What brands do you think is in danger of fading away in the USA market by 2015? My list so far:

Mitsubishi - EVO VIII might not help revive the rest of the subpar product line.

Saturn - ION is pitiful and all future Saturn will be steel bodied and rehash of other GM products.

Saab - Product is good, but overprice and its niche is dying.

MINI - can one hyped up car hold a brand for over a decade? Very doubtful.

Suzuki - its cheap and competing directly with Kia. Kia is more likely to win out because of its marketing push.

Isuzu - its dying already as we speak.

Opinions?

 

The only two on your list I would argue is Mitsubishi and MINI. Mitsubishi is growing and has demographics to die for. It's Eclipse outsells both the Celica and RSX. And lets wait to see how the next Galant, Lancer, and Montero do.

MINI was designed to be a mini-brand. Why else would BMW be limiting production they way it has. WIth plans for a 4 door, wagon, and other variants, lets see where BMW plans to take MINI before condemning it.

I may have added Saab to this group before as having a feverishly loyal fanbase (a la Apple), but then GM had to screw up Saab with the new 9-3. The inherent Saab-ness of the car is lost, and a center mounted ignition can't make up for that.

 

Hmmm...Very good list; great observations, but as the previous poster mentioned, Mini might not be in danger.

 

God stuff kaz. Eternal, You're is right on Mitsubishi...the Eclipse (arguably the biggest poser car of all time) is murdering all other cars in its class in sales. I'd have to agree on MINI, too...it's not meant to have a huge model line, BMW just didn't want to have that tiny little car under its name.

I see all the other ones going, however...especially Isuzu and Suzuki. Saturn has a fairly good chance of going too, as the ION was referred to as 'the most disapointing new domestic car in over a decade', or something like that.

Oldsmobile is done in (I think) 2004...and Saturn might be done in less than a decade. That takes two GM lines out. I could write a whole essay on Oldsmobile...IMO they were one of the GM companies that least deserved to go. The Alero and Intrigue were nice cars, the Bravada was alright, and the Aurora gave them a Cadillac for people under 60. GM is in deep shit right now..they lost a ton of money on the Daewoo venture and they're losing tons on every car they sell.

Oh yeah, add Mercury to this list (I think Plymouth is already dead, that pathetic little Ford brand). They're full of nothing but Ford clones and Ford has already expressed interest in canning them. Unless they bring over the Mondeo or something, they have no future.

 

I will never understand how the Eclipse outsells the RSX and Celica. Everyone who has them where I live thinks that they're driving some sort of impressive sports car. I guess a 210-hp V6 is pretty plain jane nowadays.

As far as the list goes - those are good observations. Sadly, I don't see Mitsu going anywhere. Saturn is a goner. And I couldn't even tell you one car that Suzuki still makes! And what about Mercury? I have my doubts about that company too. It should've been dead 5 years ago.

 

Mitsubishi - I think Mitsubishi will be here for a while. They're the fastest growing Japanese car company in America (but when you're down so low you can only go up). They're currently planning four cars targeted for the US market only, the upcoming Endevour (sp?) being the first of them. It's rumored the next Eclipse is supposed to return to it's roots, moving to the Lancer platform (which we all know comes with a turbo and AWD in the Evolution model), but the whole "what ever sells best is best for Mitsubishi" theorum may win out (ie, stick to Galant platform). Perhaps we'll see a Chrysler LX based Diamante with a V8? Nothing like a huge V8 RWD sedan from Japan... there's a niche market.

Saturn - GMs got enough money to keep them around. These new platform don't seem to be doin' that good though. CTS will get an engine and interior upgrade, ION is ugly, 9-3 evades a loyal base. (the VUE's Theta platform was originally to be one platform for the VUE only, but GM realized it could build more vehicles here and named it Theta).

Mini - I'm sure BMW will capitalize on the name as long as they can (four door, wagon, cabrio).

Mercury - Following a path very similar to Oldsmobile a decade ago. They're going to totally redo the product and it's image. I think they want an image like VW, which I think can be pulled off. They're exterior styling (Mountaineer at least) is clean and crisp (like VW). The only problem here is the Grand Marquis, which is their best seller. The Monterey (minivan) will help ruin the VW-like image. I just don't want to see this one go down... don't know why.

 

Ok, I might have pulled the trigger a bit too early to tell for MINI, but premium compact compacts don't make a good formula for the long term. Hopefully BMW won't pull a Saturn and make it a one product brand for 7 years.

As for Mitsubishi, it's really a tossup, but I don't see a niche for it. You can see the desparation of Mitsu right now with its 0 down, 0 interest, 0 payment for 90 days finance ploy. Probably the reason why the Eclipse is selling fairly well. But Mitsu's total passenger car sales is almost equal to that of Toyota's Corolla sales and lower than that of the Civic or Accord. For the month of November, Mitsu only sold barely above 18k passenter cars. It's total SUV sales is only 73,828 for the year. Add to the effect of the bad publicity with CR's rollover report and the Lisa Left Eye from TLC's death. Mitsu's brand a bit tarnished right now. You gotta wonder, if the 0/0/0 financing wasn't available, what would Mitsubishi's status quo be right now? :dunno:

For Mercury, I think the brand might have a chance if the Mondeo comes to the US as a rebadge Mercury model. Mercury might be the Euro Ford for the USA. It might keep the middle step brand alive with the Ford name being blackeyed right now and as long as it stays away from fleet sales.

 

Yeah, but that sedan would probably be made in the USA...

When I saw the new Diamante I wanted to cry. Mitsu can go to hell with their stupid grill design. Not only that, but the job they did on rear is positively criminal. The interior sucks too.

The current Diamante can't compare with the Diamantes of just a few years ago, IMHO...

Sad stuff.

 

Isuzu WILL be gone by 2005, they're pulling out of all truck sales all over the world and will be sticking to commercial trucks (their cash cow).

Suzuki, Saab and Saturn will not die out. Of those three, the only possible one to die would be Saturn, which GM has full control of (it's a genuine GM nameplate). GM only has partial ownership of the rest of those brands listed, so they'll continue to supply money to them.

 

Just as an FYI, Saturn hasn't turned a profit since 1996 and GM hasn't recoup its initial billions of dollar investment with the division. GM was losing over a thousand dollars per vehicle on Saturn last year. GM will be making a big marketing push and throwing new products (although they will be rehashed Chevy/Pontiacs) soon for Saturn. Does this all sound familiar 10 years ago? It should. See Oldsmobile. GM just has too many overhead and too many overlapping brands all canabalizing each other.