Volvo, Mitsubishi, Road & Track among brands predicted to disappear from US next year
05-27-13, 02:27 PM
#1
Volvo, Mitsubishi, Road & Track among brands predicted to disappear from US next year
Volvo, Mitsubishi, Road & Track among brands predicted to disappear from US next year
24/7 Wall St., a financial news and opinion website, has identified 10 big brands that it believes will disappear from the US market within the next 18 months. The list "reflects how industry trends can accelerate the demise of certain brands," says the publication, noting the "brutally competitive nature of certain industries and the importance of not falling behind in efficiency, innovation or financing." Failure of a brand may happen for a variety of reasons, but the website points out that declining sales, rising costs, losing market share and a loss of customers are nails in an impending coffin.
According to the report, automotive brands with market shares under half a percent cannot remain competitive against giants like Volkswagen Group, Toyota, General Motors and Daimler AG. Citing the loss of Suzuki when it filed for bankruptcy last year, the website is predicting that Volvo and Mitsubishi will follow, exiting the US by the end of 2014. Mitsubishi's sales were down 15.51 percent in April - making it the weakest performing automaker on our monthly By the Numbers roundup.
Another tough business sector is print advertising, as digital and online media avoid the legacy costs of materials, printing and distribution by truck and mail. 24/7 Wall St. called out Martha Stuart Living and Road & Track as two American brands living on borrowed time. It also predicts that Road & Track, celebrated as the oldest automobile magazine in the country (founded in 1947), will likely roll up with Car and Driver, as both brands are based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and owned by the Hearst Corporation. However, R&T's editorial staff recently underwent a major turnover as the magazine relocated to the Mitten State from California, and Hearst backed a top-to-bottom revamp of the publication's print and online properties, suggesting that the media company believes there's life in the old girl yet.
http://www.autoblog.com/2013/05/27/v...ted-to-disapp/
05-27-13, 03:56 PM
#2
Lexus Fanatic
iTrader: (20)
the sooner magazines disappear, the better. unfortunately, gossip and women's magazines will likely never disappear. 
05-27-13, 04:03 PM
#3
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05-27-13, 05:54 PM
#8
Lexus Fanatic
iTrader: (20)
the same 'mags' are online anyway. i'm not your typical tree hugger, but why bother cutting down trees, printing with toxic inks and heavy machinery, jet/truck/car those mags around to addresses, etc., so people can read 'news' that's already MONTHS out of date?
05-27-13, 06:31 PM
#9
Lexus Fanatic
Well, partly because paper-magazines don't crash, need rebooting, deny you access to data in their web-sites (CR is famous for that), hang up in download/response time, need periodic erasures of web-sited visited, or sometimes make a pain-in-the-a** of themselves like computers sometimes do. And if the info in them is sometimes out of date, the magazine itself can't be blamed if the auto-companies won't release stuff beforehand that they should be releasing. Those senseless, inane bras/body-tape/masks that we often see on new vehicle-designs that haven't been unveiled at the auto shows yet (forcing a cat-and-mouse game between the auto-marketers and "Spy" shots) are a perfect example.
05-27-13, 06:45 PM
#10
Lexus Fanatic
BTW, I think that Volvo will probably outlast Mitsubishi in the American market. Mitsubishi has basically been on life-support for several years now. The younger guys with their caps on backwards driving Evos/Ralliarts and those few Outlander buyers probably aren't going to be enough to keep the company here much longer. Mitsu executives are still adament (at least in public) that the company isn't going anywhere, but then, so were Isuzu, Suzuki, and Daihatsu execs up to the moment that all three companies announced they were leaving.
Volvo, on the other hand, has a fairly small but intensely loyal group of buyers for whom safety is (and always has been) a major concern. And, despite a limited number of dealerships, they actually sell decently here in the D.C. area.
Volvo, on the other hand, has a fairly small but intensely loyal group of buyers for whom safety is (and always has been) a major concern. And, despite a limited number of dealerships, they actually sell decently here in the D.C. area.
05-27-13, 07:17 PM
#11
Unlike Mitsubishi the Suzuki line up was actually very good and competitive. The Grand Vitara, SX4 and Kizashi are excellent and were great values. I actually snatched one of the last 2013 Grand Vitaras that remained in NY in december of last year for my daughter.
