US Car Production By Make: 1993-2012

This is an analysis of car making only, not light trucks. It shows the large fall of US 'Big Three' volume, even more than the overall decline. Americans have gone more for SUVs and Pick Ups as has been  the trend worldwide.

I have listed them from left to right according to 2011 production figures. Each name at the top of each column represents the group, which includes all brands within that company. You need to add three zeros to the numbers.

Yr	Total	GM	Ford	Niss	Hyun	Hond	Toyo	Chry	Sub	VW	Maz	Mit	BMW
93	5981	2542	1593	292	-	404	356	533	47	-	116	98	-
94	6614	2720	1775	313	-	499	399	599	54	-	133	122	-
95	6351	2513	1446	333	-	553	519	679	81	-	99	116	12
96	6083	2198	1459	278	-	634	557	589	99	-	96	122	51
97	5912	2244	1300	280	-	648	556	519	102	-	91	110	62
98	5554	1965	1284	223	-	695	544	494	104	-	94	96	55
99	5637	2137	1303	168	-	686	524	472	93	-	87	119	48
00	5542	2038	1287	150	-	677	521	472	108	-	67	183	39
01	4905	1702	1015	158	-	692	496	493	103	-	47	165	34
02	5019	1733	1091	235	-	641	533	448	93	-	48	174	23
03	4507	1460	822	322	-	590	595	390	89	-	83	99	57
04	4163	1250	737	367	-	567	639	386	35	-	91	56	35
05	4152	1216	670	383	91	581	695	327	32	-	74	63	20
06	4312	1215	719	348	175	607	703	331	29	-	71	75	39
07	3867	988	446	385	133	590	753	401	28	-	54	63	26
08	3731	1090	411	374	153	553	693	290	28	-	75	54	10
09	2196	442	307	259	104	392	533	84	28	-	32	15	-
10	2731	601	376	347	238	426	462	169	44	-	45	23	-
11	2976	721	390	385	373	350	347	250	47	46	40	27	-
Tot	90233	30775	18431	5600	1267	10785	10425	7926	1244	46	1443	1780	511
Avg	4749	1620	970	295	181	568	549	417	65	46	76	94	39

In that period of nineteen years, over 90 million cars made, nearly 31 m by GM alone!

UK Car Production By Make: 1997-2012

Few mature car making countries have had such change as has the British car industry. Let's look at the reasons, one by one:

Poor management: The running of MGR by both BMW and the Phoenix Four left much to be desired, the company therefore going under and ending up in China.

Plant closures: Ford desided to make the UK the engine making hub for Ford Europe, finishing car making in the UK. Peugeot opened plants in Central Europe and then decided to end many years of car making at Coventry.

New arrivals: Out of the MGR debacle came the MINI, a success beyond expectation.

The future: Nissan (pic above), MINI and LR are near or at capacity. Honda, Toyota, GM and Jaguar could increase, but the Euro zone crisis will mean that will be limited at best. Any growth in these difficult times will be quite an achievement, so I cannot see too much improvement from where it is now.

Enough of the talk, here are the hard facts. Only main brands are included and production figures are rounded for ease of viewing:

Yr	Total	Nissan	Toyota	GM Vx	L Rover	Honda
97	1,711,900	271,700	104,600	284,500	106,900	108,100
98	1,760,700	288,800	172,300	277,300	149,300	112,100
99	1,799,000	271,200	178,700	339,000	154,300	114,500
00	1,641,400	327,700	171,300	290,100	160,000	74,600
01	1,492,400	296,500	154,800	193,700	139,000	112,500
02	1,629,700	297,300	211,700	138,500	155,400	177,000
03	1,657,600	331,900	210,600	133,600	147,500	184,700
04	1,647,200	319,700	244,800	146,900	149,800	193,500
05	1,596,400	315,300	264,300	189,400	175,900	187,000
06	1,442,100	301,200	282,200	143,700	175,700	184,400
07	1,534,600	353,700	277,800	115,500	232,500	237,800
08	1,448,100	386,600	213,300	102,500	185,900	230,900
09	999,400	338,200	127,400	76,700	114,600	75,600
10	1,274,300	423,300	137,100	102,700	183,000	139,300
11	1,343,800	480,500	128,100	138,000	237,200	97,500
Tot	22,978,600	5,003,600	2,879,000	2,672,100	2,467,000	2,229,500
Avg	1,531,900	333,600	191,900	178,100	164,500	148,600

