Japan's OEMs Drop Production Nearly 50% in August

jduke · 10-06-2009, 12:23 PM

From Dealer News

Japan's OEMs Drop Production Nearly 50% in August
Publish date: Oct 4, 2009

Japan's four major manufacturers together produced 38,312 units in August, down 49.9 percent or 38,175 units compared to the production of 76,487 units in August 2008 and the 24th consecutive month of production decline.

According to figures compiled by the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA),Honda produced 10,364 units, down compared to 21,595 units in August 2008; Kawasaki produced 8,727 units, down compared to 11,597 units; Suzuki produced 8,932 units, down compared to 18,473 units; and Yamaha produced 10,281 units, down compared to 24,811 units.

The four manufacturers exported 4,732 units to the U.S. in August, down compared to 25,296 units in August 2008.

JANUARY — AUGUST 2009

For the January through August period of 2009, the four manufacturers together produced 447,741 units, down compared to the production of 765,797 units during the same eight-month period in 2008.

Honda produced 136,325 units during the first eight months of the year, down compared to 210,350 units during the same eight months in 2008; Kawasaki produced 79,485 units, down compared to 116,593 units; Suzuki produced 115,599 units, down compared to 222,823 units; and Yamaha produced 116,299 units, down compared to 215,978 units.

The four manufacturers exported 139,924 units to the U.S. from Japan during the January through August period of 2009, down 36.3 percent compared to shipments of 219,787 units during the same eight-month period in 2008.

—Submitted by Guido Ebert

Guest24 · 10-06-2009, 12:47 PM

Yeah, that stimulus money is really workin'

Sorry Jerry, no jobs=No toys.

jduke · 10-06-2009, 12:59 PM

Another example of the damage of one party controlling both houses of Congress, the White House and the Supreme Court. Last time that happened was in 1929 and it was the same party in control both times.
Term limits would be GREAT!

AndrewA · 10-06-2009, 05:18 PM

Oh snap! You've killed your own thread jduke!

Dana in Philly · Dana in Philly's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nail24

Yeah, that stimulus money is really workin'

Sorry Jerry, no jobs=No toys.

And here in Philadelphia, we've just lost our local dealer. DeSimone BMW/Ducati/Victory/Triumph is closing around Thanksgiving. This isn't looking good.

Guest24 · 10-07-2009, 05:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dana in Philly

And here in Philadelphia, we've just lost our local dealer. DeSimone BMW/Ducati/Victory/Triumph is closing around Thanksgiving. This isn't looking good.

This is BMW's new marketing approach. Decrease the number of dealers. All of the combined dealerships that I've seen seem to have BMW as the red-headed step-child. Yes, there are a few exceptions.

cageyar · cageyar's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nail24

This is BMW's new marketing approach. Decrease the number of dealers. All of the combined dealerships that I've seen seem to have BMW as the red-headed step-child. Yes, there are a few exceptions.

That's true and here's the problem with "exclusive" BMW dealers-no profit.
Hermy's BMW in Port Clinton, PA is a nice store dualed with Triumph. On the wall behind the parts counter are a couple of sales award plaques from BMW from 2003 and 2004. They are for top sales in the district. One year it was 210 another year it was 190 something. For the year!
Or about 15-18 units per month on average. You can't pay taxes, salaries, utilities, etc with that and still generate a profit.
And those years were before this current recession. If I had to guess, they're under 100 units annually now. Recently, last time I was there, they had taken on the brand Kymco to have the little ATV's to sell. That should tell you something.
Increasing sales and market share through fewer, exclusive BMW dealers is an oxymoron-can't happen.

Guest24 · 06:13 AM

I can sum up your post in two words--Death Spiral.

Most bikes are discretionary purchases- Bad Economy=Bad Sales.

The S1000RR could very well be crushed by the lack of economic growth and the jobless recovery/funk the USA and the rest of the world are in. I can't help remembering what a would-be buyer of Northwest Airlines said back in 1989 when Rothmeier the private owner sold us off. He said, and I quote, "Debt is YOUR friend." A bankruptcy later, what a crock.

I can't help but wonder where we would be in our recovery right now if the present government had given the country a trillion dollar tax cut across the board instead of this clunker,automotive union, roads to nowhere goverrnment spending program. I heard some pretty good non-partisan economists state that government involvement would only prolong our misery. I think they are proving to be correct in their predictions.

jduke · 10-07-2009, 06:26 AM

Always two sides of a story. I heard supposedly well respected economists say without the stimulus package the present administration pushed through, we would have had a serious economic depression because of the actions of the previous administration.

JonyRR · 10-07-2009, 07:20 AM

*sigh*
I'm a gasoline-soaked, motorhead-addicted child of the machine age.
If it don' burn gasoline, alcohol or nitromethane it ain't worth a shiite.
BUT.
The current civilization as we know it is OVER. period. It just hasn't sunk in yet. Like a T-rex with a blown-out heart, it lumbers along, crushing and destroying still but slowly falling and dying into the muck.
I find this incredibly painful as I'm a beneficiary of the western-mode lifestyle as we all are, but clarity of thought is required now as we accellerate into much, much harder times.
Those colored glasses of recovery are actually smeared with the blood of the civilization that was. Most of you think I'm a nutcase. *grin*. I can live with that. Like David Icke, I don't care what people think of me and will speak my mind regardless of the laughter volume.
The latest ALTA (asymetric laungage trend analysis) report from the webbot project at half past human is very insightful and unfortunately not very pretty.
We are both lucky and cursed to be living in the most interesting times in recorded history.
let the ridicule and laughter begin (but remember this post when the internet is brought down by the PTB because they can't control it)

Dana in Philly · Dana in Philly's Garage

Trolls! I ain't bitin'! : D

jduke · 10-07-2009, 07:29 AM

JonyRR, that's what's great about this list and America. We can disagree on this topic and maybe a few others, but sooner or later I'm going to read something you post and say, "Damn. That's a good idea".
Right now I'm out to find some Yamabond, grey.
Thanks!

cageyar · cageyar's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by jduke

Always two sides of a story. I heard supposedly well respected economists say without the stimulus package the present administration pushed through, we would have had a serious economic depression because of the actions of the previous administration.

