Quote:
Originally Posted by mcrews
You keep mentioning the mini.........ok. Show me the high demand that sucks the dealerships dry each month. Show me the 'dealer markup stickers' w/ $1-3k of markup over retail sticker? Show me the sales numbers.
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I think you're missing the point. For a product to be profitable, it doesn't need to "suck the dealerships dry", it just needs to have reasonable sales over time. Someone else has kindly posted figures; beyond that, I do see Minis on the road often enough. Nor do they need to sell at markups over MSRP: they just need to sell enough that manufacturer and dealer make a profit.
The Mini's just easy to notice and remember, but there are other notable small cars out there that do sell, whether it's the Miata, those almost cubical things put out by several companies, or other models. (I'm afraid I don't really keep up with model names...) That gives the lie to any claim that Americans don't want, or don't buy, small cars. Quite obviously some of us do.