San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

Immune companies: Kia, Hyundai, Subaru.

Curious.

Hyundai/Kia are cheaper cars, plus they have more models that are refreshed..You can't beat the 10 year warranty + the Assurance program.

Can't explain subaru...But they did just complete a refresh of the Forester (which is guess is moving pretty well) and will be launching the refreshed '10 Legacy.

Shall I mention that Audi held up pretty well relative to BMW/Mercedes/Lexus/Infiniti :)
(Yes, I know. They only sell about a 1/3 of the cars Lexus/BMW/Mercedes do).

Subaru is the new face of value and practicality. We don't appreciate that but snow states sure do. They managed to steal a bunch of customers from Ford by making a cheaper, better version of Escape: a year ago, Ford Escape outsold Subaru Forester 4 to 1, this March, the ratio is only 2 to 1. Escape is down 32%, Forester is up 47%. Impreza has been improved quite a bit and its sales are only 16% down YoY (for a sporty car, that's a good result! especially since it's so ugly).

Yeah, Subaru is huge in snow country.

I have a buddy that has a used car lot up in Nor. Cal. and he deals almost exclusively in them.

Murf2222

If you are looking for just an every day car and not a luxury status symbol, I don't see a reason not to go with Hyundai. It is certainly not the same company from 20 years ago.

Throw China into the mix:

TIANJIN, China — Chinese leaders have adopted a plan aimed at turning the country into one of the leading producers of hybrid and all-electric vehicles within three years, and making it the world leader in electric cars and buses after that.

The goal, which radiates from the very top of the Chinese government, suggests that Detroit’s Big Three, already struggling to stay alive, will face even stiffer foreign competition on the next field of automotive technology than they do today.

“China is well positioned to lead in this,” said David Tulauskas, director of China government policy at General Motors."

Full Article

Considering China's current track record I wouldnt be too worried about China taking over everything like they seem to be planning. Their food sucks, their drugs suck, their toys suck, their high tech sucks or is just a ripoff that would be sued so fast it wouldnt be funny. China is good at making lots of cheap stuff that is disposable. Itll break in a year, but who cares it was dirt cheap and served its purpose. This will not bode will for a large purchase like a car, not matter how ambishious their buisness men are.

If I were a detroit guy, Id be far more worried about a sideswipe coming from either Korea or India.

Think again... I believe a few folks here mentioned the phrase "cash is king". China has cash while U.S. is in the poor house (and soon to get a lot poorer with the budget proposals).

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/04/02/chine...

For those that don't know, this is the company that has several I.P. on the magnetic ride system ....

It will be interesting what happens if GM and when Chrysler enters BK, how things get sliced and diced.

Welcome to the 21st century.

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Chinese buy Delphi brake and suspension business

Delphi has reached an agreement to sell off its brake and suspension business. A consortium consisting of Tempo Group, Capital Iron & Steel Co. and the Beijing government will own Beijing West Industries Co. Ltd, a new company that will buy the remaining chassis and brake operations of Delphi. Almost all of Delphi's brake business has been with GM, but many of those contracts have been re-sourced over the last several years while the company has been under chapter 11 bankruptcy. Recently, the most prominent part of the business has been the magnetic ride system which has been adopted by customers including General Motors and Ferrari. The new Chinese-owned company gets the tooling, intellectual property and some of the factories along with remaining supply contracts. Whether this change helps the business survive and thrive remains to be seen.

What you wrote was also true of Japan and Japanese products in the 1950s and 1960s. We know how that turned out in the end...

Translation:

By 2012 they intend to start a factory that will produce low-quality cheap clones of Chevy Volt and sell them to third world countries (and quite generally, in every country where GM can't sue them for patent infringement).

....Meanwhile...

GMAC resume subprime lending....Move along folks. Those past 3-4 years of subprime lending weren't really an issue, no big deal

...Oh boy...Deja Vu...We're so messed up, it's beyond comprehension...

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/04/02/gmac-...

GMAC has loosened the purse strings, with General Motors' finance arm allocating $6 billion for auto loans for the next 60 days. The 60 day mark is critical to GM, as it is the government's drop-dead date to satisfy Auto Task Force viability requirements. The cash infusion will help struggling dealers with dried up credit channels, but it will also be used to finance cars and trucks to people with credit scores under 620. The under 620 crowd is referred to as subprime, a term that is now synonymous with the words "bailout" and "recession."

Back in October, GMAC restricted lending to customers with scores over 700, and when the U.S. government provided a $6 billion in loans, the minimum score was lowered to 620. GMAC insists that the under 620 score would be approved sparingly, and buyers would still be required to qualify for financing. NADA chairman John McEleney says that the lowered credit score minimum could result in the ability to help 30-35% more Americans get into a new car or truck. And while overplaying the subprime card can lead to more trouble, at this point, the General clearly has to do something to get metal moving again.

Not immune, really. Just sending huge of their inventory to rental fleets. At least in the case of Hyundai and Kia.

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/04/13/hyund...

True, but people are now talking about the Chinese as they did about the Japanese in the 80's; and look how that turned out in the end. (Turning Japanesia...)

In all reality they are not gonna take over the world like some seem to think, and they are not gonna remain the backwater of manufacturing and industry they were up until the 1990's. They will most likly build a world wide car company or two, just like we have Ford and GM, Germany has BMW, porsche and VW, Italy has its luxery models, India is growing tata, Japan has Toyota and Honda, Korea has kia........

They will grow or buy their way up to compete with the big dogs of the industry and crowd out the little guys (like chrysler) alittle more. Every country has its growth spurt onto the world stage, and every one eventually sucumbs to the internal pressures unique to that country before it takes over everything. Japan did it in the 70's and 80's. We did it before that. China is now, then India is next in my opnion.