Unsold cars

[Aerius]

I thought it was funny when I read that unsold cars would be measured by the space they take up instead of how many were unsold. Guess it is ending up to be correct..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/g...ture=341883529

[petertribo]

Re: Unsold cars

Toyota which supposedly makes good cars and they can't sell them is now using the ships that ship them instead to store them:

CAR manufacturer Toyota has so many unsold cars it has had to charter a ship to store them all.

Toyota said today it had chartered a 2,500-capacity vessel which will simply stand idle in port in Malmo, Sweden.

The vessel, belonging to car-carrier specialist Wallenius Wilhelmsen, is necessary because there is simply no more room to store cars at the Toyota import site in Malmo, the company said.

http://www.lloydslist.com/ll/news/vi...printable=true

This must be a rather expensive business model, that is investing in a vessel to ship cars to and fro and then, when biz tanks, to use the vessel as a warehouse. Wallenius' Banksters may be calling some loans.

Check for salt damage on that "new" Toyota if you ever get around to buying one, the Marine Environment is not too kind to metal.

[don]

Re: Unsold cars

Check for salt damage on that "new" Toyota if you ever get around to buying one, the Marine Environment is not too kind to metal.

Another reason to buy "previously owned" ;)

[mr_fibuli]

Re: Unsold cars

Toyota which supposedly makes good cars and they can't sell them is now using the ships that ship them instead to store them:

http://www.lloydslist.com/ll/news/vi...printable=true

This must be a rather expensive business model, that is investing in a vessel to ship cars to and fro and then, when biz tanks, to use the vessel as a warehouse. Wallenius' Banksters may be calling some loans.

Check for salt damage on that "new" Toyota if you ever get around to buying one, the Marine Environment is not too kind to metal.

Toyota will also have to turn down the rhetoric on the superiority of their lean systems - they may not hold much WIP but have a huge stock of finished goods.

They may make a good (though bland and insipid IMO) car but if no one has the money to buy them they're in the same boat as GM et al ultimately.

[ax]

Re: Unsold cars

And yet their stock continues to make monthly runs up to about $70. Anybody shorting these guys or have an opinion on doing so? Daimler has headed towards $40 a few times before getting halved recently...

[FRED]

Re: Unsold cars

I thought it was funny when I read that unsold cars would be measured by the space they take up instead of how many were unsold. Guess it is ending up to be correct..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/g...ture=341883529

As unemployment rises, consumers will have even less money to spend on cars.

From: Best car deal in 2009?

Let's skip over the next few years and jump all the way to the bottom of the Depression:

• The volume of unsold cars is now so large it is best measured in acres of lot space required for storage. Reuters reports that at the Long Beach, California port, "Toyota has leased an additional 23 acres of space while Mercedes-Benz has leased about 20 more acres." By the end of 2009, even though few new cars will be shipped to US ports, that inventory will hardly have been worked down at all, owing to the glut of good and very cheap used cars on the market.
• Tens of thousands of companies will go out of business in 2009, putting thousands of used leased cars on the market.
• Hundreds of thousands of households will be unable to make lease and loan payments, putting a few hundred thousand more used cars up for sale.

[GRG55]

Re: Unsold cars

Another reason to buy "previously owned" ;)

BMW has started running TV ads up here in Canada [doing the same in the US??] touting their "Certified Series Pre-Owned Vehicles".

At first I thought they were "certifying" that the car was pre-owned [:rolleyes:], but on further reflection maybe that's not the message they're trying to get across...

The New Age of Austerity seems to be settling in for a long, comfortable stay.

[ljaycox]

Re: Unsold cars

My wife and I needed a newer car, so we have been shopping recently.
I thought about holding out for awhile, but she was having to drive my truck so it was a hassle. But we just found an 06 Accord with lots of options and low miles, one owner with all the dealer service records--10K with a transferable warranty inluded until 2012. I went ahead with it--so we ended up with one of EJ's best car loans---NO LOAN.
Who knows by the end of 09 I may be able to buy brand new for that--but if that is the case that will be the least of our worries. This one will last us for 10 years easy.
Next up-- I am shopping for a motorcycle if a good deal can be found.

[goadam1]

Re: Unsold cars

I bet we see a tax on old "less green" cars or a tax credit for new green cars.

[gwynedd1]

Re: Unsold cars

I thought that if only the US was manufacturing more we would have no problems anymore(actually I didn't). It does not seem to have helped here.

