BBC NEWS | Business | Ford and GM see US sales decline
When the competition is out-designing, out-marketing and out-hustling you, outcomes like Ford and GM’s are entirely predictable. That the executives at these companies failed to see what consumers and analysts were seeing decades ago is reprehensible. That they managed to award themselves untold millions in bonuses is unconscionable. That they do not react to it is, frankly, criminal.
My old 1.6 L, 16-valve base model Nissan Sentra is running great after 13 years and 120,000 miles. The fact that GM, Chrysler and Ford cannot build a small car with this much endurance explains a lot. And, the fact that these monsters of American industry still do not offer any fuel efficient cars explains the rest:
Ford’s sales of traditional cars fell 24.6% last month.
By contrast, sales of its light trucks, which includes its sports utility vehicles, added 2.9%.
GM’s passenger car sales lost 22.3%, while its light trucks lost 25.6%.
It’s almost as if some very powerful people have a very high stakes bet about which company is going to go bankrupt first, and they are pulling every string they can to win the bet.