From: norcott_bill@tandem.com (Bill Norcott)
Newsgroups: rec.autos
Subject: Re: Taurus now #1 seller?
Date: 26 Jan 93 22:05:10 GMT
Reply-To: norcott_bill@tandem.com (Bill Norcott)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Tandem Computers, Inc.

In article <wfMrhV200WBM86MWo8@andrew.cmu.edu>, so0z+@andrew.cmu.edu (Sang-Yoon Oh) writes:
|> 
|> I have a question on this number one selling car in the US.
|> According to the articles I have read, Ford gave a big promo to rental
|> car companies(dumping may be the right word here) in order to beat
|> Accord.
|> I don't know what the percentage of new Taurus is sold to rental car
|> companies but must be a huge number.  
|> What is the point of having or checking who sold the most number of car??? 
|> To inform public that which car is the best liked by majority, isn't it??
|> I don't think rental car purchase is contraled by consumers(rental car
|> customers).    I go to rental car agent and I basically get no choice. 
|> (for example, I rather drive Accord or Maxima than Taurus or Lumina
|> which only cars offered by major rental car companies.  You don't have
|> to flame me for this, I just have had bad experience with Ford and GM
|> cars.  It is just a my personal preference)
|> I felt that some of big rental companies cannot/don't buy import
|> cars.(one of those stupid rule or that domestic companies give big, I
|> mean big discounts??)
|> Big three are accusing Japanese car companies on dumping sale on minivans.
|> Looks like they are not looking at themselves before accusing their
|> competitors.
|> 
|> In my opinion the cars sold to companies(with those ridicules discount)
|> shouldn't be counted in top ten selling cars list.  They should have
|> separate list "top ten company cars".  or give customers like me a same
|> deal(price wise) which those rental car companies get.
|> 

This issue is a red herring as far as I am concerned.  The rental
car companies replace their entire fleet of cars every year.  What
do you suppose they do with the previous years' cars, just scrap
them?  Those cars are all sold to the public, i.e. they are bought
by individuals.  By the way, your statement about the rental car
companies not buying imports is completely off base, you can rent
Toyotas from Hertz and buy them when they are replaced by the new 
models.  Hertz is owned by Ford, why do you expect them to not rent
Fords?  If Honda want to play that game, let them start their own
rental car company.  Or to look at it another way, how many American
cars do you suppose are in use by Japanese rental companies and 
company fleets. 

I read that 15% of the production of Taurus are sold to fleets.  This
includes all the rental companies, police, company cars, etc.  When
the Taurus was introduced the Accord sold three times as many as
the Taurus.  Every year since then Ford has gained ground and Honda
has lost ground.  Now Taurus is ahead, or if you want to split hairs
you can convince yourself they are 15% behind.  In another year or
so they can pull ahead by any measure.  Honda had the bragging rights
in the years they were ahead, now it's a case of "They can dish it
out, but they can't take it".

The other thing to consider is that Ford chooses to market the same
car as two different models: Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable.  The Sable
sells almost half as many units as the Taurus.  In the U.S. market, 
the Japanese companies sell only one model in each size/price class.
Suppose they split their production and called 2/3 of them Honda 
Accord and the other 1/3 Acura something.  Then the Honda Accord would
be nowhere close to the Taurus in sales.  Or to put it another way,
if you combine the sales of the Taurus and Sable, they far surpass
sales of the Honda. By the way, in their home market the Japanese 
companies sell a variety of models in the same size class, many of 
them clones of each other.  For whatever reasons, they put all their
eggs in one basket in the U.S. market.

-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------|
Bill Norcott			GUARDIAN POSIX project
Tandem Computers, Inc.		
10600 N. Tantau Avenue		PHONE:  (408) 285-3253
Cupertino, CA   95014		EMAIL: norcott_bill@tandem.com