Auto Industry Carnage in 2008
I found this interesting tidbit of information from an Autoblog article about U.S. car sales in 2008:
There were about three million fewer cars sold in 2008 than 2007. Based on 2007’s numbers, it would be the same as if Acura, Audi, BMW, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Lexus, MINI, Porsche, and Saab all closed their doors in 2008.
Now read that list of cars aloud.
Wow, basically all the luxury automakers (except Mercedes), plus Chrysler brands, closing up shop in 2008 to compare with 2007’s sales numbers. Total carnage.
Not a good time to be a full-time car salesman.
from a nytimes article today
More than 244 million vehicles were in operation in 2006, far outnumbering the 202 million licensed drivers in the country, according to the most recent federal statistics.
even if people had money, it looks like we totally surpassed the saturation point.
and if chrysler, dodge and mini would close its doors for a year, would that be a bad thing? 🙂
@Chris, Chrysler? No, no one would care, except people still like the Dodge Ram and Jeep products. If MINI closed, however, then yes, people would be upset. And I know you threw that in just to irk me as I’m a MINI owner.
As far as the licensed drivers vs vehicles in operation numbers, you can thank corporate fleets, car rental companies, and especially government for those numbers (local, state and federal). I think realistically the number of households with more cars than drivers is pretty low, even though you tend to notice the few that do have more cars than drivers.
Not a good time to be a full-time car salesman… but a great time to be in the market for a new car! I’ve been amazed at some of the promotions I’ve seen lately.
now why would i do that (taylor swift)…so we are even 😉
for fun, though, lets say that everyone who has a license has a car, so that would leave 42 million cars for non-personal-owned purposes: the number of people on average would be 4.8 to 1 on those cars.
the point that i was making was, is that believe (i hope) are being smarter and instead of just buying a new car every 3 years, they are trying to ride them longer, and therefore, less are going to be sold. it happens in every industry that has items that are expected to last.
so if i would ever get laid off, there are 3 industries i would want to work for:
1. deodrant company
2. toothpaste company
3. false teeth company.
sure, chuckle, but think about it 🙂
I knew 2008 was bad, but that is a shocking statistic.
-1MansMoney