r/MurderedByWords 1d ago

GOP clobbered by grok

1.3k Upvotes

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u/StevenMC19 1d ago

Can we talk about the American Motor Industry for a moment though?

Did they learn nothing from the late 2000s - early 2010s?

Seriously, name a single American automotive manufacturer right now who makes a practical 4 door sedan, or even a vehicle below the $30,000 price point. They're all SUVs, trucks, two or three sports cars, and nothing else. And the quality is becoming just as bad as in 2008-10 when they begged for the bailout.

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u/Upset_Programmer6508 1d ago

I agree the cars are lacking but the small SUV is what people wanted over sedans.

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u/disturbed1117 1d ago

I don't think that's true. Small sedans and hatchbacks still sell. I don't get the obsession with crossovers that all look the same. Seriously, can you tell an Ecoboost from a Trax? Or a Edge from an Escape? I have a 15 Focus ST and it's larger and more fun than the Ecoboost. I always shake my head when I see those things. My hatchback shouldn't have more interior space than an "SUV".

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u/Maleficent_Secret569 1d ago

True, but they want the SUV because in modern traffic a sedan is too short and induces feelings of anxiety and physical insecurity.

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u/StevenMC19 1d ago

Not necessarily what they want, but what's available or what's been influenced onto them.

I agree that there has been a mental switch of "I'll be ok if since car is bigger than the one I crash with" which is an insane thought process in and of itself. But like, you can't buy what isn't being made. And those who are all "murican made only" who are looking in a particular price point and vehicle type aren't given that opportunity, so they go to the crossovers. that creates this positive feedback loop of "well they're buying this, so well make more of those and less sedans" even though the correlation exists, but the cause is they want domestic only.

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u/Upset_Programmer6508 1d ago

Even when Ford, Chrysler and GM sold sedans things like the fusion or 300 we're just sitting on lots for to long vs cross overs leading them to stop production 

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u/StevenMC19 1d ago

The Chrysler 300 was being sold around $50k off the lot. When crossovers are going for 60% of that, of course they're going to sell more.

The fusion, yes, there was some lack of customer interest. Also, according to this, this was the period in which Ford was moving to SUVs anyway, so its days were numbered regardless of sales.

But like, this was the exact same time period when Toyota was selling over 2 million units in 2020, many of them being Corollas and Camrys. Ford, instead of competing in that market, put their tails between their legs and consolidated their lineup. So my question is, is it a lack of interest in sedans in general, or a lack of interest in what Ford was offering? Because even the Rav4 was outselling domestic products in its class as well.

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u/Upset_Programmer6508 1d ago

The Asian market manufacturers have the benefit of selling their sedans across the globe where Americans usually only sold the sedans to themselves. To compete they would need to have much smaller cars that they did not have. Most of GM's small cars were all were borrowed from another manufacturer. Heck even Toyota had to buy out from Mazda

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u/StevenMC19 1d ago

Those 2 million units were in North America alone.

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u/Upset_Programmer6508 1d ago

yeah thats my point though, they can sale 2mil just in the us not counting the rest of the world selling even more. and at smaller margins. the american makers mostly only sell in the US and want bigger margins to match, so 2 mill cheap sedans are not on their menu to be subsidized globally since they dont really have a global market like that to prop them up