Dearth of American Auto Brands in My Area

[wings&wheels]

Been that way for years here; Eastern Massachusetts/Providence area. Remember seeing the transition in the 80's, at least in my area. Parents generation almost all owned domestic, suddenly the next generation were buying Civics and Accords as soon as they graduated college, GTI/GLI's if you were a car person and a BMW e30 if you were a car person and majored in something lucrative The 80's were also the nadir of the domestic offerings....

 

[wings&wheels]

Great film! Thanks. Interesting that the narration admits that the foreign cars have 'quality', and implores GM's employees to design, build and sell better cars; yet misses on the vehicle's size, design, direction of the market and appeal of the imports.

 

[Orthos]

Yep, and a lot of "American" brands are built from foreign third world parts

Don't start lol

You've pulled the pin on a grenade...

 

[The Critic]

Over the past few years, I've been aware of the much greater number of foreign marques in my area compared to American brands.
This morning, for example, I counted 22 cars visible from my window, and they were all Japanese or German brands ... 18 Japanese and the balance German, Audi or Mercedes. Our secure parking lot has space for 22 cars, and all but one (a Ford Fusion) are Japanese.

The only American branded vehicles that there are clearly more of are full-sized pickup trucks. The medium-sized trucks seem to be dominated by Toyota Tacomas. There is one two-block street in Berkeley that is home to (at last count) 19 Prius models.

When I've travelled across the country, it seemed that once away from the coast, there were a much greater number of Ford and GM cars in many areas.

What have you observed where you live?

I am ~20 miles from you and there is plenty of Big 3 representation in my neighborhood. There are at least four 2019+ Ram 1500's in my neighborhood alone.

 

[Andrew1972]

The Jeep Wrangler 4 door is beyond popular around here specifically the base sport model with cloth top. This is in an affluent neighborhood I live against. Yes F150's peppered in there too beyond Suburban's.

And yep ton of foreign and I cannot think of single domestic car they own besides a Tesla in there.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

I was surprised recently to see a Hyundai Santa Fe used as an unmarked police car. It was parked with red and blue emergency lights flashing in the grille and back window with other local cop cars. This SUV is made in the US.

 

[WylieCoyote]

I'm regularly surrounded by Camrys, Corollas, F-150s and Tahoes when sitting at a light. American sedans aren't making an appearance on the roads if you're in an area where a lot of folks drive new vehicles, because they're extinct, but there are PLENTY of loaded domestic trucks to be seen.

Its sad to me that Toyota, Honda, Hyundai and even Nissan can find a way to make sedan sales work here, but Ford and GM threw in the towel on all but the Malibu. I nearly choked when I witnessed the 62-year-old Impala name fade into the sunset.

Lack of competitiveness, or just chasing the SUV & truck money? I say both.

 

[RooflessVW]

American branded cars are junk

 

[ecotourist]

In my immediate neighbourhood there is a sprinkling of almost everything. The most common vehicles are:
Toyota/Lexus 4
Ford 4
BMW 4
Honda 3
GM (various brands) 3
Ram 2 (one of which is a very old, and probably Japanese, compact truck)
Mercedes 2
And 1 each of Volvo, Jeep, Mazda, Nissan, Mini, Subaru and Mitsu

In our community at large many new vehicles are hybrids, with almost as many EVs (mostly Teslas). Work vehicles are Ford, GM and Mercedes.

 

[dishdude]

American branded cars are junk

Hold on, let me find you a broader brush to paint with.

 

[RooflessVW]

Hold on, let me find you a broader brush to paint with.

My opinion is just that.

I own an American-made SUV. But it would take massive change for me to buy an American brand vehicle. They don't impress me. I don't like them. I think they're junk.

 

[Oily_Thing]

Big 3 = Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai?

Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep/Ram = French company Fiat

 

[IndyIan]

I've seen a surprising number of the new smaller Cadillac SUV's, XT4 I believe in our nearby small town. We still have lots of GM SUV's and Jeep/Dodge/Chrysler vehicles as those are the two dealers there. For one Subaru dealer in 40 miles around there are alot of those as well. Hyundai and KIA seem to rule the compact car market here though, and VW's have a decent portion as well.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

No Teslas?

 

[PimTac]

Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep/Ram = French company Fiat

Not anymore.

 

[4WD]

I've seen a surprising number of the new smaller Cadillac SUV's, XT4 I believe in our nearby small town. We still have lots of GM SUV's and Jeep/Dodge/Chrysler vehicles as those are the two dealers there. For one Subaru dealer in 40 miles around there are alot of those as well. Hyundai and KIA seem to rule the compact car market here though, and VW's have a decent portion as well.

My son has a 2018 XT5 … not that old but I seriously doubt it will be more problematic than some German vehicles

 

[JeffKeryk]

We have American cars on my block. A couple of Teslas, a Bolt and a yellow McLaren a few houses down.

 

[PandaBear]

Its sad to me that Toyota, Honda, Hyundai and even Nissan can find a way to make sedan sales work here, but Ford and GM threw in the towel on all but the Malibu. I nearly choked when I witnessed the 62-year-old Impala name fade into the sunset.

1) The foreign brands have international markets to back them up, they might as well make cars for US market as well. Whereas US big 2.5 are really just trying to focus on the profit in the US market which is all about trucks and SUVs / CUVs, they don't want to waste resources chasing the car market so they just give up.

2) This is the difference between family owned, aka the real "Build with Pride" business and the Wall Street white washed "Build with Pride" business. The real build with pride business would do something that makes their employees, the owner family, their government, their politicians proud where as the Wall Street white washed businesses only pride on the money. Nothing wrong with that though if they are honest about it.

Anyways, if they aren't making what I want to buy I'm not going to waste 20mpg more than necessary buying their stuff.

 

[PandaBear]

American branded cars are junk

Depends on what you buy. I'd say a lot of them are more reliable than Nissan with CVT these days.

 

[PandaBear]

For the most part this. I’d still put say Toyota and Lexus towards the top for reliability, but the gap between them and others has narrowed significantly for the most part.

I think a lot of it has to do with where you live as you noted. In more densely populated areas like the coasts tend to be a big ol’ full size sedan like say a Dodge Charger or a full size pick up is a lot harder to park and drive through congested areas. And I’ll fully admit that foreign brands are better at making smaller vehicles than the Big 3 are…. I don’t think the Big 3 even make anything that’s say Corolla sized anymore.

There was a member here in the past trying to get into an argument that "size is king" when the big city people (especially those along the coasts) argue that refinement is king and oversize is stupid. Pretty much sums up the auto preference difference of the 2 camps: size / roominess vs refinement. Domestic seems to focus on 1 vs the international brand due to their global exposures focus on the other.