Since the overwhelming majority of the so called "stimulus" funds have yet to be distributed, that substantial impact could not have occured. To think that it could have in the last 90-120 days with an economy the size and complexity of the US is unrealistic. On the other hand, if tax cuts had been implemented then to the same extent, the impact would have been almost immediate and we would see unemployment moving lower now rather than edging up, 9.8% nationwide currently.
Within the next three years, as the spending seeds planted by the "stimulus", healthcare "reform", and Tax (Cap) on Trade energy policies begin to grow, inflation will render the dollar ever weaker. The industrialized countries of the world are debating now whether or not to continue using the dollar as the global reserve currency of choice vs. the euro or a revolving "basket" of currencies where you choose which currency with which you will be paid. This is all due to world wide concerns about the shrinking value of the dollar especially in light of those coming US government debt fueled expenditures.
If you or I can see it coming, the other countries see it coming all too clearly. The massive US debt incurred by out of control government spending started in the Bush administration and amped up to astronomical levels with the plans of the Obama administration will cause a rapid rise in inflation in the next several years.
Cynics say, by devaluing the dollar to almost nothing, you render your debt value to almost nothing. That assumes other countries will take dollars for debt payment. They won't and I hope that's not what these imbeciles in Washington are planning. You won't need to worry about the recession at that point. When you combine no growth with no jobs and add spiraling inflation, you get:
A Depression
Even I know that and I wasn't even a "community organizer".

frozensun · 10-07-2009, 11:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonyRR

*sigh*
I'm a gasoline-soaked, motorhead-addicted child of the machine age.
If it don' burn gasoline, alcohol or nitromethane it ain't worth a shiite.
BUT.
The current civilization as we know it is OVER. period. It just hasn't sunk in yet. Like a T-rex with a blown-out heart, it lumbers along, crushing and destroying still but slowly falling and dying into the muck.
I find this incredibly painful as I'm a beneficiary of the western-mode lifestyle as we all are, but clarity of thought is required now as we accellerate into much, much harder times.
Those colored glasses of recovery are actually smeared with the blood of the civilization that was. Most of you think I'm a nutcase. *grin*. I can live with that. Like David Icke, I don't care what people think of me and will speak my mind regardless of the laughter volume.
The latest ALTA (asymetric laungage trend analysis) report from the webbot project at half past human is very insightful and unfortunately not very pretty.
We are both lucky and cursed to be living in the most interesting times in recorded history.
let the ridicule and laughter begin (but remember this post when the internet is brought down by the PTB because they can't control it)

so we all gonna die and live in a mad max world because the Japanese bikes sold 50% of the last year volume ?

jduke · 10-07-2009, 11:51 AM

cageyar - what is truly amazing is with all your knowledge, why did you let this happen to America in the first place?

cageyar · cageyar's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by jduke

cageyar - what is truly amazing is with all your knowledge, why did you let this happen to America in the first place?

I suppose you're busting my balls. That's OK. I didn't vote for Obama but this spending fetish was already under way before he arrived. He's just going to make it worse.
That news and analysis is in evey major business section of the papers and business journals online, so don't think I'm pulling it out of my a**, pardon the visual.
Anyway, this is a very dicey time right now and the only thing we have going for us is that the majority of the members of Congress and the Senate are cowards and when faced with being accountable for major decisions, will choose inaction rather than implementing something. That would be better than moving further on this path.
Hey, the system works!

jduke · 10-07-2009, 12:16 PM

Everytime I think the system works, I remember W was reelected....

shreddr · shreddr's Garage

US debt is a big problem, but not the direct source of our current woes. the housing bubble which everybody and their brother decided to cash in on and borrow against home equity, has bitten everybody in the a$$. you can thank the banks for the most part, as they were willing to lend you a hundred grand if you had a paper route and a rusty stingray. the us consumers were drunk were their new found wealth and spent like mad. you know the rest, the big banks finally collapse under their own weight, the bottom falls out of the real estate market, everybody stops spending, and companies start to downsize or fold. this is the death spiral. as long as people are still afraid of where their next dollar will come from, they wont spend and things will continue to get worse. when consumer confidence returns, corporations will begin to rehire, and the unemployment rate will go down.

you can blame all the politicians you want, but until consumers start spending more on durable goods, new cars, etc.. nothing is gonna change. in actuality I think the us economy is in for a reset, whereby people get back to paying cash for things, and doing without what you can't pay cash for. this will definitely slow things down for a long time though.

JonyRR · 10-07-2009, 01:33 PM

It's in for a reset for sure.

a really, really, really, big, ugly civilization changing reset.

check back in 30-ish days and we'll see what's left standing, both figuratively and literally

shreddr · shreddr's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonyRR

It's in for a reset for sure.

a really, really, really, big, ugly civilization changing reset.

check back in 30-ish days and we'll see what's left standing, both figuratively and literally

Jony you have been singing that tune for a while, don't you think the aliens will come and rescue us from ourselves?