The future of the automobile
COEUR d'ALENE - A researcher from the suburbs of Detroit said Wednesday he believes the automobile industry will recover, though not rapidly, and American automakers will regain some of the market share they have lost to foreign competitors in the past few decades.
Steve Bruyn, chief executive officer of Foresight Research of Rochester, Mich., was a speaker at a meeting of about 100 members of the Automotive Trade Association Executives and Auto Shows of North America, representing the National Automobile Dealers Association at The Coeur d'Alene Resort on Wednesday. The group is in town for several days, planning strategies for auto shows in the coming year.
"Shows are one of the key things people use when shopping for a car," Bruyn told The Press Wednesday afternoon. "They can compare products and prices, with no pressure to purchase."
A survey of 8,467 people who purchased or leased a new vehicle between October 2008 and October 2009 indicated 20 percent visited shows before buying, he said.
And those buying habits are going to change dramatically in coming years, Bruyn said.
"The big thing will be hybrids," said the former executive at Chrysler Corp. during the Lee Iacocca years, when the company reinvented itself with the introduction of the K-car. "There will be a huge wave of electric cars. I have not experienced changes this fundamental in my lifetime."
He predicts Ford and General Motors especially will regain lost market share, but Chrysler will not be far behind as it works with Fiat to again revamp its product line.
Bruyn, who held 5,000 shares of old GM stock before the company filed bankruptcy and writes off the loss as the chances one takes in the market, expects the company will soon offer a new initial public offering of stock in the reformed company.
The industry went from 17 million units sold in 2008 to 10 million in 2009, but is responding to changing market needs as never before, Bruyn said.
"Americans are going to find the money spent on the bailout is going to pay off," he said.