Sitting Pretty

[siegen]

Full article.

Sitting Pretty

Honda and Toyota are in the driver's seat if gasoline prices continue to soar

By LESLIE J. ALLEN | AUTOMOTIVE NEWS

AutoWeek | Published 06/26/06, 12:02 pm et

AT A GLANCE:

WHO GAINS WHEN GAS PRICES GO UP?

Who benefits and who is most at risk if prices at the pump remain sky high? We ranked 6 automakers on their ability to cope.

1. Honda -- Most fuel efficient fleet

2. Toyota -- Points for Prius

3. Nissan -- Needs Versa

4. GM (tied) -- Less affluent buyers

5. DCX (tied) -- Hemi image hurts

6. Ford -- Too many big trucks

[siegen]

Including its Acura luxury division, Honda has the most affluent (wealthy) U.S. customers of any automaker by far, according to a survey by J.D. Power and Associates.

They have to be, to deal with the damn dealer markups!!

[Flybrian]

Nissan's placement is a joke.

[Igor2]

Full article.

this is such bul.. buth DCX and Gm are losing huge sales in both cars and trucks, beause they do not have anything fuelefficient buyers want...

ford on the other hand in May was up in car sales... up some 6 % as it is managing to catch the customers that are switching away from BOF suv's and Trucks...

GM and DCX were not able to capture these buyers (with the exception of Caliber - we'll see how that will continue)

EDIT

To find out, Automotive News has compiled a fuel economy report card of the Big 6 automakers - General Motors, Ford Motor Co., DaimlerChrysler, Toyota, Nissan and Honda - an analysis that calculates each company's ability to attract buyers such as Blecha. The report card considers four factors: the median household income of an automaker's customers, percentage of light trucks in each company's lineup, average fleetwide fuel economy and the company's green image.

How does this reflect how well the ycan attract a mileage conscious buyer.. it punishes the Big3 for their sucess with trucks... and rewards Toyota and Honda for their failure to build respectable trucks people want to buy... instead thy should have looked at each segment that is in question: B segment, Csegment, Cd segment, D segment and see what offerings are there..

they would see the Gm has 35mpg Aveo, and 35mpg Cobalt and some 31mpg Malibu

Ford has no B, but has 37mpg Focus, 32mpg Fusion.... how are these uncompetitive? .. I do not know..

Igor

Edited June 29, 2006 by Igor2

[aaaantoine]

"Less affluent buyers"?

I'm... At a loss for words.

[siegen]

How does this reflect how well the ycan attract a mileage conscious buyer.. it punishes the Big3 for their sucess with trucks... and rewards Toyota and Honda for their failure to build respectable trucks people want to buy... instead thy should have looked at each segment that is in question: B segment, Csegment, Cd segment, D segment and see what offerings are there..

It's all the less fuel efficient vehicles that bring them down. It isn't supposed to punish the big 3, as their reliance on these vehicles (for obviously more than the normal duties of a truck) has punished them enough.

Look at Toyota, their "green" image is countered by all of their non fuel efficient V8 vehicles, and this article calls them on that. I've seen a lot of poster's here complain about how Toyota's V8's get a free pass due to their better fuel efficient models.

Toyota and Honda's failure to build respectable trucks? Honda only has one, which has slightly exceeded its 12 month sales goal and selling even better so far this year. It may not be "respectible" in your eye's, but for the owners, I'm sure they are happy with them. Remember, it isn't designed to be a big hauler, and doesn't compete with those trucks like the F150 and Sierra. As far as Toyota, I think they have done well with their trucks but don't know many details.

they would see the Gm has 35mpg Aveo, and 35mpg Cobalt and some 31mpg Malibu

Ford has no B, but has 37mpg Focus, 32mpg Fusion.... how are these uncompetitive? .. I do not know..

They aren't uncompetative, just not quite as good (from a fuel economy standpoint). Obviously a few MPG points isn't enough to sway a person who likes Chevy's, but if they are considering each car equally, it may be enough to make them switch.

Since we're comparing mileage:

26/35 Aveo - 33/38 Fit

25/34 Cobalt - 30/40 Civic

24/32 Malibu - 26/34 Accord

In Chevy's credit, the 3.5L V6 in the Impala and Malibu do get better EPA mileage than the 3.0L V6 in the Accord, although they are rated 30-40 hp less.