Japan auto execs hope for U.S. recovery

Tuesday 06th January, 07:26 AM JST

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5 Comments

Scrote at 09:01 AM JST - 6th January

The executives don't have much hope for a domestic recovery then? If they rely solely on exports, won't that drive the Yen even higher?
wanderlust at 02:02 PM JST - 6th January
Subaru have been doing it right, making cars that people want...
- Subaru said Monday its U.S. sales crept higher in 2008 on strong demand for Forester and Impreza models. Subaru sales for all of 2008 rose by 0.3 percent to 187,699 vehicles from 187,208 in 2007, as consumers snapped up its top-selling Forester and Impreza models.
Subaru said Forester sales surged 36.4 percent in 2008. The company's updated 2008 model-year Forester was named sport/utility of the year in December by Motor Trend magazine.
Sarge at 02:06 PM JST - 6th January

Why must they hope for a U.S. recovery? Aren't there like 1.3 billion Chinese they can sell cars to?
presto345 at 08:29 PM JST - 6th January

Subaru have been doing it right, making cars that people want..

Making cars that some people want. After a few decades of Toyota some need a change. But the numbers are small.
ca1ic0cat at 09:55 PM JST - 6th January

The Chinese don't have the income to buy the higher priced, more profitable cars that Japan sells in the USA and Europe. So even if the Japanese manufacturers could get past the Chinese trade barriers (which are hefty) they aren't building enough of the right cars. Japanese production costs are higher than the same costs in China, so a Chinese econobox is going to cost less even without the tariffs. So China is no answer.

But I wouldn't expect the US economy to recover quickly. Americans are up to their ears in debt. The spending binge of the last ten years was funded by home equity lending based on inflated house prices. The house prices have dropped so there is no more debt available to keep the spending going. Until the existing debt is paid down consumer spending is going to lag. A typical car loan is 5 years, credit cards have a way of taking forever to pay off. That's the kind of time frame we are talking about for recovery....