Yr	MINI	MG R	Peugeot	Jaguar	Ford	Other
97	-	394,600	85,000	43,600	302,100	10,800
98	-	328,600	71,400	50,000	298,500	12,400
99	-	225,800	162,600	86,300	255,100	11,500
00	-	174,900	186,100	88,800	155,100	12,800
01	41,500	163,100	186,100	122,500	72,700	10,000
02	159,800	147,000	197,700	122,900	12,900	9,500
03	174,200	132,800	207,200	126,100	-	9,000
04	189,100	106,100	173,100	105,500	-	18,700
05	200,200	29,100	126,500	84,000	-	24,700
06	184,700	-	75,400	69,900	-	24,900
07	237,700	-	-	54,000	-	25,600
08	234,500	-	-	72,700	-	21,700
09	213,600	-	-	41,800	-	11,500
10	216,300	-	-	56,400	-	16,200
11	191,500	-	-	49,900	-	21,100
Tot	2,043,100	1,702,000	1,471,100	1,174,400	1,096,400	240,400
Avg	198,400	205,100	152,400	78,300	215,000	16,000

Belgium Car Production By Make: 1995-2011

Belgium is a small country that builds many cars. The industry has had to deal with several issues that has reduced the number of cars made there. 1) It doesn't have it's own industry so depends on overseas manufacturers staying there, for which it has no control over. 2) Small countries have less political clout, so a plant closure has less negativity. 3) It is a challenge for higher wage countries like Belgium to be competitive against those nations with lower wages.

Looking at car production figures below shows recent decline. Ford is pulling out also in 2014, moving production to Valencia, Spain.

Yr	Total	Ford	Opel	Volvo	VW	Renault
95	1,168,400	385,900	304,500	144,100	202,900	131,000
96	1,144,100	367,600	295,500	143,900	196,100	141,000
97	1,005,000	355,800	301,500	145,500	167,300	34,900
98	951,200	318,500	300,200	151,900	180,600	-
99	917,500	217,900	319,400	149,100	231,100	-
00	912,200	178,800	328,900	120,800	283,700	-
01	1,058,300	349,300	313,600	146,400	249,000	-
02	936,900	261,400	297,600	149,900	228,000	-
03	791,700	205,200	253,900	155,600	177,000	-
04	875,000	193,700	231,500	265,400	184,400	-
05	895,100	179,200	253,100	258,400	204,400	-
06	881,900	234,300	224,300	244,000	179,300	-
07	789,700	276,200	196,300	240,600	76,600	-
08	680,100	281,800	132,400	181,300	84,600	-
09	503,400	188,500	88,900	183,900	42,100	-
10	529,000	185,600	51,600	223,100	68,700	-
11	560,800	178,300	-	265,000	117,500	-
Tot	14,600,300	4,358,000	3,893,200	3,168,900	2,873,300	306,900
Avg	858,841	256,353	243,325	186,406	169,018	136,000

The 1990's production was in the million area, but today about half that. The VW includes Audis in recent times, so the figure refers to VW Group. It has been a settled production in Belgium over the years, but economic times are tighter. Last year Opel, now Ford's departure is big for a little country.

