Automotive Market Recovery is Both Encouraging and Depressing

Sales figures are in for the first half of 2010, and it appears that the market is starting to recover.

CAMPI stats page

US sales, first half, 2010


Sales are good for many manufacturers both locally and in the US, which is a good sign... but depressingly... worryingly, most of those sales are... you guessed it... for big vehicles.

Not that I'm against people needing or buying big cars. It's your money. Do what you want. But the plain fact of the matter is: People don't seem to have learned their lesson. Fuel economy matters. Fuel prices are not going to stay at this low level for long... and when oil goes back to the $100 per barrel level, as the Chinese economy picks up steam again, people are going to start panicking and bitching about it. Get over it. It's your own damn fault.

Just look at US sales. The Honda Jazz/Fit is down. The hybrid market is showing a small downturn. In local sales... the top three spots are all taken up by SUVs... one of which wasn't even available in diesel at the start of its run (the Tucson).

First Quarter Sales, Philippines, 2010

The electric contingent also seems to have lost some steam. Tesla just released its IPO this week. It went up and down faster than you can say "What-the-..." Not that Tesla has ever been more than two steps above vaporware, but general sentiment and interest in alternative energy vehicles is not as bullish as it once was.

I wish I could say that we've learned our lessons from the disaster that was 2008-2009. But apparently we haven't. And we seem bound to repeat this vicious boom-bust cycle all over again. Will people ever learn?