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CAR NEWSCAR GUIDE > CAR NEWS > Domestic carmakers to launch '04 offensive, take on imports |
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| DETROIT, Michigan (AFP) - Two classic American automobiles will be center stage at next month's Detroit auto show, heralding what one automaker is calling the "year of the car". General Motors Corp. (GM) and the Ford Motor Co. will take the wraps off a new Corvette and a new Mustang -- the most recognizable of a slew of new car products that will debut at the show.
Jim Hall, vice president of industry analysis for AutoPacific, an automotive research firm in Tustin, California, grumbled that many of these introductions are long overdue, having been postponed to make way for truck launches. "A bunch of these cars should have come out years ago," he said. A case in point is GM's Chevrolet Cobalt, which will be unveiled at the Los Angeles auto show next week -- at least a year behind schedule, according to Hall. Instead the outdated version, called the Cavalier, is selling at a rate of about 21,000 units per month and GM's incentives are so high on the car that it stands to lose an average of 1,000 dollars per unit, according to J.D. Power. Timing aside, the onslaught of new cars could pose a serious challenge to Toyota that is not planning to add any new or redesigned Toyota car models to its line-up this year. "Toyota is hardly going to collapse, but they're finally starting to get some serious competition from somebody other than Honda," said Art Spinella, president of CNW Marketing Research in Bandon, Oregon. Don Esmond, general manager of Toyota's US division, shrugged off the comments, saying "our competitors may get a shot in the arm from those products, but we're not looking to donate any blood next year." "We're pretty confident with the lineup we have now. We're not forecasting any of those car lines to go down." The annual North American International Auto Show opens to the media, Sunday, January 4 and runs through January 19. Source: U.S. National - AFP, Sat Dec 27. |
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CAR NEWSCAR GUIDE > CAR NEWS > Domestic carmakers to launch '04 offensive, take on imports |
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