Quote:
Originally Posted by Whoops
I think it's more of a marketing/dollar revenue issue. My impression is that in the U.S. and to some extent Canada, they car manufacturers largely are moving in a implicit direction of putting the 4 speed automatic, torque lockup into larger vehicles with taller gearing/lower final drives, while leaving the smaller cars with less tall/higher final drives, either for torque response.
Ultimately the overall direction is to create, largely, a circumstance where they can still sell SUV's or larger vehicles because they are finally moving them towards getting better effectiveness and by their manipulation of the market, there isn't as large a gap between them and smaller vehicles. Since they can charge more, they can make more $.
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I get this impression too, especially now that many SUV's are basically cars, or the wagon version of a midsize car. It is a way to charge $15k more for $3,000 of equipment.
I think this is why more people are buying smaller imports as well, GM, Chrysler, and Ford would really have you buy one of their SUV's instead of small car and I think it shows in the quality of their small cars.
Also it was so sad during the NHL playoffs, Ford payed big bucks for premium ad time and played the same stupid Ford Super Duty truck ad 100's of times when gas prices were going through the roof... How many people watching need to tow 20000lbs? How many wish they could get better mileage tomorrow on the way to work?
If they sell 2000 of those trucks in Canada they will be lucky, meanwhile their Focus sales are being destroyed by Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, KIA even...