Domestic passenger car production?

Today, I saw 6 'fresh off the truck' Fusions sitting behind the local Ford dealer. The date on the window sticker for one of the cars was 7/25/2020. That one was built in the last week of production. Road and Track wrote that production ended for the Fusion on 7/31.

My employer has somewhere between 200 and 300 Fusion SE Hybrids in their fleet, and it has been their 'go-to' car once the old school Taurus went away in 2007. At that point, they started buying Fusions. I'm guessing that they'll start buying Escape SE Hybrids next.
 
1. I hate SUV’s.
2. A PickUp should be used as a work vehicle. When was the last time you saw a dirty pickup?

That being said, I have two great “cars”. A 2018 loaded Regal Tour-X longroof wagon with every available option except moonroof, and a 2015 Sonata Sport 2.0T Limited with every available option.

Was looking at new Hyundai Sonatas and Kia K5’s (Optima’s). I See they have decontented both of them. Many features no longer available, even on the top of the line. Did not check Honda (which I refuse to buy) or Mazda.

Seeing the handwriting on the wall, and knowing that the best time to buy a car is when you don’t need to buy a car, I’ve started looking for an “additional” car. Decided I want a;

2015 Kia Optima SXL (Or perhaps a 2016 but I like the 2015 better) or;

Another 2015 Hyundai Sonata Sport 2.0T Limited.

BTW: I have not bought “used” or certified since 1997.

I’ll take my time but when I find the right one, I’ll snap it up.

If the “domestic” brands don’t want to make cars, I guess I’ll jusy have to buy import (branded) cars, even used, that have all the “toys” (options) that I want.
 
In a small town the dealer would have to stock parts and have trained techs for the second brand, not likely they would want to have that expense to serve the same population. The Chev dealer here sells Hyundai, and others do similar. but there are always two buildings, service bays, showrooms, parts, etc even though the two lots are essentially one big lot.
Actually I would be happy if it was only Ford, GM, and Chrysler everywhere all the time. You buy them , live with them, and make them.
 
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slacktide_bitog said:
Those three cars may be more profitable than the Mustang since they share parts with other cars and crossovers in Ford's lineup. The Mustang has its own platform and doesn't share many parts with other Fords. Their biggest money loser is the Transit Connect cargo vans, which have a 25% tariff (imported from Spain).
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Yeah, the Fusion is just the car version of the Escape, so I would think that one could continue production.
 
Who would want to open a Hyundai dealership in rural South Dakota. Doesn't seem like it would do enough business to make the capital investment worthwhile.

My local Mazda dealership is a joke. I wanted to cross shop a 6 before I bought my Camry but they didn't want to sell me one. There was no one available at the moment to take me on a test drive. The two sales guys doing nothing in the showroom told me that. Can't expect to sell cars with that attitude.

The laws for cars and dealerships require a franchise to sell the vehicle. Tesla got in some trouble a while back for trying to sell cars directly to consumers. Point is, the Ford dealership can't just start selling Hyundais. They need to be a Hyundai dealership. And if they are a Hyundai dealership they might need to carry the full line of Hyundais, not just the sedans.
 
otis24 said:
If a product isn't selling or is otherwise unprofitable, why build it/sell it? It looks like domestic passenger car production is pretty much going to be a thing of the past.

OP--I live in a pretty rural town in south central South Dakota. Population less than 2500. The next town of any size, population 25k, is 70 miles away. We are fortunate to have 3 dealerships in our small town. Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge. Because we are rural, we draw from a large area of smaller communities for whom we are the shopping center.

It would seem to me that foreign car companies have an opportunity to pair with domestic dealers to offer their brand of passenger car for sale. I'm not opposed to buying a foreign car, I just don't want to have to drive two hours to get it serviced. Which would most likely be the case if I owned a foreign automobile.

The other option would be for foreign car companies to open dealerships in rural areas fascina and start producing pickup trucks.
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I'm a retired librarian who left SD more than five decades ago. I'm a good but PITA trivia player bordering on face blindness, In other words I have few redeeming social values other than driving people nuts with uninteresting facts. Hate to high jack the post but...

