Free Essays on Auto Industry

Automotive Industry The Automotive Industry is one of the largest industries in the world. Transportation needs is something that effects all of us. In the automative industry there are several production types, parts, accessories, vans, mini vans, trucks, SUV's, compacts, sedans, sports and luxuries. There is over 30 different manufacturing automotive companies. Many of these companies have merged and have part ownership of each other. The two largest companies today are GMC #1 and Ford Motor Company #2. Ford and GMC both consist of about ten companies each. Sales of these cars is done form companies to dealers and dealers to consumers. Consumers can do this over the Internet or at a dealer. In 1998 Internet sales were 80 billion and expected to be 726 billion by 2003. The Internet seems to be a convenience because you don't have to find your vehicle and deal with sales men. You can even have it delivered at your door for a similar cost. The Internet decreases incremental marketing, advertising, and personal cost per sale. Prices range from lowest around ten thousand and highest around one hundred thousand. The average car today runs about twenty-five thousand dollars new. There are many factors in the price of cars. Prices rise when options become standard like airbags, safety standards and emission controls become strict. When consumers demands fluctuate prices go up and down. When sales go down automakers offer rebates and discounts to bring them up again. Also the demand factor goes up when the economic growth and employment are good. Also safety, style, and engineering helps sell cars. Having a name is important also. Safety captures every buyers interest because of the great danger in driving. Scrap rates also help sell cars because getting beaters of the road causes people to buy new cars. Twelve and a half million cars ... Free Essays on Auto Industry Free Essays on Auto Industry Exposing a Crime The U.S. Auto Industries Deception to America Going back to the 1920’s, the U.S. automakers began to break away from Henry Ford’s philosophy of sticking with the same model, in the same color, at the same price. Instead, manufactures like General Motors changed models every year, to give the impression that there was something unique that the American Consumer needed to buy. But changing models constantly required large investments of capital for design and retooling. Detroit was planting the seeds of its own destruction if it didn’t keep up with trends amongst the buying public. A high demand for cheap attractive models would lead to one of the biggest muckraker stories in the mid 60’s. In 1965 Ralph Nader published â€Å"Unsafe at Any Speed: The designed-In- Dangers of the American Automobile.† He exposed how General Motors and the American auto industry were placing consumers’ lives at risk by failing to design safe cars. Nader especially singled out General motors’ Corvair which he labeled a death trap. By the late 1950’s, the Big Three automakers were losing out to a public that was demanding smaller, less expensive cars, and was also increasingly attracted to imports, especially the Volkswagen Beetle. Imports, in fact accounted for 10 percent of all sales in the U.S., exceeding 600,000 a year in 1958. So in 1959 it came as no surprise when the Big Three introduced three smaller models to compete against the imports: the Ford Falcon, Chevrolet corvaire, and the Plymouth Valiant. These cars, which were cheap to make, and appealing to the consumer would turn out to be unsafe and poorly constructed. Nader being a consumer himself was outraged that the U.S. auto industry could get away with murder. So he published his book â€Å"Unsafe at Any Speed† to expose the automakers. Millions of people read his book, and after exposing the industry of automobile construction he succeeded For its part, ... Free Essays on Auto Industry Automotive Industry The Automotive Industry is one of the largest industries in the world. Transportation needs is something that effects all of us. In the automative industry there are several production types, parts, accessories, vans, mini vans, trucks, SUV's, compacts, sedans, sports and luxuries. There is over 30 different manufacturing automotive companies. Many of these companies have merged and have part ownership of each other. The two largest companies today are GMC #1 and Ford Motor Company #2. Ford and GMC both consist of about ten companies each. Sales of these cars is done form companies to dealers and dealers to consumers. Consumers can do this over the Internet or at a dealer. In 1998 Internet sales were 80 billion and expected to be 726 billion by 2003. The Internet seems to be a convenience because you don't have to find your vehicle and deal with sales men. You can even have it delivered at your door for a similar cost. The Internet decreases incremental marketing, advertising, and personal cost per sale. Prices range from lowest around ten thousand and highest around one hundred thousand. The average car today runs about twenty-five thousand dollars new. There are many factors in the price of cars. Prices rise when options become standard like airbags, safety standards and emission controls become strict. When consumers demands fluctuate prices go up and down. When sales go down automakers offer rebates and discounts to bring them up again. Also the demand factor goes up when the economic growth and employment are good. Also safety, style, and engineering helps sell cars. Having a name is important also. Safety captures every buyers interest because of the great danger in driving. Scrap rates also help sell cars because getting beaters of the road causes people to buy new cars. Twelve and a half million cars ...