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May 11th, 2004, 01:02 AM
#1
Ok.. so where do they go?
Here's a discussion I started with the significant other this evening: You know how all those cars are built every year. Hundreds of thousands of new cars that sit on showroom floors and parking lots. Now we know that not all are sold. Even if it was as high as 50% being sold, what the heck happens to the remaining cars???
I mean think about it. There are about .. what? 5-7 major car manufacturers in North America/Japan alone. The big ones -- Ford and GM -- produce hundreds of thousands of cars each year, and with every new model, they last longer and longer. So, the cars that aren't sold. Where do they go?
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May 11th, 2004, 01:23 AM
#2
they go to cheaper bulk car dealers etc....
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May 11th, 2004, 01:39 AM
#3
I came in to the world with nothing. I still have most of it.
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May 11th, 2004, 03:04 AM
#4
They get sold to joe public, years later as new. YOU NEVER BYE A NEW CAR.
What happens if a big asteroid hits the Earth? Judging from realistic simulations involving a sledge hammer and a common laboratory frog, we can assume it will be pretty bad. - Dave Barry
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May 11th, 2004, 03:22 PM
#5
How do you know they don't get sold? If that is the case they probably just move them around. There isn't really a great stockpile, cars are ordered. I mean they won't churn out 100k Cougars if the dealers aren't demanding them, I don't think.
I imagine some get shifted to the large auto auctions and moved around if the dealer doesn't move it fast enough. What I want to know is how they move all the cars traded in all the time? Good question though, at least around here they seem to move and sell very well.
West of House
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
There is a small mailbox here.
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May 11th, 2004, 03:24 PM
#6
Originally posted here by RoadClosed
I imagine some get shifted to the large auto auctions and moved around if the dealer doesn't move it fast enough. What I want to know is how they move all the cars traded in all the time? Good question though, at least around here they seem to move and sell very well.
This is where they go in California. They are always having auctions in mall parking lots or "significantly discounted" auto shows.
N00b> STFU i r teh 1337 (english: You must be mistaken, good sir or madam. I believe myself to be quite a good player. On an unrelated matter, I also apparently enjoy math.)
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May 11th, 2004, 03:26 PM
#7
Yes but there is a finite number of purchasers of cars. Jaguar and higher-end manufacturers either build to a specific limit or based on numbers of orders. But if you look at the more "mass market" car, even if they build say... 30,000 Cougars in a year, not all are sold, especially with longevity. So where do the extra cars go to? Books, as another example, usually send overstock to "remainder stores" (places that sell books at half or a quarter of their price). The books are sold until they are all gone and no further copies are published. But books are a smaller and more managable item. Cars aren't.
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May 11th, 2004, 03:37 PM
#8
Books, as another example, usually send overstock to "remainder stores" (places that sell books at half or a quarter of their price).
A car remainder store....now wouldn't that be great.
I would imagine that some of them (at least) are offered to car rental agencies and fleet customers also. But that still wouldn't account for the numbers quoted.
\"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, Champagne in one hand - strawberries in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming WOO HOO - What a Ride!\"
Author Unknown
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May 11th, 2004, 03:43 PM
#9
To put this in perspective, I did a quick google search:
Source: Google Answers
According to historian Rudi Volti, over one billion cars were produced worldwide in the twentieth century.
...
According to David Eisenhaure, SatCon's President and Chief Executive Officer, some 60 million cars are produced each year worldwide.
That's a lot of cars. I know families have 2 or more cars but many of the cars bought for kids or spouses are often older (car prices are high). Hrmm...
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May 11th, 2004, 04:03 PM
#10
If you know that the big three have over $80 billion worth of unsold cars, I'd say this is a very valid question... heh.
I don't have a clue where they go, but there are some explanations for why they keep producing that many cars if they don't get sold...
All car-manufacturers have a huge fixed cost, and they all prefer lowering prices over lowering volume. If you come out with a new model, the start-up costs (for the production line, mainly) are so high that reducing production isn't an option.
Say Ford invests $1B in a new production line. By buying huge stocks of parts, they can reduce the prices on parts so that it'll actually cost Ford only around $5k to build their new model. If they sell the new car for $20k, making a profit of $15k per car and wanting to get the money they spend on the production line back, they'd have to build and sell 66,666 cars.
If they don't build those 66,666 cars, there's no way they can get their money back. Furthermore, if they'd stop production of the car, they'd still have to pay all of their personnel.
Having to pay people for doing nothing isn't exactly a good business attitude...
So you have a production line that only pays for itself when this huge amount of cars gets build on it and sold (if you don't build them, you can't sell them), you have factory workers and other personnel that need to be paid no matter if they actually build cars or not, and you have this huge stock of parts (ok... most car-manufacturers work with JIT, so they don't have the actual stock, but they probably have contracts with their suppliers)...
Only way to do it: by keeping on building more and more cars, no matter if they sell or not.
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