World economic collapse, auto industry losing money hand over fist, and Tata sells more cars that haven't yet been built. What's the lesson? Low initial cost.

The German government has an old car scrapping bonus program, and only one German manufacturer, Opel, is in the top ten of sales. Top seller is Daihatsu. What's the lesson? Consumers are looking for low monthly payments.

The auto industry has gotten accustomed to selling cars that take buyers five to nine years to pay off. But the world wide financial panic is changing consumer behavior. They no longer want to carry the debt load they had in the past. The days of easily selling $24,000 sedans are over. Manufacturers need to pay attention.

Some people were refinancing their homes and using the extra money to buy new cars, thinking their home values would keep going up and the buyer of their home would be buying them a new car essentially. All that odd sort of reasoning has gone by the wayside now.

fred schumacher:

About 90% of the wage earners, who have not been brain washed, would agree with you. The other 10% can afford $50K+ oversized vehicles.

However, the in depth brain wash (bigger is better and safer) will not go away over night.

Common sense, light weight (below 1000 Kg), very low cost (below $3K) basic vehicles will sell very well in China, India and many other countries but brain washed Americans and Canadians will refuse to buy them for many years unless the recession last much longer and gas price goes up to something like $8+/gal.

Repetition is a crude form of persuasion, but like “brainwashing” is highly overrated.

Fear not, as climate change takes hold, there is less and less water available for washing brains.

You should never have purchased a larger car than you needed. Don’t feel alone, many young people cling to the childish idea that it is always others (like evil big business) that are at fault, not them. They must believe that the majority of their fellow (wet brained) citizens did not willing chose big vehicles. Will a good washing remove such ideas ?

Low cost cars came from Japanese in the 80s, then it was Korea.

Next China and India?

Many, if not most buyers want low initial cost - even when times are booming.

Now, as fred and SJC say, lower initial cost is paramount for almost everyone.

All the anticipation we have for EVs is weakened by hard economics.

The Tata Nano is the most advanced vehicle on the road. If I could buy a $2,500 Nano that gets 55mpg i would run to the dealer today.

A $10k Fiat 500, a $7,500 Panda 4x4 or $8,000 Multipla could be in the mix also. Fiat is in this game.

Why so many?

The population of India is now 1.1 Billion...

TT:

Repetition is the main tool used to brain wash potential oversized gas guzzler buyers. Multimedia adds are repeated over and over again until the humain mind starts to believe that Hummers are good for you and eating 4000+ calories a day is healty and is what you need to survive in North America.

Repetition is also required to deprogram.

Of course a deep extended recession could help to convince many of us that we can be happy and healty with 2000 calories a day and, 50+ lbs less body weight and a Tata Nano LX.

TT is all about individual blame. Examples in the past are "traffic deaths are the fault of crazy drivers", "guns don't kill people, crazy people do", "the banking crisis is the fault of poor brown people who borrowed too much money and can't pay it back".

Whatever makes him feel good. This propaganda though is designed to protect the entrenched businesses that do not want to pay for their externalities. As a society we can deal with social problems and solve them. For example: requiring safer cars, enacting gun control laws and consumer protection laws.

We need to protect our public roads (commons) by enacting strict weight limitations, minimum mileage standards and strict emission standards. The people who read this blog are very smart... become part of the solution!

toppatom can enjoy the unclogged safer streets with us.

@fred schumacher:
Daihatsu? Where'd you get your numbers from? #1 is VW. Daihatsu isn't even close to the top ten.

As soon as the economy starts booming, people will return to buying big, expensive cars. What else to do with your money? Displaying your wealth is as old as humanity itself. People don't change.

"You should never have purchased a larger car than you needed. Don’t feel alone, many young people cling to the childish idea that it is always others (like evil big business) that are at fault, not them."
ToppaTom
Your problem is that you think people on this site actually want to read your emotional slanted views on our young people. Why don't you give us a break and take your emotions to another site.
Maybe then some of the more technical EE will come back to this site.

Anne:

It is unfortunate, but you are right about our acquired desire to return to larger cars.

Where did humanity get this behavior from?

With consistent proper incitement, most people behavior can change.

The majority will progressively drive common sense partially or fully electrified vehicles by 2020-2030.

Smoking and the use of oversized ICE vehicles on city streets will fade away.

Fads and trends in car purchases...the automakers are focusing on crossover SUVs now. Maybe it will be the FFV hybrid crossover SUV, but the prices will be too high. Sales volume is around 10 million units per year, down from a peak of 17 million. It would be my guess that we will be closer to the lower number for a few years yet.

Light weight, very low cost? If those are the criteria, bicycles should be selling extremely well. I don't need a car to get anywhere within 100 km of home, possibly more. My guess is that bikes are too slow and tiring to be popular. Also, in countries that are rapidly developing, bikes are considered signs of poverty.