The Nation's Pulse
Crossover Repeal
The big automakers are making too many kinds of cars. Enough, already.
(Page 2 of 4)
/p>
But that is the point we’ve reached. Sometimes, too much choice isn’t helpful to the consumer or the companies trying to get their attention.
LET’S LOOK AT some stats. Something on the order of 17 million passenger vehicles are sold each year in the United States. There are (roughly) about 300 million of us out there with about a car and half for each one of us, give or take — which correlates with the well-known stat that most American families have two cars each.
p>Of course, not all 300 million of us buy a new car each year; so the automakers are actually dealing with br> a much smaller pool of people. Take away kids, older people and people who simply aren’t in the market br> right now and you’re probably down to, oh, 75 million. /p>Now the math gets harder — if you’re trying to make money selling cars, anyhow.
p>There are about 50 different brands of cars trying to sell their wares (this includes the various individual br> divisions of larger automakers such as Toyota, for example, which also sells cars under the Lexus and br> Scion nameplates, etc.) Most of these brands are what’s known in the biz as “full line” automakers; br> that is, they sell a complete range of vehicles, from small economy cars through trucks and SUVs to luxury br> cars and sporty cars. Half a dozen individual models is about the typical number, per brand. /p>That new Toyota referenced at the beginning of this article — the Venza — will become the 17th model (yes, you read it right) that Toyota sells under its own label, not counting the additional dozen (literally) Lexus models and the three Scion models Toyota also sells.
About the Author
Eric Peters is an automotive columnist and author of Automotive Atrocities: The Cars You Love to Hate (Motor Books International) and a new book, Road Hogs.
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