VIN Basics Blog

After nearly three decades of production, Suzuki has announced its departure from the U.S. automotive market. Suzuki first began manufacturing automobiles for the U.S. market in 1985 and will stop selling automobiles once their current supply runs out. They will however continue to produce motorcycles, ATV’s, and watercraft here in the U.S. According to the press release, Suzuki determined that it’s automotive division was facing a serious number of challenges cited as “low sales volumes, a limited number of models in its line-up, unfavorable foreign exchange rates, the high costs associated with growing and maintaining an automotive distribution system in the continental U.S. and the disproportionally high and increasing costs associated with stringent state and federal regulatory requirements unique to the U.S. market.” In short, Americans never took to Suzuki like they did with other Japanese manufactures, such as Honda and Toyota.

We found an interesting study this morning published by Google which describes consumer automotive shopping behavior in 2011. Some highlights below here as well as a link to Google direct for the full presentation.

NADA 2012 this year was in one of my favorite cities out of the four city rotation - Las Vegas, Nevada. Las Vegas is an exciting city to visit under any circumstances and this excitement and energy definitely carries over into the expo. While talking with an old friend in the lobby - we were both surprized as music suddenly blared over the PA system and to my further surprize a flash mob organized in the middle of several hundred folks in the lobby into a line dance. Only in Las Vegas.

As technology, solutions and inventory processes continue to evolve, automotive marketing companies face some interesting challenges when it comes to vehicle marketing. With so many classified sites representing dealer inventory locally, regionally and nationally – it can be difficult to “rise above the rest”. This is also (maybe especially) a challenge with Franchised automotive dealer websites which represent an auto dealers inventory direct.

We came across this fun video, and while it is entertaining it also serves to really make the point that the right car for a potential buyer is really based on that buyers needs. Although we think few consumers will struggle to decide whether they will purchase a Ford Fiesta vs a Lamborghini - it is clear that vehicle comparison is a critical piece of vehicle marketing.