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Growing stocks of unsold cars around the world | Business | guardian.co.uk

roachboy

the 7th photo in that series is great.

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Deltona Couple

Yes I do work at a Delaership. A good one in Houston actually.

Those pictures do not really represent a failure in the industry itself. Anyone who lives up North in the Detroit area I am sure know this. At any single moment, the manufacturer's have stockpiles of vehicles waiting for delivery to the dealers. How else could a dealership have a car ready of any upfitting type within a day or 2? They don't just build as they go, thousands of cars are produced and stored, waiting for the dealerships to sell them. OK, I am going to make an example here...it isn't PERFECT, but it can give you the general idea here. Let's say evey dealerships sells the exact same number of cars a month that we do. We sell around 150 units a month currently, with the slow economy. And lets say that in the US there are....50 dealerships per state average....I am sure there are more, but lets go with that numer. Now that means that there are 375000 units sold EACH MONTH in the US...don't you think that we would need large stockpiles of cars? Now I have no real time data to ack this up, like I said, I am making an assumption bbased only on our dealership, but it can give you an idea of how many cars are being sold. Of course with the slower economy the numbers ARE different, and oviously there are more vehicles being made than are being sold, but I think those pictures are more for dramatic effect, than an actualy problem. Only one I can figure makes a point is the one of the cars around the test track, and to e honest, nobody knows EXACTLY why they are parked there except for those who actually did the parking. Maybe that week they were having to repaint or repave the parking area, maybe they were staging them for loading...hell who knows.

The fact is that the industry IS in trouble. Whether by poor construction, or bad design. Those who say that GM is building cars that nobody likes, um...Last time I checked the dealers are still selling them, so SOMBODY must like the designs. Not everyone likes the same kind of cars. Hell I think BMWs are the ugliest cars ever made, I think their lines are poorly thought up, and they are just plain ugly. And I am SURE that there are plenty of people here that would disagree with me. That why is is called an opinion. If everyone liked the exact same thing, we would have just ONE car design out there for the entire world. As it is, people like different things, and it is their right to like what they want to.. That is called freedom of choice, and basic human rights, to have your own opinion.

And yes, to the person who commented, Ford opted out at this time, but have said that they may need to opt-in before summer.

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Tully Mars

I think that's a valid point. Here's a picture of the Toyota distribution center in Portland Oregon-



I don't know the date of the photo but the number of cars has always been like that, long as I can remember. Acres and acres of new cars all brought up the Columbia River via ships just like the one on the left side of the photo. If you're inbound on a flight to PDX on the eastern approach you pass directly over this and several over processing lots. They're always full of cars.

I still think the industries in trouble, just these photos of full lots don't prove much.

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Baraka_Guru

The Associated Press: GM rides cost cuts, new model sales to 1Q profit

cost cuts + new model sales = Q1 profits

Though I'm willing to believe that consumers have gained confidence at the same time. I think the timing was good for GM to turn things around. I think things are stabilizing in the American economy and that recovery is already underway. The signs are there, anyway.

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Craven Morehead

Yeah, Toyota had a lot to do with that.

Baraka_Guru

Oh, yeah. There's that too!

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Seer666

Given the dire straights they are in, the morons should at least take the "May the best car win" motto off their page...

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