Mitsubishi has the Evo which is popular amongst very niche, small group of followers, but the rest of their line up is just junk.
Volvos are OK, but too overpriced for what they offer, much like the now defunct Saab.
Mitsubishi has the Evo which is popular amongst very niche, small group of followers, but the rest of their line up is just junk.
Volvos are OK, but too overpriced for what they offer, much like the now defunct Saab.
05-28-13, 02:31 PM
#13
Lexus Fanatic
I doubt many or even most of those brands are going to disappear next year or anytime soon.
I like reading car mags and look forward to getting my car mags in the mail, not a fan of reading articles online and would rather just flip through a magazine that never crashes, needs recharging, never gets erased, etc. If Road and Track goes then so will Automobile and Car and Driver, Motortrend, I don't care for Road and Tracks new layout though, not enough car articles/reviews and just a lot of filler not worth reading.
I like reading car mags and look forward to getting my car mags in the mail, not a fan of reading articles online and would rather just flip through a magazine that never crashes, needs recharging, never gets erased, etc. If Road and Track goes then so will Automobile and Car and Driver, Motortrend, I don't care for Road and Tracks new layout though, not enough car articles/reviews and just a lot of filler not worth reading.
05-28-13, 04:24 PM
#14
Out of Warranty
Volvo was sending the oddly out of date-looking 544 over here when VW was selling all the Bugs they could paint. Volvo CLEARLY had the superior product, but it's marketing was a mess. If they'd go back and build one of these little bank vaults today, and offer it for something like $18 - $20K they wouldn't be able to build them fast enough. High quality, honest transportation, small but adequate engine, fit and finish to rival Mercedes. That was the 544:
And that^^^ is a 1963 PV-544 Sport that sold at auction in 2009 for $22,100 - all original and like new (except for disc brake conversion and a newer Blaupunkt radio installation).
For a 2-door, genuine 4-seater, family hauler with a bit of "sports car" handling, decent economy, and absolutely bullet-proof construction, this was the state-of-the-art in the early '60's. I'll hate to see Volvo go . . . A 1960 model owned by a friend's family, it was my first driving experience with a "foreign" car when I was 15. I never forgot it.
And that^^^ is a 1963 PV-544 Sport that sold at auction in 2009 for $22,100 - all original and like new (except for disc brake conversion and a newer Blaupunkt radio installation).
For a 2-door, genuine 4-seater, family hauler with a bit of "sports car" handling, decent economy, and absolutely bullet-proof construction, this was the state-of-the-art in the early '60's. I'll hate to see Volvo go . . . A 1960 model owned by a friend's family, it was my first driving experience with a "foreign" car when I was 15. I never forgot it.
Last edited by Lil4X; 05-28-13 at 04:29 PM.
05-28-13, 04:41 PM
#15
Volvo was sending the oddly out of date-looking 544 over here when VW was selling all the Bugs they could paint. Volvo CLEARLY had the superior product, but it's marketing was a mess. If they'd go back and build one of these little bank vaults today, and offer it for something like $18 - $20K they wouldn't be able to build them fast enough. High quality, honest transportation, small but adequate engine, fit and finish to rival Mercedes. That was the 544:
And that^^^ is a 1963 PV-544 Sport that sold at auction in 2009 for $22,100 - all original and like new (except for disc brake conversion and a newer Blaupunkt radio installation).
For a 2-door, genuine 4-seater, family hauler with a bit of "sports car" handling, decent economy, and absolutely bullet-proof construction, this was the state-of-the-art in the early '60's. I'll hate to see Volvo go . . . A 1960 model owned by a friend's family, it was my first driving experience with a "foreign" car when I was 15. I never forgot it.
And that^^^ is a 1963 PV-544 Sport that sold at auction in 2009 for $22,100 - all original and like new (except for disc brake conversion and a newer Blaupunkt radio installation).
For a 2-door, genuine 4-seater, family hauler with a bit of "sports car" handling, decent economy, and absolutely bullet-proof construction, this was the state-of-the-art in the early '60's. I'll hate to see Volvo go . . . A 1960 model owned by a friend's family, it was my first driving experience with a "foreign" car when I was 15. I never forgot it.
In today's world its called the V40. Why they didn't bring it over here is beyond me.