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Originally Posted by Frank Lee
What does GM's market share have to do with it? Nowadays we have Honda, Toyota, everybody with full size offerings, even 4x4s.
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How did GM lose that market share in the first place? Wasn't from the Germans & Japanese bringing in "full size" offerings, now was it? They brought in the smaller cars, which a lot of Americans bought BECAUSE THEY WANTED SMALL CARS. The perception of better quality came later. Then later still, when the Japanese owned the small car segment and had developed their reputation for quality, they could take still more market share by adding "full size" models to their lineup.
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Part 2: must have had more to do with the perception of quality than size or fuel economy.
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Hardly. If it was just because of the perception of quality, the Japanese &c would have switched entirely to building "full size" models. But they haven't: they still build and sell a lot of small cars, because that's what a lot of Americans (though of course not everyone) actually want to buy.
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how many full-sized "imports" are used for solo commuting?
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I've no idea. But those "full size" models are what percentage of the import market? (And aren't even the "full size" imports generally smaller than their US counterparts?)
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How many 4x4 "imports" go off-road?
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Again, no idea. Probably a greater percentage than US-made. At least around here the 80s to mid-90s Toyota 4WD pickup is probably the most common sight on dirt roads (I don't do off-road myself) and construction sites.
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Do the imports have an edge in fe?
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Yes. See here:
Corporate Average Fuel Economy: How Automakers Rank - Cars.com and note that the CAFE rankings are somewhat biased in favor of Detroit because of things like credits for E85 capability.
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Are high fe cars selling well?
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Are ANY cars selling well these days? Maybe the Tesla :-) But the higher FE models seem to be doing better than the guzzlers...