great article dude! It's a shame it is no longer profitable to sell Japanese built cars in the U.S. Let us hope they move some of those jobs here instead of other countries.

Maybe Honda needs to learn from Ford's playbook and sell the same cars round the world: for example the Euro/Jap Civic and diesel models.

 

Ford, GM, Honda, Toyota, and Nissan all sell the 'same' cars all over the world already. They don't sell every car they make in all markets unless they think the car will sell well enough in that country. Selling the same car often only means different suspension setups to accomodate local driving.Drive even a Porsche overseas cvompared to a US spec one and see. But the cars are the 'same.
diesels just don't sell well in the US, MB not withstanding.
And the point about bring back jobs to the US from offshore is a major stumbing block to tghids years election 'promises'.

 

No most of these don't. Ford is trying to with their One World One Ford campaign. GM is getting better, but they still have too many platforms. Honda has different civic models and different accord models (euro accord is tsx). At least they are trying to get the most out of their Fit platform with the CRZ, City and other similar models. Nissan certainly has a hodgepodge of cars that aren't worldwide. Fiat/Chrysler, let's not even start.

That being said Toyota is pretty close to having all models available for purchase around the world. So is VW, Audi, BMW, MB, Porsche, and Mazda.
Toyota and V-dub also happen to be gaining traction as the top manufacturers in the world. GM is still top dog, but only by sheer volume of brands they own.

I understand that many of the tiny city cars that are popular in Japan wouldn't work here, but there are quite a few crossover, sedan, and SUV models that are not offered in all markets that would do just as well here as they would overseas and vice versa. For example Nissan might have 20 different SUV and CUV models worldwide but only sell 6 here in the U.S. Selling 20 in one market would not make sense because the cars would be competing with themselves. Wouldn't it make sense to just develop 6 good models that can fit any market worldwide?

 

Ford and GM sells stationwagons and diesel versions in Europe. The reason I brought the Fit no one offers low end station wagons in the USA. Was looking at the VW Sportwagen TDI but, read up on the problems and did not need expensive repairs. Look at the Elantra Touring gas mileage was disapointing at 30MPG highway but a local dealer had them as much as $3k off sticker around $17,9k so you could get one fully loaded for the price of a FIT Sport M/T.

 

Considering what others have been paying for their Fit on this site, I'm pretty sure the dealer we went to made little to no profit and probably lost money on us. $16.7 OTD for MT 2012 Sport without trade in is crazy low, even without sales tax in OR. It was in dec, so he was probably just trying to meet a sales quota so he could get more allotment from Honda in the next sales year. After reading the article - good luck with that...

If HoMoCo will start building em in Mexico or China for the US market then I'm also glad to be able to get a Japanese built one. I can understand their dilemma - besides the value of the Yen, Japan has a shrinking aging workforce that won't work for peanuts, like in developing countries and most US car buyers still have this stigma against small cars. They won't pay a premium, unless it's a Mini or some dynamic and stylish model, or unless gas prices spike again. Fits, hybrids, and other practical fuel sipping cars are popular here in Portland, but I have to remember that I live in a crunchy green left leaning bubble that simply does not represent middle America...

 

If you actually see the platform specs for every level of cars sold by 'world-wide manufacturers you'd see little differences in 'platforms' in any given level. Those differences mainly are suspension and appearance features. Most of the platforms are sold in cars only where they think they can sell enough to be profitable. The fact that few platforms are sold in 'all' countries is because marketing deems them to cost more to provide than than the potential profit.
What you want to say is that only a few platforms are nededded toi serve the world; try making only a few polatforms to see the world and the US. Now that mpg is so important evenyuaklly that may happen but it will be a long time. Americans just don't fit 'world' cars. Maybe later. Even Ford recognizes that. Very few US spec suvs will sell squat in Europe or China. They do sell a few now but its strictly market losers, just advertising, or government perks.