I'm trying to figure out where you're from. Winner is the only town I can think of in south central SD that would be that size but it's a bit over 2500. There's only three towns in the twenty thousand population range: Aberdeen, Brookings and Watertown all way over seventy miles away. Mitchell, Pierre and Yankton would be too small. Give an old man a hint. Maybe you're driving into Nebraska. I'm stumped. My apologies to the rest of you. As you were.

ps-- Not going to look it up, more fun to guess, but are you the guy who bought the Honda Monkey? That might explain it.
 
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Leo99 said:
Who would want to open a Hyundai dealership in rural South Dakota. Doesn't seem like it would do enough business to make the capital investment worthwhile.
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Lots of used car dealers would love a token new car marque to lend legitimacy to their tote-the-note lot.
 
MaximaGuy said:
American auto companies cannot get anything right - their days of running amock with trucks has come to a grinding halt.
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People can't get enough trucks around here, A good friend of mine owns a large used car dealership......He doesn't want to buy cars at all because they don't sell. GM, Ford, & Ram 1/2 tons are his best sellers followed by 3/4 tons, Then Tahoe's & Yukon's, Then smaller SUV's.

Fullsize trucks & SUV's are what the Big 3 does best & it's what the people want, Make me wonder why FCA leaves all that fullsize SUV money on the table? Build a SUV based on the Ram & call it Ramcharger!

Even when gas was $4 a gallon.....Never saw a mass exodus to econo boxes.
 
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Demand for Ford F-150s is very high here. Unfortunately the thieves love them. It’s one of the top stolen vehicles in this area.
 
csandste said:
I'm a retired librarian who left SD more than five decades ago. I'm a good but PITA trivia player bordering on face blindness, In other words I have few redeeming social values other than driving people nuts with uninteresting facts. Hate to high jack the post but...

I'm trying to figure out where you're from. Winner is the only town I can think of in south central SD that would be that size but it's a bit over 2500. There's only three towns in the twenty thousand population range: Aberdeen, Brookings and Watertown all way over seventy miles away. Mitchell, Pierre and Yankton would be too small. Give an old man a hint. Maybe you're driving into Nebraska. I'm stumped. My apologies to the rest of you. As you were.

ps-- Not going to look it up, more fun to guess, but are you the guy who bought the Honda Monkey? That might explain it.
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Right where I-90 crosses the Missouri River. Lewis & Clark stayed on our American Island.
 
csandste said:
I'm a retired librarian who left SD more than five decades ago. I'm a good but PITA trivia player bordering on face blindness, In other words I have few redeeming social values other than driving people nuts with uninteresting facts. Hate to high jack the post but...

I'm trying to figure out where you're from. Winner is the only town I can think of in south central SD that would be that size but it's a bit over 2500. There's only three towns in the twenty thousand population range: Aberdeen, Brookings and Watertown all way over seventy miles away. Mitchell, Pierre and Yankton would be too small. Give an old man a hint. Maybe you're driving into Nebraska. I'm stumped. My apologies to the rest of you. As you were.

ps-- Not going to look it up, more fun to guess, but are you the guy who bought the Honda Monkey? That might explain it.
Click to expand...


I fed you the wrong stats. The nearest town of any size, 70 miles away, had a population of about 15k. Hope this helps.
 
MaximaGuy said:
American auto companies cannot get anything right - their days of running amock with trucks has come to a grinding halt. From 2008 through 2020 they dumped dumped and dumped trucks with no end in sight.
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Absolutely ridiculous political commentary aside.... Sales figures for show otherwise. Ford and Ram were down 18%, Chevy up 10%, and GMC up 4% vs last year, not really that bad considering everything ground to a screeching halt with stay at home orders.
 
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Supposedly Ford got around the chicken tax due to installing seats in the Transit connect and calling it a "passenger vehicle ".
 
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