everyone else from a high perch. And they have to have many cup holders big enough to hold 50 gallon trash barrel size drive thru beverages.

john · **Posted:** Sat Jul 25, 2009 1:13 pm

JT191 wrote:

The economy and the price of gasoline are both going to have to get much worse before people would even consider smaller cars...

That's just it, I don't think they will ever want them. People who like big lumbering SUVs will always want them. When gas shot up to $4 a gallon, people just drove less. :roll:

That majority won't own smaller cars until that's all the government will allow them to drive.

Garant · **Posted:** Sat Jul 25, 2009 1:19 pm

they did want those but now they want these fwd crossover behemoths

john · **Posted:** Sat Jul 25, 2009 1:29 pm

burabuda wrote:

they did want those but now they want these fwd crossover behemoths

And now all the crossovers are "hybrids" so the government likes them... :roll:

ben · **Posted:** Sat Jul 25, 2009 5:22 pm

If people could be taught that a lighter car accelerates better, brakes better and turns better and saves gas/money to boot, they might want them, but I guess that's asking a lot

john · **Posted:** Sat Jul 25, 2009 7:19 pm

Well, car companies have been telling us for years how unsafe small cars are...

roosterfella46 · **Posted:** Sat Aug 01, 2009 8:21 pm

datsunfreak wrote:

Well, car companies have been telling us for years how unsafe small cars are...

unsafe when u r driving in a small car with big cars around you..
but what if all the cars around you are also small cars.. :lol:

final conclution??...

main reason i bought the swift coz its saves gas...big time...

Suzuki, Mitsubishi Urged to ‘Forget America’ as Sales Slump

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