Quote:
Originally Posted by ssppxyz
This will change things quite a bit...
|
Yes, it will demonstrate which car is more popular... which will be the Toyota and Honda, for sure. The 80% of the population that just want a cheap four-seater that's small and gets good mileage will go for those. The remaining 20% will be more hardcore fans, and the supply and demand curves will come closer to meeting.
Daimler Benz isn't out to make a quick buck in a year, so they shouldn't throw all their eggs into the Smart USA basket. If it turns out to be a fad car, their investment would be lost and it would be a bad business decision. The trouble with car sales is that your basic new car model has to be sold in the USA a million times before it's profitable. If demand takes a sharp downturn, they'd have a million unsold cars. It seems to me that Daimler Benz has a pretty long-term vision for the profitability of the company.
Plus, there's something to be said for demand exceeding supply... even if they keep only 20,000 per year production and keep the models relatively the same each year, "everyone" will want one simply because they can't have one.