Australian Vehicle Production By Make: 1997-2011

The Australian car market has traditionally been strong in large, basic cars. The GM Holden Commodore,  Ford Falcon and Toyota Camry have been big sellers in the 'Big Country', and  these three models have been the mainstay of the production industry for many years. Toyota has been big exporting their large car to the Middle East, GM less so and Ford hasn't bothered much at all, except for NZ.

Recently, big car sales have fallen as petrol prices rise and small cars get better at driving big distances. Ford has made an SUV (Territory -pic above) and Holden a small car (Cruze - pic below with Commodore) to compensate for the trend. However, the industry is propped up with government assistance, otherwise it would not be viable. The numbers of late have not been big enough, as the chart below of the past 15 years shows. Notice how the last few years have been below the average for the period. Mitsubishi gave up but the others hang in there.

Yr	Total	Holden	Toyota	Ford	Mitsub
97	344,100	92,000	77,600	116,000	58,500
98	359,800	123,200	99,900	89,800	46,900
99	322,500	103,000	91,000	93,900	34,600
00	344,900	130,500	92,300	85,800	36,300
01	347,100	129,600	100,600	73,400	43,500
02	359,000	123,700	86,600	102,300	46,400
03	405,200	151,800	113,600	105,000	34,800
04	406,300	164,000	109,900	111,000	21,400
05	389,100	153,000	109,200	108,200	18,700
06	325,300	121,700	111,600	81,500	10,500
07	332,100	104,300	148,900	68,800	10,100
08	337,000	118,000	141,400	75,300	2,300
09	218,500	67,100	96,800	54,600	-
10	240,000	64,100	119,900	56,000	-
11	219,400	88,000	93,600	37,800	-
Tot	4,950,300	1,734,000	1,592,900	1,259,400	364,000
Avg	330,000	115,600	106,200	84,000	33,100

Please note: The Mitsubishi average does not include 2008, a run out figure anyway.

Unless production rises, it is hard to see how the industry can continue. Many Australians realise the cost of subsidising the car makers is not worth it, while there are those who want to see it continue for national pride's sake. Perhaps it's not for me to say either way, but the signs are not good.

Pics: http://www.caradvice.com.au

The Limitations Of Car Crash Tests

New cars are tested for crash worthiness as we know. They are usually rated from zero to five stars and people are greatly influenced by the results. Potential buyers may shy away from anything less than a five star rating.

My personal view is that too much is read into the system. Of course, a newly released car getting two or three stars today would be unacceptable but the difference between a four and five star rating may not be as people think. The reason is that it is very difficult to replicate all the nuances of 'real world' accidents when testing cars in controlled environment.

Now a new overlap test that puts only 25% of the front of a car into an object (at 40 kph) as opposed to say 40% has been carried out. It was done by the The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and the results were sobering. It seems that many manufacturers that trumpet safety, are simply very good at making their cars pass existing tests. This new test showed how few cars are made to stand up to a smaller object impact, such as would happen with a tree of power pole.

Poor: Mercedes C Class, Lexus IS and ES350 and Audi A4.

Marginal: Acura TSX, BMW 3 Series, Lincoln MKZ and VW CC.

Good: Acura TL and Volvo S60.

The above models are premium, the next batch of tests will be every day models, and it won't be pretty I suggest. Yet even some reputable models as listed above had unacceptably poor results. The IS and C-Class had sufficient structural deformation to trap the dummies feet while the door of the VW CC came off!

It seems that five stars can be achieved if you study standard tests and engineer cars to meet those. A common accident like hitting a power pole is for some reason not in existing tests. So car makers generally don't worry about making them safe for that scenario. That is cynical to me. One of the brands tested builds cars not just to get five stars but to make safe cars, and that is Volvo.

So if someone says they won't buy a four star car, well maybe it failed a technicality on the existing test, whereas a five star car might in fact be worse in certain accidents. If you are very concerned about safety, buy a Volvo.

Sweden 1952 / 2012 Comparison

Back in 1952, any car market would be very different to now, and so it is with Sweden. Japanese brands were not around, but many European and US makes no longer exist either. When you look at the list below, you will see some marques you don't even know what they are.

