Hey Bozz,
That's a real eye opener. Staggering really when you actually see the stats in real life.

Reality is that this global downturn is just starting to ramp up now, big time. Impact will be felt long after the leaders say it's all over, whenever that'll be.

God help those car companies if severe hail storms happen their way.

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Remarkable set of pics...

Like almost every manufacturing industry of the past few decades,
over capacity eventually becomes one of the main hurdles; in the
car biz, it was the perfect bad storm of the past year and, ongoing.

What amazes me is that almost regardless of product line, company
execs all get tunnel vision and seldom make adjustments based on
potential rainy day times, that are bound to come around on the Juke Box...

I saw it in my industry, in other industries, and for the auto execs to
become delusional about the likelyhood of continued ~15-16 million unit
sales years in their biz, was absurd and fiducially irresponsible, imo.
BR,mD

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Ol'UncleMotor
From the Home Base of Pro Bono Punditry
and 50 Cent Opins...

Our Mtn Scenes, Car Pics, and Road Trip Pics on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/4527537...7627297418250/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/4527537...7627332480833/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/45275375@N00/

My X Page

This is a huge inventory glut - before any meaningful manufacturing can resume, all this has to be sold off. It's tricky because it will be aged, new models coming out, pricing will be depressed on these cars therefore making the delta between the newly manufactured ones and this older inventory big.

Great deals for those who want to buy until the inventory is used up. Demand has to catch up with supply - much like the housing market. This is one of the reasons why it's going to take longer to dig out of this mess.

One thing I find fairly odd is that none of the cars in the pictures are covered. Almost all new cars when they arrive at the dealership have that plastic adhesive sheeting all over it - I wonder why none of these cars are covered considering it might be a LONG time before they get moved? I imagine there would be substantial wear and tear from the car sitting exposed to the elements for any length of time thereby even further reducing the value of the stock the manufacturer is holding.

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2001 X5 4.4i
2002 Honda S2000

Wow.

The art of conception. They don't concretely say that these are cars that aren't going anywhere or the time at which they are sitting. These could easily be file photos of the cars awaiting export years ago. So that could answer the "why aren't they covered" question.

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An unwavering defender of those I see worth protecting.

"promote the general welfare, not provide the general welfare"

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

That's exactly what I was thinking. I'm not saying that sales haven't slumped or even nose-dived, but these pictures can be construed in many different ways without firm evidence of exactly why they are there. Also, when you think about a global company selling hundreds of thousands to millions of cars, a couple hundred or even a few thousand cars waiting to be shipped doesn't seem all that improbable. I have a strong feeling if the situation was that extreme and the inventory build up that outrageous, all those cars would have plastic protecting them "for the long haul" so to speak.

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2001 X5 4.4i
2002 Honda S2000

That's insane.

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My X5

oh my god, that is alot of cars.

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sell em dirt cheap.