Quote:
Originally Posted by Pedal2Floor
No, I believe that the only thing that is starting to happen is that the North American market is no longer as important.
Brazil, Russia, India and China as well as other emerging markets are more important. What may not appeal to you, is working well in other markets and since these are world cars, these car appeal to more than just the US market which has always been different.
You are going to see more and more of this in other areas as well. Everything from computers, home electronics, cameras and other items. There is more growth outside of the US and Europe.
GM and Volkswagon already sell more cars outside of their main markets than they have ever done before. Sony and Samsung has TVs with features that will never make it to the US.
The US Debt load will mean many consumers are going to be looking for either nothing or cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap -- so that is what we are going to get.
BMW has already announced that they are going to make leasing less attractive and instead of a push model they are going to offer more of a pull model for the US. You are going to see the same from Audi and MB as well. You will see more German autos being made in the US but fewer features than you would find in other areas. The push to be "green" and remove dependency on foreign energy sources will also change the make of the cars here -- so what is the point of the CSL in that type of environment? The X cars are big sellers in the BRIC countries -- what they are doing makes sense from a business perspective.
Call it a cycle call it a trend, this is the way it will be for the foreseable future.
So, from a US centric view, it may look like a downward trend, from a world view it is a just a shift in focus and many in the US better be prepared for the fact that the US is not as important as it once was and focus will be more towards emerging markets. Money and resources always flow to where they can best work. The world has become flat making that movement even faster from less efficient markets to more efficient markets.
Things will not change in the US until they get rid of their Uber Debt and things will not change in Europe until they lower their gross over taxing.
What you will see in the US is fewer options and fewer models of all goods with less leasing and financing to more outright purchasing of cheaper lower featured lower quality goods until we get out from under the massive debt load.
Not sure how it is where you work, but the company I work for is 100% focused on markets outside of the US right now.
|
This is true. I believe this