Small Cars Are Being Driven Out of Existence | Hacker News Reader

Small Cars Are Being Driven Out of Existence

industryweek.com

The media has lately claimed that "Americans want to buy SUVs", but if you go to a car dealer, even an asian car dealer, you might see a large number of deeply discounted SUVs in front and get a bunch of excuses about why they don't have any new small cars for sale.

Of course you always expected this from general motors, but it seems like when a flood washes out the factory that makes Honda Fits and CR-Vs you have a lot of trouble finding Fits but no trouble finding CR-Vs.

I think it's more accurate to say that carmakers want to sell SUVs as opposed to drivers wanting to buy them.

Your story is completely unbelievable. Automobiles are not impulse buys, the idea behind the General Motors strategy is to make a vehicle for each class of buyer lifestyle. Now sure if a whimsical or uneducated buyer walks in with no idea of what they want and money to burn the salesperson (never a GM employee, GM) will try to put them in the most expensive vehicle, the reasons for that are obvious.

For me car buying is almost an "impulse buy" because I drive cars into the ground. The car has become chronically unreliable and in need of constant repairs, or it has been totaled.

My family owns one car so losing the car is a minor crisis that needs quick resolution, and that resolution is going to be hasty rather than deliberate. I'm not going to worry about being overcharged $2000 on a new car, that's the price of being able to drive off the lot immediately.

Some car dealers are spoken of highly by their employees and customers; a good car salesperson on a good day can meet your needs brilliantly.

My only real complaint about it is that the new car business is less competitive in many towns than it was in the 1990-2010 era: often it is the same dealer who will sell you Chevy, or a Toyota or Dodge (which has access to Italian exotic cars through Fiat...)

Still, car dealerships train techs, who often become the shade tree mechanics who themselves shine.

My dad went into an AMC dealership in the 1970s and bought a Gremlin (Civic, Corolla, Cavalier, Neon, Bug...) against the advice of a salesperson and returned it after 18 months because it was not a product that the salesperson was proud of.

The landlord of a building I worked in bought a bitchin' Corvette for $35k in cash during the 2008 crisis because he had the money and could hold out to get a great deal.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com