[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by niky

The imports got their foothold because of several factors. Yes... they made small cars, but so did the domestics.

When? Start from the late '50s-early '60s period, when the VW Beetle was first imported: what small cars did the domestic automakers produce? The Corvair (which wasn't all that small), and the Corvette/'57 T-Bird, which were aimed at a different market segment.

Then in the '70s the domestics produced some mid-sized cars like the Ford Pinto & Chevy Vega, which did fit your "truly, incredibly horrible... compared to the imports" description, but they were small only in comparison to the "ull-sized" domestics. The imports were all much smaller. That continued to be the case, as I recall, until the Geo Metro was introduced - and it was just a re-badged import.

But... you can't exist on small cars alone. In a market where the top-selling car (not truck) is the absolute biggest car Toyota sells in most other markets (the Camry), then focusing simply on small cars (like, say, Suzuki does), is a death sentence.

Hadn't noticed Suzuki going bankrupt. Did I miss something?

However, I don't think I suggested that (non-specialty) manufacturers could exist on small cars alone. That's why the imports widen their brand by producing mid-size models as well. But I think recent history has proven that the converse is also true, and that manufacturers can't exist on big cars (plus SUVs & trucks) alone either, at least absent multiple billions in government life support.

[/QUOTE]The Honda Fit was originally merely the same size as, say, a mid-90's civic. The current Fit is nearly the same size as the ES-EP Civic inside, and is correspondingly heavier than the previous generation.[/QUOTE]

How much of that is by Honda's choice, though? Lots of design decisions are dictated by government regulations.

The US subsidiaries of car companies have a hard time selling truly small cars in the US, unless they're sold as fashion accessories (MINI, SMART, Fiat 500).

But those small cars do sell, don't they? I know I see Minis all over the place.

Selling just a few thousand i10s at a minimal profit margin through a nationwide network of dealers compared to just a few hundred Genesis sedans at a bigger profit margin? No brainer.

'Cept it's not either/or. It's a case of selling the few hundred larger models PLUS the few thousand small ones. So what if profit on the smaller ones is minimal? You still have your dealers paying for buildings, staff, etc while waiting around to make their one daily sale of a large car. They might as well sell small ones as spend the time playing solitaire :-)