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Is Japan facing a post-car society?
Jonathon Ramsey, Autoblog
Could the country that gave us the NSX, Godzilla — and the other Godzilla — and The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift be on the verge of giving up cars for good? With car buying down by close to 33-percent since 1990, Japan is claimed to be in the grips of kuruma banare, which, for Japanese carmakers, is the polar opposite of hakuna matata.
It’s being labeled the “demotorization” process, and it involves large numbers of people in Japan’s urban centers not buying cars. Surveys have revealed a variety of reasons, from the cost of purchase and ownership, to vehicles simply not being status symbols anymore, to cars being passĂ© — as in “so 20th century.”
(23 May 2008)
Ford’s Mulally Calls Pickup Retreat `Fundamental’
Bill Koenig, Bloomberg
Ford Motor Co., battling record gasoline prices, concluded in the past few days that a U.S. consumer shift away from trucks is “fundamental,” Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally said.
Ford estimates that full-size pickups fell to 9 percent of the U.S. market compared with 14.1 percent in 2007 …
“We’ve never seen movement this fast,” Mulally said. “This is a fundamental change.”
(23 May 2008)
Hybrid sales are zooming
Martin Zimmerman, Los Angeles Times
With pump prices around $4 a gallon, dealers are selling the high-mileage cars as fast as they’re delivered.
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Hybrid cars are disappearing off dealer lots as buyers looking for relief from $4-a-gallon gasoline endure waiting lists, price markups and paltry trade-ins in their quest for better fuel economy.
“I’m selling every one I can get my hands on,” said Kenny Burns, general sales manager at Toyota of Hollywood. With only one Camry hybrid in stock and a 30-day waiting list for a new Prius, Burns is selling the cars as fast as Toyota can deliver them.
(23 May 2008)
Gasoline Near $4 Shortens Trips for U.S. Memorial Day
Angela Greiling Keane, Bloomberg
U.S. travelers are shortening their Memorial Day weekend trips or staying home as rising gasoline prices, costlier air fares and a weaker economy sap their confidence and bank accounts.
(23 May 2008)
