The Global Automobile Industry

The product that Toyota was introducing to the consumer was not ground breaking and did not set itself apart from any other product on the market, not only did it not set itself apart it was producing vehicles that closely resembled the competition. Toyota was losing their competitive edge of reliability because other companies were able to replicate their efficient production and reliability and have the same success they Toyota previously held. The customer base for Toyota was not growing and more of a following due to loyalty to their past performance. The company had also lost its innovative edge and with this was losing its market share. I see due to Toyota’s lack of initiative by not moving more manufacturing to the US and innovation as an opportunity to enter the small car market that was previously dominated by the Japanese manufactures. With all this said Toyota still had a great reputation for producing a very reliable product, with this reputation Toyota could be one change away from becoming a major player

The Chevy which is a colloquial term for Chevrolet is a division of general motors (GM) that are American manufacturers of vehicles. The Chevrolet motor car company was founded by Louis Chevrolet and William Durant. Mr. Durant used this car and acquired a stake that controlled General Motors after which there was a reverse merger. The Chevy vehicles are distributed in most markets globally carrying the maxim ‘A car for every purse.’ The essay below stipulates strategies that the Chevy upholds in the different markets in which their motor vehicles are sold (McDonald, 2002).

Some of the weaknesses of the company include the failed vehicles like the Chevy Corvair, which did not sell well at all. Safety issues and recalls, along with consumer complaints of poor quality in some of products made for a lot of negative publicity. Many of the manufacturing and design issues were with some of Chevy’s most popular models. Recalls on so many vehicles over a short period of time threatened Chevy’s reputation with consumers and the ability for GM to deliver quality products that people could depend on, this affected sales in a major way (Weaknesses, 2011). Overall Chevrolet has worked over the years to brand itself as a part of American heritage. The company is attempting to take the brand international and create a brand that would be consistent across other countries and appeal to international buyers, making it more globalized over

American cars versus foreign cars need to be analyzed before purchasing. When the automotive industry began, Ford was at its prime and american manufactures were the only way to go when looking for a motor vehicle. However the innovation and technology have drastically changed. It now has turned the automotive industry into a competition. Foreign manufactures like Japan and Germany are getting recognized by their quality and are making big competition for American cars.

The last several years were also tumultuous for the U.S. auto industry. After dominating the market for decades, American automakers had grown complacent about product development. At the same time, rising gas prices and uncertainty about the economy caused consumer preferences to shift from SUVs to more fuel efficient vehicles. Foreign competitors entered the U.S. market offering more reliable, higher quality and more fuel efficient vehicles at a lower price and began to steal market share away from American automakers. In order to remain competitive, U.S. automakers need to focus on increasing production efficiencies and developing innovative product offerings. Firm Analysis

A recent article posted on www.driving.ca, (LeBlanc, 2016), showed that of the top ten selling vehicles in the world for 2015, only three were American. Those three vehicles were the Ford F-Series (3rd place with 920,172 sold), the Ford Focus (4th place, with 826,221 sold), and the Chevrolet Silverado (9th place with 669,683 vehicles sold). As Hanne Keiling pointed out in her article on www.zebra.com (Keiling,2015), part of the challenge American car manufacturers face is a perception of

In the 1990s the auto industry made up 2.5 % of the GNP and employed about 850,000 people. At the time that was about 4.5-5 % of all manufacturing workers (wong, 1990). Then during the early 2000s labor productivity was increasing greatly, but the American auto-makers failed to produce energy-efficient cars for the energy crisis. When the recent recession hit the U.S. automakers had a major setback causing a cut in employment, production, and huge loss in revenue. After the government bailout the industry improved, by 2012 sales, exports, and employment rose to a new high. It’s now 2014 and we are still getting out of the recession but due to government decisions, deals made between companies, and increase in jobs, sales have increased dramatically.

While the American auto industry is solidly “the big kid on the block”, the rise of affluence in other regions of the world such as China and India have created an entire new market for automobiles. The native auto makers in those countries such as the Chinese “Chery” obviously have the upper hand in targeting customers in those regions. The American Company Chevy had first hand experience with the pitfalls of trying to compete in foreign countries when it introduced the Chevy “Nova” to South America. The urban legend is that the marketing team failed to realize is that the cars name “Nova” translates loosely into Spanish as “No Go” which is an unfortunate name for a model of car. It sold poorly.

However, Europe is not the only country that has car makers struggling to turn their sales into the positive but even in America sales have been down.

With the increase of global competition, the manufacturers of vehicles in the US had been negatively

Ford Motor Company has tough competition with European and Japanese manufacturers, therefore the company did not respond well and suffered

Three car manufactures also lost U.S market share during this same period. Ford fell from 24.1% to

The United States Automotive industry has been dominated by five major auto manufacturers: GM, Toyota, Ford, Chrysler, and Honda. As globalization increases the domestic automotive market (GM, Ford, Chrysler) suffers from foreign competitors. Although with high entrance barriers the market suffers little to none from new entries. There are several reasons for this the largest being capital. It takes a lot of capital to obtain manufacturing plants, raw materials, as well as to hire and train employees. PASTEL Analysis

As it relates to the competitive structure, or the number and size distribution of companies within an industry, the automobile industry is considered a consolidated industry, where a small number of large companies dominate and are able to set prices. Traditionally, in America, these companies were called “The Big Three,” Chrysler, Ford, and GM, but Toyota, was also a major rival during the recession. “In consolidated industries, companies are interdependent, because one company’s competitive actions or moves (with regard to price, quality, and so on) directly affect the market share of its rivals, and thus their profitability” (Hill & Jones, 2012, p. 62). The relative power of consolidation on the automobile industry was high.

The next factor is to have a quality, compelling products that innovate and capture the customers attention. This is clear in that while people are statistically staying away from buying a car in exchange for public transportation especially in England, that luxury cars are selling well in worldwide poor economies. I would say the next factor is to create cars to sell to the U.S. market. Take the foreign market for example where the Ford focus in the United states is a clear C list car that isn’t that desirable is a great seller in countries like Germany where it is highly desired. The third factor is public perception. Auto makers must capture the public attention for sales, not just make the “best” or cheapest car. For years in America we have an opinion that due to the bailout for example that foreign cars are better and as such seek out Mercedes, Audi, BMW, Jaguar etc. and not a Cadillac. We seen this with GM who was trying to sell the ponaic G8 that was half the cost of European performance sedans and was a failure in the U.S. despite being one of GM's most exciting cars ever made for the market. The forth factor would be to study the market carefully. Motor vehicle companies must compete globally to make a living and as such must examine the growing markets worldwide and