The End of Detroit: How the Big Three Lost Their Grip on the

The End of Detroit: How the Big Three Lost Their Grip on the American Car Market

An in-depth, hard-hitting account of the mistakes, miscalculations and myopia that have doomed Americaâ€™s automobile industry.

In the 1990s, Detroitâ€™s Big Three automobile companies were riding high. The introduction of the minivan and the SUV had revitalized the industry, and it was widely believed that Detroit had miraculously overcome the threat of foreign imports and regained its ascendant position. As Micheline Maynard makes brilliantly clear in THE END OF DETROIT, however, the traditional American car industry was, in fact, headed for disaster. Maynard argues that by focusing on high-profit trucks and SUVs, the Big Three missed a golden opportunity to win back the American car-buyer. Foreign companies like Toyota and Honda solidified their dominance in family and economy cars, gained market share in high-margin luxury cars, and, in an ironic twist, soon stormed in with their own sophisticatedly engineered and marketed SUVs, pickups and minivans. Detroit, suffering from a â€œgood enoughâ€ syndrome and wedded to ineffective marketing gimmicks like rebates and zero-percent financing, failed to give consumers what they really wantedâ€”reliability, the latest technology and good design at a reasonable cost. Drawing on a wide range of interviews with industry leaders, including Toyotaâ€™s Fujio Cho, Nissanâ€™s Carlos Ghosn, Chryslerâ€™s Dieter Zetsche, BMWâ€™s Helmut Panke, and GMâ€™s Robert Lutz, as well as car designers, engineers, test drivers and owners, Maynard presents a stark picture of the culture of arrogance and insularity that led American car manufacturers astray. Maynard predicts that, by the end of the decade, one of the American car makers will no longer exist in its present form.
Country USA
Brand Currency
Manufacturer Crown Currency
Binding Paperback
Color Black
ReleaseDate 2004-09-21
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780385507707

Country	USA
Brand	Currency
Manufacturer	Crown Currency
Binding	Paperback
Color	Black
ReleaseDate	2004-09-21
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780385507707

The End of Detroit: How the Big Three Lost Their Grip on the American Car Market