Well, post bailout, the American manufacturers are showing a great willingness to drop the overhead costs by simply moving production overseas... Hell... before the bail-out, GM and Ford were using foreign subsidiaries to provide their smaller cars for cheap... and they never shied away from the low profit-margin fleet sales.
And if Hyundai and Kia are so willing to take that hit... why is it only Chevrolet, of the three, who is bringing their mini-car to the US market? There isn't even the shadow of the suggestion of a rumor of the Koreans sending their tiny cars Stateside... Honda, on the other hand, scoffs at any suggestion of creating a left-hand drive variant of their good looking Brio. Says the demand isn't there.
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Originally Posted by jamesqf
Seems like you're using a circular argument here. Suzuki won't import small cars because "Americans don't like small cars", but GM forces them to import poor quality small cars? Do you suppose it could possibly be the poor quality that keeps Americans from buying these cars, not the size?
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Suzuki cars, in my experience, are actually head and shoulders above any Daewoo in terms of quality. Unfortunately, except for the trucks, they didn't have any cars big enough for the US market at the time they were used as badge-job recepients for Daewoos. It's only now they have the SX4 and Kizashi, but the latter is too small for the market (like the Mazda6 was) and the former is... strange... neither here nor there. I think the Swift is an excellent vehicle, but the tiny back-seat and trunk would make it a hard sell. The MINI-like styling would make it popular enough... if only they'd bring it in.
There is some merit to the quality argument... years of Daewoo rebadges have soured the American public on Suzukis, just like the Aveo and Optra (you call it the Forenza) have almost completely destroyed the reputation of Chevrolet overseas.
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Originally Posted by jamesqf
There also seems to be quite a following for the Suzuki Samurai & Sidekick. And indeed, for many of the smaller '80s and '90s Hondas & Toyotas. Now why are people buying these used, and often spending quite a bit of money on mods, if Americans don't like small cars?
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We're talking about Americans who buy brand new. Not those who are smart enough to buy used.
