The German Auto Industry, The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg Is Very Sick

America's automakers hit rock bottom with the public when their executives went to Washington in 2008 to beg for a bailout -- in corporate jets.

Now it's the German car industry's turn to suffer an image crisis and, as with General Motors and Chrysler a decade ago, it could not be happening at a less auspicious moment.

Amid trade wars and plunging China sales, the number of cars rolling off Germany's production lines has dropped by 12 percent this year and exports by 14 percent.

PUGPROUD - 9/30/2019 3:13:17 PM

+2 Boost

The industry headed for a major shakeup and pressure will be on Germany companies to merge with each other.

MDarringer - 9/30/2019 9:03:59 PM

0 Boost

Mercedes and BMW simply have too many models that overlap with other models in their lineup.
VW has too many redundant brands. They need VW/Audi/Porsche and the rest could easily be ditched.

Car4life1 - 9/30/2019 11:19:27 PM

+2 Boost

LMAO Mercedes is making record profits, Volkswagen has simply stretched itself too thin with its product portfolio, Bimmer needs to stop the bleeding at Mini

Truthy - 10/1/2019 9:54:50 AM

+1 Boost

They should start by getting rid of the "coupe" SUVs. They are godawful ugly, impractical and low volume.

Truthy - 9/30/2019 6:00:14 PM

-4 Boost

Nothing really atypical of an anticipated recession. Auto sales tend to strat falling off 6 - 9 months ahead of a recession. The rest of the assumptions made by this author are overblown.

Bach24 - 10/1/2019 10:52:18 AM

-1 Boost

This stupid and shows a total disregard for economic principles. Auto makers are producing the cars consumers demand, which right now is SUVs.