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Everyone’s doing it: that is, stating what
they believe the state of the car industry in 2006. Here’s The Car
Connection’s (TCC) forecast:
- Detroit continues to cut more plants while there’s a
staffing shuffle among the upper management in all automakers. - Toyota to become the world’s number
one automaker. - Decline in vehicle recalls. (Or is that the rise of “service action”
bulletins?) - Car prices rose in 2005 and will continue to do so in the new year. So look out for more
“sleight of hand” on pricing at the dealerships. - Chrysler, the only
“We’re-Not-Domestic” automaker to actually increase in market share last year, will continue to do so
in 2006. (Though what’s happening with Jeep?) - (Formerly Known as SUVs) crossovers will multiple like
rabbits and outsell their lumbering predecessors. - Nissan begins to unravel as quality issues continue to
plague the come-back kid and management returns to its traditional ways. (Ghosn, come back to Japan….) - Oil prices will stay where they are as the oil companies lie low under all that federal (and public) scrutiny. But
then…. - Demand for hybrids continues to grow despite skeptics pointing out they fail to live up to
their promise.
What do you think of TCC’s opinion? Dead on? Or time to pull out those books of
Nostradamus again?