[mr_fibuli]

Re: Unsold cars

And yet their stock continues to make monthly runs up to about $70. Anybody shorting these guys or have an opinion on doing so? Daimler has headed towards $40 a few times before getting halved recently...

Toyota's situation is unsustainable IMO, they have too much capacity - a new plant in Ontario, a truck plant in Texas and a prius plant that they mothballed before the equipment went in. They have not laid off any permanent workers yet at the San Antonio plant even though there is essentially no production.

If I owned any stock I'd sell now before everyone realises the extent of overcapacity.

On the other hand Toyota is well placed to survive long term and if Chrysler or GM disappear they could take a bigger piece of whatever volume is left (I'm guessing around 8M sales in the US for 2009 from 16M in 2006. As of right now though they're down 30+% in sales over last year.

[cobben]

Re: Unsold cars

In Sweden, the harbor in Stockholm on the east coast is overfull of imported cars which cannot be transported out to the overstocked dealers, so some are now being stored on idle ships.

In Sweden, the harbor in Gothenburg on the west coast (where Volvo & Saab are) is overfull of Swedish produced cars which cannot be exported, so some have been transported to other nearby smaller harbors for storage.


Somehow I think this very peculiar, as it were unheard of situation is trying to tell me something about the industrial inventory pipeline, the future of cars & also of Sweden . . . :eek:

[GRG55]

Re: Unsold cars

In Sweden, the harbor in Stockholm on the east coast is overfull of imported cars which cannot be transported out to the overstocked dealers, so some are now being stored on idle ships.

In Sweden, the harbor in Gothenburg on the west coast (where Volvo & Saab are) is overfull of Swedish produced cars which cannot be exported, so some have been transported to other nearby smaller harbors for storage.


Somehow I think this very peculiar, as it were unheard of situation is trying to tell me something about the industrial inventory pipeline, the future of cars & also of Sweden . . . :eek:

It would appear a good indicator of the extraordinarily swift contraction in global demand for durable goods of all sorts, and the scale of the overcapacity of worldwide manufacturing of same.

[ironlady]

Re: Unsold cars

Two weeks ago, I went to my local Chrysler dealer regarding my lease coming due. Knowing the glut situation, I asked my dealer about making a cash offer lower than the buy back since the car is no longer worth that. He said I was wasting my time because Chrylser financial will not accept any offers lower than the buy back. He said he had had many customers try and they would not accept a lower offer. He said his dealership did not want my car since the buyback was way too high.
I assumed the dealer was lying and called Chrysler Financial directly. Their response? "NON-NEGOTIABLE"! I was stuned. I am in Ontario Canada and my sister in Southern Caliornia said 2008 cars were on sale for 50% off at some of the dealerships they had gone to. She also told me the dealers there were not ordering any 2009s.
Canada was replaced by Mexico as the number 2 auto producer. Our government has been asked for 10 Billion to help them...and Mexico? Nada so far. I contacted our Industry ministers office responsible for the bailout and told them the response I got from Chrysler. They seemed stunned by this information. Is this just here in Canada that we are getting this kind of response? :mad:

[audrey_girl]

Re: Unsold cars

Two weeks ago, I went to my local Chrysler dealer regarding my lease coming due. Knowing the glut situation, I asked my dealer about making a cash offer lower than the buy back since the car is no longer worth that. He said I was wasting my time because Chrylser financial will not accept any offers lower than the buy back. He said he had had many customers try and they would not accept a lower offer. He said his dealership did not want my car since the buyback was way too high.
I assumed the dealer was lying and called Chrysler Financial directly. Their response? "NON-NEGOTIABLE"! I was stuned. I am in Ontario Canada and my sister in Southern Caliornia said 2008 cars were on sale for 50% off at some of the dealerships they had gone to. She also told me the dealers there were not ordering any 2009s.
Canada was replaced by Mexico as the number 2 auto producer. Our government has been asked for 10 Billion to help them...and Mexico? Nada so far. I contacted our Industry ministers office responsible for the bailout and told them the response I got from Chrysler. They seemed stunned by this information. Is this just here in Canada that we are getting this kind of response? :mad:

it has been a long time since I expected rational behavouir on the part of the American car companies, especially Chrysler, and especially since that hedge fund bought them. I remember several years ago when Cerebus bought them and BusinessWeek had a positive cover article about how smart these guys were and all I could think of was what do they know about running a car company??