Domo Arigato Volkswagen

Fears have long been held that the automobile industry is going to be taken over by the efficient Japanese firms, namely Toyota. As we saw earlier in the course, fears over Japan overtaking the world economy have been held since the glorious days of Styx. Today, maybe we need to keep our eyes on another Axis power, the Germans. Toyota is still the world's number one producer, but Volkswagen has just injected massive amounts of investments into its company in order to become the world's largest automaker by 2018. BBC gives us some more information about the auto battle through this article. What does this battle mean for us, the United States automakers? It means that it's game time. As Toyota and VW engage in all out warfare, there will be less room for Ford and GM. With high quality line ups beginning to emerge from both these companies with selections such as the resurgent Ford Taurus, the Chevy Malibu, the always powerful and fun Corvette, the new Camaro, the ever popular Ford F-150, and many more, there has never been a better time for the US producers to present a challenge. However, as Toyota and VW continue to produce amazing cars under both their own brands as well as under their affiliates such as Lexus under Toyota and Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini, Bentley, and Bugatti under VW, there is a steep hill ahead. Focusing on only the domestic market has been shown to no longer be enough of a battle. Instead, the US producers are going to have to move on to high growth markets such as China and India with cars that are both luxurious enough to outperform their domestic brands while being price conscious enough to remain affordable. The new models may be great for the domestic market and are starting to show better sales, especially with the cash for clunkers program, but they are not capable of dominating these new markets. Me and the many leaders of these debt-laden US automakers are looking for any suggestions as to how these markets can be taken over, so feel free to give your opinions.

PS We all know that compact cars are all the rage in these countries, so there needs to be something more than just focusing on making fuel efficient, smaller cars.