BMC-Nuffield was mainly Austin and Morris, Leyland-Std represents the Standard and Triumph brands. Rootes was largely Hillman and Humber sales. US car company Kaiser included low cost brand Henry, and German car maker Borgward owned Goliath, which includes it's sales as well. EMW at the bottom of the list were basically BMWs made in the Soviet sector of Germany and BMW had no control over that. Some interesting data for those who like a bit of history.

Below are sales for the whole of 1952 and for nine months of 2012. The early 1950s was a less affluent time  and car sales numbers reflected that. 1952 was a poor year in particular as it happens, as sales were a little better before and grew strongly afterward.

	1952					2012
1	Ford	7,169	13.9%		1	Volvo	37,096	18.2%
2	Volvo	7,132	13.8%		2	VW	31,711	15.6%
3	VW	5,964	11.5%		3	Audi	12,957	6.4%
4	Opel/Vauxhall	5,020	9.7%		4	Kia	11,845	5.8%
5	BMC-Nuffield	4,864	9.4%		5	Toyota	11,686	5.7%
6	Fiat	2,581	5.0%		6	BMW	11,552	5.7%
7	Saab	1,975	3.8%		7	Ford	10,196	5.0%
8	Leyland-Std	1,840	3.6%		8	Skoda	8,728	4.3%
9	Renault	1,693	3.3%		9	Hyundai	8,389	4.1%
10	Mercedes	1,660	3.2%		10	Mercedes	8,293	4.1%
11	GM US	1,550	3.0%		11	Peugeot	7,943	3.9%
12	Citroen	1,397	2.7%		12	Renault	7,112	3.5%
13	Borgward	1,068	1.5%		13	Nissan	4,796	2.4%
14	Peugeot	1,038	2.0%		14	Opel	4,421	2.2%
15	Rootes	997	1.9%		15	Citroen	3,942	1.9%
16	Chrysler	702	1.4%		16	Fiat	3,317	1.6%
17	Kaiser-Henry	612	0.2%		17	Subaru	3,252	1.6%
18	Moskvitch	611	1.2%		18	Mitsubishi	2,669	1.3%
19	Skoda	527	1.0%		19	Suzuki	2,058	1.0%
20	Simca	513	1.0%		20	Honda	2,005	1.0%
21	DKW	472	0.9%		21	Chevrolet	1,743	0.9%
22	Jowett	304	0.6%		22	Mazda	1,592	0.8%
23	Rover	288	0.6%		23	Seat	1,465	0.7%
24	Tatra	226	0.4%		24	MINI	977	0.5%
25	Panhard	179	0.3%		25	Land Rover	602	0.3%
26	Singer	173	0.3%		26	Saab	577	0.3%
27	IFA/Wartburg	152	0.3%		27	Lexus	534	0.3%
28	Studebaker	147	0.3%		28	Dacia	453	0.2%
29	De Soto	103	0.2%		29	Porsche	407	0.2%
30	Nash	85	0.2%		30	Jeep*	372	0.2%
31	Jaguar	83	0.2%		31	Lancia	311	0.2%
32	Willys	82	0.2%		32	Alfa Romeo	228	0.1%
33	Hudson	81	0.2%		33	Amatorbygg	97	0.0%
34	Lloyd	69	0.1%		34	Jaguar	94	0.0%
35	EMW	63	0.1%		35	Ferrari	58	0.0%
	Others	325	0.6%			Others	233	0.1%
	Total	51,745				Total	203,711

Today, Volvo is king in Sweden and has been so since 1958. VW is making a serious attack on that position and it seems only a matter of time before the Swedish marque is dethroned.

A special thanks to bilsweden, the very obliging and altruistic organisation that made this possible.


For Swedish car sales from 1950 please click here 

Top pic: Wiki of a Borgward.