by Joe Houser
Clint Eastwood’s character in “Gran Torino??? sums it up pretty well when he mumbles something to the effect of, “Would it kill you to buy domestic???? This is directed towards his character’s son driving off in a foreign SUV. With the current opportunity to restructure their lineups, the Big Three has opportunities to be more competitive with their foreign counterparts.
This has certainly been brought to light by the ongoing bailout packages. Putting aside your opinions on whether or not the bailout package will be effective or not, the bottom line stays the same. Domestic auto companies need to have competitive vehicle options. I will specifically touch on the availability of small AWD cars/wagons. I will focus on Ford, but this same idea could be applied to any of the Big Three.
Looking at vehicles under $25,000, currently the only small domestic cars/wagons with an available AWD option are 1) the 2009 Pontiac Vibe and 2) the 2009 Ford Fusion.
Comparing these 2 vehicles on their respective websites as well as fueleconomy.gov, some rough data is shown below.
2009 Pontiac Vibe
MSRP – $20K
Cylinders – 4
MPG City – 20
MPG Hwy – 26
2009 Ford Fusion
MSRP – $24K
Cylinders – 6
MPG City – 17
MPG Hwy – 25
As you can see, there aren’t many domestic options available to buy a cheap AWD vehicle. An idea for Ford would be to create an AWD option for the Focus. The Focus is already a very economical vehicle in regards to price and fuel efficiency.
If they could find a way to provide an AWD Focus to consumers for $20,000 or less, this would create a significant advantage in the snow-bound regions of the United States. If this AWD vehicle were introduced into the market, it could be a significantly less expensive alternative to similar vehicle sizes provided by Subaru and Audi (Outback/Impreza and A4, respectively).
This example is just one of many and I believe the issue isn’t that consumers don’t want to buy domestic vehicles; consumers’ needs are being more closely met by foreign vehicle manufacturers. When the domestic car companies start producing more of what consumers need at a competitive price, the future for the American auto industry will look more promising.
Joe…signing out
