California Car Buying Stats

[windnsea00]

I thought this was interesting as I like stastics. In the Business section of the local newspaper today it broke down the car buying stats for CA. Last year we bought 2,049,522 vehicles.

The Japanese accounted for 46%.
The Big 3 accounted for 40%.
The Europeans accounted for 11%.
Lastly, the Koreans accounted for 2.7%.

Now that also includes all the fleet vehicles which are typically American (thousands upon thousands of rental cars, police cars, trucks, govt., etc.) and those are sold near or at wholesale prices so they generally just cover short-term overhead cost.

So if we cut that out (basically private useage)...the Japanese would really dominate and the Europeans would be probably not too far off from the Big 3.

Projected sales for `07 is -8.4% for the Big 3, +2.1% for Japanese, +0.8 for Europeans and lastly +0.4 for Koreans.

 

[ThirdeYe]

The number of Korean cars really surprises me, I thought the number would be a lot higher than that. I see a ton of Kias and Hyundais around here, even though it's predominantly American cars here in Grand Rapids.

 

[mechtech2]

Aren't many of those Japanese cars made in the USA?
And, many of the USA cars made abroad?

 

[windnsea00]

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Aren't many of those Japanese cars made in the USA?
And, many of the USA cars made abroad?

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Yes but the money is still going back to an American, Japanese, German, etc. company in the end.

 

[oilyriser]

The shareholders could live just about anywhere. You can be an owner of Honda without living in Japan.

 

[CivicFan]

I might have some Toyota/etc. in my international mutual fund.

 

[mechtech2]

wind - Yes, but some good portion would remain in the country where they were built.

 

[Laminar Lou]

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wind - Yes, but some good portion would remain in the country where they were built.

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And where are they paying their taxes? Transfer pricing is an issue as well.