Automotive Industry Financial Analysis

Recently there have been doubts concerning the survival of General Motors. These doubts stem in part from the firm’s unawareness of the automotive industry’s external business environment. This includes the consumer’s view of current events and economic trends. There are also key issues such as the emergence of technology that are related to the automobile industry that are covered by trade publications.[i] Doubts also stem from problems associated with G.M.’s internal business environment. These problems likely arose from the firm following the wrong generic strategy.

The automobile industry is one of the most prosperous industries in the United States. For years, it had a big impact on the American economy. But with the recession of 2007-2008, consumer spending decreased and new car sales plunged (Davis, 2012). Big automobile firms like General Motors and Chrysler were on the verge of bankruptcy (Davis, 2012). Luckily, the American government intervened to rescue these firms through bailout money (Davis, 2012).

Michael Porter identified five forces that influence an industry. These forces are: (1) degree of rivalry; (2) threat of substitutes; (3) barriers to entry; (4) buyer power; and (5) supplier power. For more on this framework proposed by Porter, please see Appendix C. Like other industries operating under free market, capitalistic systems, viewing the automotive industry through the lens of Porter’s Five Forces can be helpful in understanding the forces at play.

One of the best ways to analyze the external environment is through a five forces analysis, developed by Michael Porter (QuickMBA, 2010). This analysis gauges the desirability of an industry by examining the five forces that drive profitability. These are the bargaining power of buyers, the bargaining power of suppliers, the threat of substitutes, the threat of new entrants and the intensity of rivalry among firms in the industry. In the automobile industry, suppliers have moderate bargaining power. Parts suppliers are to an extent price takers, as they rely on the volume from their major customers among the Big Three and the major foreign buyers. However, labour has proven to

In 2009, the Obama Administration bailed out the General Motors and Chrysler automobile companies. Having begun their decent into bankruptcy in 2008, losing thousands of jobs, sales plummeting forty percent, with a high threat of liquidation, General Motors and Chrysler finally reached government-assisted chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009. Obama allocated eighty five billion dollars in TARP funds to the auto industry, close to fifty billion dollars of it going to General Motors. The allocated funds were successful in keeping two of the Big Three auto companies afloat, keeping taxes from sky rocketing and saving millions of jobs.

In the hyper competitive world of today’s mega corporations controlled by the sway of the stock market, giant old industrial era companies rule over the automobile market in the United States as well as large parts of the global automobile market. Companies such as General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford were at the center of it until the economic crisis now known as the Great Recession of the late 2000s. The whole market was declining in sales with General Motors and Chrysler taking the biggest hits while Ford only suffered decline comparable to foreign automakers’, Honda and Toyota, levels due to restructuring in prior years. However, the tipping point was edging closer to bankruptcy with General Motors and Chrysler that ultimately

In the latter part of 2008, the United States’ economy was rapidly plummeting - the stock market crashed, the housing bubble burst and gas prices skyrocketed. The majority of U.S. based firms faced the reality that they would not be able to survive during such desperate economic times. The U.S. automobile industry, in particular, began to buckle under the depressed economy. The government stepped in proposing a multi-billion dollar bailout to stimulate the economy and restore economic balance. The possibility of this unprecedented government intervention was condemned by many economists. If the government helped the ailing automotive industry, this industry would have to tighten their expenditures and plan for the future to prove to

Peter Drucker, who is claimed to be “the greatest management thinker of the last century”[2], once declared: “The automotive industry is an industry of industries”[3]. The automobile industry exists for more than a century and tracing the changes and development that took place there could tell volumes about the human history. In some way automotive industry reflects it, but if one looks deeper into it one could notice that in some way the industry itself formed the history of the 20th century. Though the industry is market driven now, it was not always like that. The example of Henry Ford producing just one car model with

Ideas introduced in the article assist in understanding Ford’s current situation. Ford reported sharp falls in U.S. auto sales in May 2008. Sales of its most profitable pickups and SUVs suffered the most (“US Auto Sales Slide”). Some of the main

In 2009 the American auto industry was in a dire economic state. Chrysler was in Chapter 11, GM was on the brink of bankruptcy, and Ford’s future was at best uncertain. The demise of the U.S. auto industry would have a devastating impact on our national economy and specifically the economies of Michigan and Ohio.

For my project I have chosen a Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) – an international automobile manufacturer. In addition, Toyota provides retail and wholesale financing, retail leasing and certain other financial services primarily to its dealers and their customers related to vehicles manufactured by Toyota. The major portions of Toyota 's operations on a worldwide basis are derived from the Automotive and Financial Services business segments. The Company also has an All Other segment, which includes its non-automotive business activities. The most significant of Toyota 's other operations are its information technology (IT)-related businesses and pre-fabricated housing.

The inancial analysis of the company for 1995, comparing data from 1993 and 1994 Very well researched

Each company must prepare financial statements to provide a comprehensive picture about its past performance and situation for the owners, the managers, the state and other stakeholders as well. In the case of enormous, international public limited companies like Ford and Microsoft these statements and data are public, so anybody can reach them through the internet. Moreover, we can also compute a lot of financial ratios based on these data. If we want to get an authentic frame about the firms, we have to know what these statement and ratios mean. In addition, it’s difficult for the companies that they want to give other picture about their financial status to

The financial crisis starting in 2008 and the following recession hit hard the US auto sector. Traditional car makers had to realise that substantial changes were needed in order to maintain their strong position in the

In 2009 Toyota Motors (TM) posted a net loss of $4.6 billion ("Market watch," 2014). From 2009 to 2011 Toyota encountered a number of factors contributing to their economic downturn. It began with recalling millions of vehicles, for quality related problems, followed by natural disasters hitting northeastern Japan. These disasters wiped out Toyota’s production capabilities (Tabuchi & Vlasic, 2014). While these events were occurring, the cloud of the 2008 global financial crisis was still being felt. This crisis weakened demand in the automotive industry. This weakened demand increased the competitive landscape for all automotive manufactures. This drove down automotive prices and effectively contribution margins (i.e. sold less