New foreign cars may hurt domestics

The Detroit News published an article today stating that despite new domestic vehicle launches like the new Lincoln lineup and GM's big SUVs, the new vehicles coming out of Japan -- and the foreign automakers' ability to bring them to market faster -- may thwart the attempts of domestics to regain ground in market share. And although domestic vehicle introductions stole the spotlight at the North American International Auto Show this year, analysts say that foreign automakers are still in the lead when you consider the vehicle introductions over the 2005-2007 period.  Transplants, analysts say, are in a better position to gain back market share as they replaced or are in the process of replacing vehicles representing 72 percent of their sales volumes versus the domestics' 63-66 percent. Chrysler is the only company on the right track, they say, with plans for 10 vehicle launches.