The future of the automotive industry

I was reading the various new feeds and came across an press release posted by a large and reasonably well known finance and accounting company. I’m always interested in the going on in the automotive industry and so some statistics and percentages always worth a read. However like many the press release was not very convincing in it’s preliminary results so I’m not taking it very seriously at the moment. I won’t mention who they are for now because they would get upset.

Nonetheless since they and all other financial and accounting companies failed to recognize the financial bubble and all the signs around them that lead to the global financial crisis make me doubt their ability to accurately analyse the real world AND make some sort of convincing conclusion or judgement. Even more so when it comes from a survey made from flawed humans who probably filled them in without much thought and probably distracted by the internet article on a falling pop star but more than likely cold called from a call centre during dinner time. Then an report making broad and seemingly factual conclusions about an entire generations of people is just – put it simply I had a WTF moment.  

The automotive industry is more than just fulfilling a need otherwise we’d all be driving square boxes and not have events like motor racing and the like. When you buy a car or a motorcycle it is clearly not just specifications that will influence your decision. It is a combination of your personality, circle of friends and associates, level of awareness and maturity, economic climate at the time, aspirations, education, financial capability, age, influences, the dealership and of course branding and marketing and lastly specifications that lead up to the decision to choose which car you buy. (The sales person doesn’t have a chance really except to provide you with a reasonable price.)

I am going to read the report it if they ever release it for free! It is unlikely since they’ll charge a fortune as they all do – so at a guess I’m anticipating what the report will show and the main point of my post and just one of the many flaws is that Eg. if you include 50 questions on in-car tech of course you’  get a survey that skewed to tech. Furthermore since this company has  been providing the automotive industry, according them for a long time by simple deduction they too can shoulder the blame for the shocking state of the US car market over the last 30 years. Of course more flaws in the assumption that US car manufacturing, trends and demand leads which is of course completely false since cars are designed as global models these days. (And following a proven Japanese model)

Anyway from the promo it appears worryingly that they are now saying that the car should be responsible for our mistakes as we’d rather be texting and talking on the phone than driving responsibly! Which is my other conclusion as to why motorcycles are so heavily promoted by the small minded stupid people as being dangerous – you are usually responsible for the consequences of your own actions. As a result the promo of this report would indicate that public transport is the future of the automotive industry.