Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesqf
And how do you know this, exactly? If manufacturers refuse to build something like a new '88 Toyota, how do you know that new truck buyers won't buy it? What you have is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
For a parallel, you could go back to the early '70s. Nobody built small trucks back then (though the big pickups of the day were quite a bit smaller than now). Toyota icould have said "nobody buys small trucks, so let's not bother making one". Instead, they introduced the small truck, and it sold. Same with the Volkswagen Beetle, or Japanese care in the '70s and '80s.
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Anything you build, there will be at least one sucker who will buy it.
But you can't justify the cost of development, certification, marketing, distribution, parts supply planning, mechanic training and etcetera on just one sucker. You need a lot of suckers.
Manufacturers don't sell manuals anymore because there aren't enough suckers buying manuals.
Manufacturers refuse to sell basic small pick-ups because market research tells them that they're not going to get enough suckers to fund the push unless they drop the price to where it's not profitable to sell them brand new.
US manufacturers generally have good market research, which is why they don't even try to attack non-profitable segments. Out here in Asia, it's more of a Wild Wild West theme... manufacturers will attack any niche looking to create a new market.
But people aren't interested in back-to-basics cars. Even in India, where they drive auto-rickshaws and twenty year old rebadged Kei cars dressed in new sheetmetal... cars like the Nano have a hard time, because people want bigger, better, more.