sstlaure
Bronco Slacker
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2004
- Messages
- 1,881
If that was done - it would cost $40K. Anyone want to spend 40K on a Bronco (that isn't a classic)?
You can't make money in this segment - period.
I remember when the FJ came out and everyone was touting how Toyota was going to wipe the slate clean with Ford because of it. Toyota most likely lost money on that sucker developing a vehicle that ended up with pitiful sales. Anyone that wanted one bought it in the first year....then zippo. Saw $7000 rebates on the hood of FJ's while I was in Kansas City last year launching the new F-150. Sales are so down on the FJ that they don't even report them with the rest of their sales figures.
http://www.toyota.com/about/news/corporate/2009/10/01-1-sales.html
For September 2009 - Total truck/SUV sales of 38,339
10,398 Rav4
5,216 Highlander
7,513 Tacoma
6,308 Tundra
6,442 Sienna
Leaving a grand total of 2,462 units from September between the Sequoia, 4Runner, LandCruiser and FJ. People are buying small SUV's - not off-road capable ones.
Jeep sales are just as pitiful (we all know how successful Chrysler has been recently) While they make jeeps and people like them (at least some - most Jeep models score near the bottom of quality/dependability surveys, but I digress), they most likely don't make money on those either due to the low efficiency of the plants (they only run 1 shift due to demand - that's a MAX of 50% utilization for a $500 Million ass'y plant - tough to make money that way.)
I couldn't find any 2009 numbers, but in 2008 Jeep made 50,828 Wranglers and 73,971 Wrangler Unlimiteds (4-door) for a whopping total of 124,799 units for all of 2008 (2007 total was 145,879 - still not stellar) The average assembly plant has capacity for ~300,000 units/year. That's operating at about 41% utilization - a loser in any industry.
While we all LOVE this type of vehicle - the general public does not, and it's becoming increasingly difficult to develop vehicles for niche markets that don't make money due to the high competition in the industry. (As an example - Nissan will soon begin selling rebadged Ram pick-ups as their next full-size truck as the Titan has been a collosal flop, unless they decide to get completely out of the full-size market.)
Take the $30K you'd use to buy a new Bronco and build yourself a dream machine without all of the extra stuff that you don't need in a Bronco. That's what I'm doing.
Last edited:
